LBG Open Innovation in Science Center

At the LBG Open Innovation in Science (OIS) Center, we investigate and experiment with open and collaborative practices in science along the entire process generating new scientific research and translating it into innovation.

Considering openness and collaboration as means to increasing the productivity and impact of scientific research, OIS provides a unifying foundation for advancing our understanding of processes, effects and boundary conditions of openness and collaboration in science. According to Beck et al. (2022, p. 139), OIS is defined as a “process of purposively enabling, initiating, and managing inbound, outbound, and coupled knowledge flows and (inter/transdisciplinary) collaboration across organizational and disciplinary boundaries and along all stages of the scientific research process, from

• the formulation of research questions and the receipt of funding or development of methods (i.e. conceptualization) to
• data collection, data processing, and data analyses (exploration and/or testing) and
• the dissemination of results through writing, translation into innovation, or other forms of codifying scientific insight (i.e., documentation) and putting it to use.” 

The main objectives of the LBG OIS Center are

• to achieve new scientific knowledge and practical insights into processes, boundary conditions and effects of openness and collaboration in scientific research,
• to create new (inter)national communities and networks in research and in the application of open and collaborative practices in science or to connect existing ones, in order to
• actively shape the (inter)national discourse on openness and collaboration in science and corresponding implementation activities, and
• to enable a qualified and sustainable implementation of open and collaborative scientific practices in the Austrian research and innovation system.

To achieve these main goals, the LBG OIS Center conducts research on processes, effects, antecedents and boundary conditions of OIS, experimentally develops and tests new OIS approaches and practices, and offers capability building, funding, consultation services and materials for their implementation.

The LBG OIS Center is part of the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (LBG), a non-university research organization with a thematic focus in medicine and the life sciences as well as the humanities, social and cultural sciences and is funded by the Austrian National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development.

The LBG OIS Center team comprises researchers and project managers with diverse backgrounds and is co-led by Patrick Lehner (Director Implementation) and Marion Poetz (Scientific Director and Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School).

Areas of OIS Implementation Expertise

We build and offer expertise in the implementation of OIS in all stages of the scientific research process.

We offer:

• Funding schemes, accompanied by embedded facilitation and support services
• Individual and institutional consultation
• Strategic partnership for Austrian research institutions to create infrastructures and resources to involve societal actors in research in their organizations
• Capability building for researchers and institutions
• Different kinds of resources

If you have questions about our OIS implementation activities, contact directly our implementation team.

Areas of OIS Research Expertise

We study antecedents, processes, effects and boundary conditions of OIS within four main research areas.

We develop and implement our research in collaboration with leading international research partners from different disciplines, and actively engage in contributing to the scientific debate on the role and value of openness and collaboration in science as well as to related policy debates and implementation initiatives.

Join our OIS Research Community by participating in our annual OIS Research Conference!

If you have questions about our OIS research activities, contact directly our OIS research team.