Interact - Innovation in the public sector

This is a copy of a site originally hosted at www.step.no, the site of the research institute STEP, now part of NIFU. It is kept here for reference and archival purposes.

Innovation in the public sector in the Nordic countries

The public sector play an essential role in all the Nordic countries, as a service provider for its citizens but also as an active partner for private industry.

Interact will study how the mixed arrangements of public and private actors and institutions in the public health and social service sectors in Nordic countries facilitate and restrain policy learning and the development of better quality services.

Interact will study how the mixed arrangements in the public health and social service sectors in the Nordic countries facilitate and restrain innovation in the public sector. The overall aim is to develop a "road map" of how processes of technological development, policy learning and development of better quality services unfold in the public sector.

Moreover, the "road map" will contribute to understanding the complexity of learning processes in the public sector in general, and the success and shortcomings in the existing policy measures. In that way, Interact may contribute to the development of policy measures enhancing innovation in the public sector.

On the basis of the road map, the Interact team will forward concrete policy proposals aimed at improving learning and innovation processes in the public sector, and the interaction between public institutions and private companies and third sector organisations.

Interact is to go beyond the traditional call for effectivisation and rationalisation of the public sector, and look at innovation in the broadest sense. Hence one should not only cover innovation that lead to significant savings locally, but also look at other overall objectives, like welfare and the quality of life. Given the systemic nature of learning and production, costly investments in health may, for instance, lead to a higher quality of life and increased productivity in other parts of society.

The project is partly based on the EU Fifth Framework Programme project PUBLIN On Innovation in the Public Sector.

More on interact.

The final reports will be published in 2006.

The Interactsite is published by NIFU STEP, Centre for Innovation Research, Norway. Editor: Per M. Koch,