What Does It Take to Make Innovation Work? Measure and Understand the Impact

In the Netherlands, higher education institutions are jointly seeking to optimize the preconditions to facilitate promising IT initiatives by determining successful approaches through measurable improvements. We have invested in building an infrastructure for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and professionalization. Shared evaluation adds a new aspect to this innovation community. Like reverse engineering, innovators can define-at the start of a project or program-the relevant qualitative and quantitative factors to measure during and after. Together they will articulate what the impact of innovation involves and identify and evaluate the various forms that it takes. As a result, innovators and funding bodies can plan, identify, and measure the potential impact much more effectively.