Conclusions and recommendations

The Innovation Agendas are a space for learning new ways of making society and organizational modes in line with the new scenarios, insofar as they converge a participatory conception of the State and its policy on a par with a more participatory community, moving jointly towards the construction of a Knowledge Society.

On the other hand, this methodology for building alliances and sustainable commitments is based on operating styles associated with teamwork, confidence building, communication and cooperation. The very logic that animates this process involves interactive work styles that make it possible for the participants to mutually legitimise each other, in a climate of respect and dialogue. For this reason, the Innovation Agendas constitute a democratic way of building citizenship.

A good part of the success of these processes of building alliances and sustainable commitments lies in a well-made Call for Proposals and this is achieved through, first, an exhaustive identification of the social actors linked to it and their potential participation as partners or allies. This condition applies in exactly the same way to the planning process of this type of technical cooperation workshop, so that the essential actors of a given theme are included, which guarantees the legitimacy of the training.

It is essential to understand that the Agenda is a process of interactive construction, therefore of collective learning that requires the implementation of non-traditional skills in public policy: broad and permanent communication, negotiation and agreement, as well as monitoring of the process and reflection on it.

Given the change in logic and procedures required by this methodology, the efforts of concertation and promotion must be both inter- and intra-institutional. This condition is especially important to be taken into account by the organisation requesting the technical cooperation, i.e. the organisation coordinating or facilitating the process.

Given the deficiencies detected in general in our countries in terms of project formulation and the high percentage of projects rejected, it is suggested that preliminary projects be requested initially, and then, after an initial selection and by means of a workshop on project formulation under the methodology of the Logical Framework, move on to a project phase. This phase is vital in terms of establishing mechanisms to ensure the linkage and transfer of project results to the users-beneficiaries

The aim is to establish a mechanism that effectively links the implementation of projects, their evaluation and their application context, the latter represented by the users-beneficiaries of the Agenda.

The products of this methodology for creating sustainable alliances and commitments are born from the crossing of two fundamental variables. On the one hand, they depend on the modality(ies) in which the project is included, so there will be products in terms of:
Increase, deepening or adaptation of knowledge on a specific thematic area (Research Modality);

• Increase in human research, professional and technical capacities (Training Mode);
• Strengthening of technological and managerial capacities of companies and business networks (Modernisation mode);
• Access to information and communication technologies and information systems associated with productive or social developments (Computerization Mode);
• Dissemination of knowledge and technologies and generation of a culture of innovation (Promotion mode);
• Creation and strengthening of networks and alliances linked to knowledge and technologies (Networking Modality)

But, on the other hand, these products take various forms that allow the process of transferring results to their respective contexts of application to be limited. Among others, these forms can be:

• Inputs in the form of diagnoses, recommendations, frameworks or institutional designs for public policy or decision making
• Terms of reference and mechanisms for various forms of partnership: agreements, alliances, networking
• Technological developments, prototypes and designs linked to productive or social processes
• Information systems and databases associated with the creation, use and dissemination of knowledge and technology
• Inputs for new projects

In addition, there are other types of products and results such as those described below:

• The establishment of consensus and clear commitments is fundamental to this whole methodology, especially to ensure both effective monitoring of projects and the transfer and legitimacy of their results.
• The fundamental difficulty lies in transcending the sphere of results and moving on to that of products, in such a way as to achieve the desired articulation between the supply and demand of knowledge and technologies.
• The appropriation of the methodology as a new logic of knowledge exchange, between the different actors, through the various modalities and ways of implementing their processes.
• The development of a concerted agenda aimed at innovation requires a significant effort in terms of time and work, the success of which depends fundamentally on the selection of the universe to be consulted. The presence of qualified individuals is an important condition, but the official representation of institutions and organisations, especially public ones, is vital if a more formal operational commitment is to be made.
• The preparation of an adequate agenda requires detailed knowledge of the situation to be addressed; therefore, having the background of each case, properly prepared, not only facilitates the approach of the discussion, but also accelerates the agreement on what is demanded and offered.
• The definition of the lines of attention to be attacked must be done with great precision, writing them in a way that makes clear the objective being pursued, reducing as much as possible the possibilities of interested or biased interpretation.

The deconcentration and decentralisation of the agendas through the creation of inter-institutional coordinating bodies between the different partners and the creation of funds for the financing of projects that are timely, relevant, excellent and feasible and, of course, aimed at solving specific problems that require or demand new knowledge by the users or demanders of this knowledge, guarantee success and the bridge between knowledge and society.