Design: close to innovation, still faraway from innovation policies

This paper wonders about the impact of design, meant both as a process and as a business sector, in generating and fostering innovation while dealing with societal challenges. This research is based both on literature and studies and on the presentation of results of a real project CCAlps- Creative Companies in Alpine for which the authors work. The topics dealt are three of the main issues of Track 2 of this Call for papers: design, innovation and societal challenges. The framework chosen for the analysis is the European Union since it represents the biggest economy in the world with a consequent great influence on worldwide economic trends. The starting point of reflection is how the role of design in the economy is perceived by policy makers in European Union priorities by analyzing the most important policies developed in this field. It’s to highlight that only in the last five years, European institutions started to consider design as a driver for innovation and the biggest result is the co-financing of the European Design Innovation Platform (EDIP), a tool that aims to boost the adoption of design in innovation policies. A project financed by the European Program Alpine Space 2007-2013, CCAlps- Creative Companies in Alpine Space, is presented as a case study in the field of design. The project is interesting for more reasons: - the development of analysis about the needs of cultural and creative companies of which design sector forms part; - the pilot actions implemented dedicated to the creation of new start-ups coming from cultural and creative sectors and of business ideas dealing in particular with territorial needs and societal challenges; - the employment in the pilot actions of innovative design tools and of a participatory design approach that involved numerous stakeholders in the whole process;- the attempt in making these design tools a consolidated practice to support start-ups through the constitution of a transnational network of centres of services; - the spreading of information and of policy recommendations about the importance of the cultural and creative sector and of design as drivers of innovation.The conclusions are that even if there are many concrete cases in which design proves to be a factor that facilitates innovation processes and it is more and more crucial in producing solutions to social needs, there is still much to do in establishing it as a consolidated business practice and in fostering its potentials. This could be made first of all by spreading information and creating a general awareness about the role that design can play in the economy especially among policy makers since 46% of European Member States doesn’t have any policies for Design.