Development of a Learning Ecosystem for Effective Learning in Socio-Technical Complex Systems

This paper presents the development of a Learning Ecosystem (LE) to cope with the challenges brought by the characteristic complexity and uncertainty of research and innovation projects. These projects are made up of consortium partners who constitute a complex socio-technical system (STT), which works towards the development of cutting-edge technology by creating new and valuable knowledge. Through the creation of a LE grounded in complexity, learning and knowledge management theories, the project consortium aims to enable an efficient knowledge exchange and effective learning processes within the system, which are ultimately conducive to the achievement of the project goals. After a review of the literature about complex STTs and LEs, the development of the LE for a specific project taken as a pilot is discussed in detail, elaborating on its components, knowledge flows, learning processes, learning tools, and the methods to assess its effectiveness.