DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ACADEMIC PROJECT FOR FOSTERING OPEN INNOVATION BETWEEN COMPANIES FROM DIFFERENT INDUSTRIAL SECTORS: A CASE STUDY

Collaborative projects integrating companies and universities have been traditionally conducted between entities from interrelated industrial sectors. Nevertheless, theory about innovation states that the involvement of people from different disciplines, expertise, and type of business foster new perspectives and enables a robust body of knowledge that will derive innovative results. This article aims to share the experience obtained through the planning, and execution of the so-called project "First View Design Lab 2018" (FV). FV is an annual collaborative and academic project organised by Universidad EAFIT that integrates the industry and the academy, in order to find new opportunities of products and services. This project implements design methodologies, co-creation and open innovation to enable knowledge transfer, and to get innovative concepts of new products/services. In 2018, FV was focused on exploring how heterogeneous teams composed by companies from different industrial sectors and the academy contribute to get new concepts that explore other business cores, different from the ones of the companies involved. The process followed enabled overcoming important challenges, such as the reluctance of Colombian companies for working in collaborative projects with other companies and the academy.