Self-efficacy is a pivotal psychological resource for navigating complex challenges within entrepreneurial contexts. This study investigates systematic methods to enhance self-efficacy within the Entrepreneurial Career & Life Design (ECLD) framework—an interdisciplinary approach integrating Life Design, Entrepreneurship Education, and Positive Psychology. The paper utilizes Julius Kuhl's Personality Systems Interactions (PSI) theory as a theoretical foundation for conceptualizing self-regulatory action competence in ECLD. Through conceptual analysis, the four psychological functional systems of PSI theory are integrated into the ECLD model, elucidating their significance in action capability, affect regulation, and decision-making processes. The study derives practice-oriented educational interventions to strengthen self-efficacy, including affect-regulative exercises, reflective formats, and embodiment techniques. Consequently, the paper offers dual insights: firstly, a theoretical substantiation of the self-efficacy concept within the ECLD context; secondly, concrete proposals for designing practical learning formats in entrepreneurship education. The paper concludes with a perspective on future empirical research questions.
This publication presents results of an organizational culture study conducted in Technology Transfer Offices (TTO) at the League of European Research Universities (LERU) members using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to identify key cultural characteristics within these organizations. It is an extension of the exploratory study by Gambi and Debackere published in this journal in 2025. The aim of both studies is to understand how TTO could better function as an effective bridge between University and Industry (U-I) considering and bridging the cultural differences among all the stakeholders involved in the technology transfer process. Based on 34 valid questionnaires from 12 LERU TTOs, the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. The findings indicate that TTOs currently exhibit a balanced cultural profile embracing an interrelated and multidimensional set of cultural characteristics. For the ideal state, respondents demonstrate a preference for strengthening characteristics of the Clan and Adhocracy cultures, associated with collaboration, flexibility, and innovation, while reducing characteristics of Hierarchical culture such as control, uniformity and formalization, and maintaining the Market culture characteristics.
Research and practice in digital health innovation have largely focused on the processes underlying the development, implementation, and scaling of new digital services. Meanwhile, comparatively little attention has been paid to the processes underlying the removal - or de-implementation - of ineffective, inefficient, or obsolete digital tools. Drawing on evolutionary perspectives of innovation dynamics, this conceptual paper argues that a lack of clear responsibilities in de-implementation decision-making may undermine the contemporary digital health innovation arena by impeding the development, implementation, and scaling of superior solutions. On this basis, initial ideas are offered for innovation policy directions that could better support the systematic integration of de-implementation processes into digital health innovation ecosystems.
This conceptual paper explores the dissemination challenges of bottom-up, co-created innovations developed in makerspaces, that address healthcare needs and enhancing nurses’ efficiency and job satisfaction. The Create4Care initiative, launched by nurses at a Dutch academic hospital, has become a national leader in this movement. A growing multidisciplinary network of makerspaces now propels the vision of Create4Care into a new phase, driven by intrinsic motivation to expand opportunities within the nursing profession. However, the dissemination of in-house innovations among hospitals faces challenges, like the Medical Device Regulation, not being a fabricant and the uncertain market opportunity. This paper takes an early step in identifying facilitators and barriers to the national dissemination of these innovations within an emerging Dutch collaboration of hospitals and universities of applied sciences, aiming to uncover strategies to overcome these obstacles.
I must begin by stating, in the cautious manner required of all serious readers, that I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the text that follows, nor I suspect, could its author. What I can attest to is the circumstance of its discovery, which is itself sufficiently improbable to merit recording.
Design thinking has become a valuable tool for conducting research and conducting practical programs of transformation. It has been especially useful in extending the reach of design from its traditional focus on objects to an expanded field of "wicked problems" including corporate strategy, disaster relief, and social policy. As such, it has entered the complex field of healthcare, where design thinking has been adopted by leading medical institutions and affiliated professional associations. These Methodological Notes draw upon research that has led to the formulation of a set of tools that can be adapted by researchers and practitioners preparing to launch transformation projects within their respective institutions. With the understanding that in the complex and dynamic environment of healthcare, one size most definitely does not fit all, we propose an 8-phase design cycle that may serve as a practical guide to preparing, conducting, and evaluating such an initiative.
Although the healthcare sector has adapted to certain aspects of digitalisation, most digital health research primarily focuses on health informatics, with a limited emphasis on entrepreneurial collaboration for innovation across sectors and countries. This paper aims to explore the potential for enhancing innovation in healthcare by examining the collaboration between entrepreneurs from the healthcare and technology sectors. This study proposes a pilot consortium model as a pathway for addressing persistent challenges such as resource inefficiencies, access disparities, and health workforce shortages while also connecting entrepreneurs from three different geographical contexts. Participatory action research has been employed in conjunction with a design thinking approach to co-design and implement a pilot intervention involving technology and health entrepreneurs in Ireland, the USA, and Pakistan. This study contributes to health entrepreneurship innovation in two ways: first, by introducing a novel method of utilising unique design thinking experiments to enhance innovation, and second, by proposing a multi-layered international health entrepreneurship model.
Higher education is facing a growing sense of weariness and apathy toward climate change, linked to sustainability fatigue, bleak future projections, and climate anxiety. How can educators in health education prevent these factors from leading to passivity and disengagement among students? This article presents an innovative teaching design tailored to health education that uses a scenario-based approach. The teaching design, exemplified through a case from nursing education, bridges education for sustainable development, dark pedagogy, and entrepreneurship education. By simulating a dystopian future and engaging students in future-thinking, the teaching design promotes critical awareness of the potential consequences of climate change. The teaching design aims to enhance students’ belief in their capacity to drive change and examines how professionals navigate complex, evolving challenges in healthcare. The case contributes insights from a simulation of acute and critical nursing care, addressing pertinent themes about the role of climate and sustainability in health education.
Telepresence robots are increasingly used to keep severely or chronically ill children connected to their classmates, yet existing solutions rarely anchor privacy as a central UX concern. This paper reports on the UX and interface design in the project PRIVATAR, which links the right to informational self-determination of all stakeholders with the digital participation of ill children. Drawing on studies, field investigations, and expert workshops, we derive requirements for privacy by default, data minimization, and transparency, and translate them into concrete UX patterns: child-friendly privacy icons, a “Sendbox” for visualizing current data transmissions, as well as spatial no-go and no-view zones with role-based control rights for parents, teachers, and a support team. In addition, we use AI-supported digital user twins to systematically explore rare and privacy-critical scenarios. We reflect on the methodological implications of this approach for rare and vulnerable target groups and show how privacy-focused UX can function not as a barrier but as an enabler of psychosocial participation and educational continuity in school settings.
The reform of nursing education in Germany increased demands on clinical placement planning. Within a publicly funded research and development (R&D) project supported by a state health ministry in Germany, a software prototype was iteratively developed at a University of Applied Sciences with a model region. Prior studies and practice reports suggest that existing digital tools mainly support school administration and that placement organisation often relies on manual or spreadsheet-based workarounds. The resulting web-based platform enables comprehensive placement planning in one integrated solution. In an initial evaluation (n=12), planners and practice coordinators rated usability and functionality positively, highlighting reduced effort, increased transparency, and improved coordination across training networks. Participants perceived that improved transparency, and coordination could support better use of existing training capacity, subject to local constraints. The findings underscore the relevance of a dedicated placement-planning solution distinct from conventional school administration software.
This Special Issue on Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship was conceived in response to a long-lasting challenge within this field. Healthcare innovation presents itself as a paradox made up by rigid protocols based on still incomplete knowledge of the body. Yet, this tension conceals deeply synergistic dynamics at its core, which can be fueled through entrepreneurial innovation. In alignment with the mission of the CERN IdeaSquare Journal of Experimental Innovation, it seeks to move beyond reductionist and disciplinary approaches to healthcare innovation.
This paper presents the development of a novel Business Model Canvas (BMC) tailored for the unique context of publicly funded large-scale Research Infrastructures (RIs). While the standard BMC was designed for commercial enterprises, RIs operate as networked and multi-stakeholder organizational forms whose sustainability depends on legitimacy, public value, and long-term governance rather than market transactions alone. The primary purpose of the RI-BMC is to support strategic alignment and sustainability planning across heterogeneous RI stakeholders by making the infrastructure’s value logic, governance dependencies, and financing model explicit; secondarily, it supports communication and legitimation toward funders and partners. Using a Design Science research methodology, we iteratively designed, prototyped, and refined an RI-specific BMC template. This process involved re-conceptualizing key components to better align with the operational realities of RIs. The resulting RI‑BMC retains the familiar nine-block structure as a boundary object, while redefining block semantics and pragmatics to capture stakeholder ecosystems, involvement mechanisms, engagement intensity, and non-commercial financing opportunities. The design choices were validated through a series of stakeholder interviews, which served not only to refine the canvas's content but also as a meta-validation of its adapted structure. The resulting framework was developed within the context of GUIDE (Growing Up in Digital Europe), a pan-European RI collecting data to study children and youth well-being. We demonstrate how the adapted RI-BMC provides a coherent, holistic, and actionable strategic view that effectively bridges scientific objectives with measurable operational KPIs and sustainability planning.
The papers collected in this issue of the CERN IdeaSquare Journal of Experimental Innovation do not merely describe innovation; they map its geography. They do not describe a safe, linear process; they describe a tension between opposing forces. Collectively, they suggest that innovation is an act of "boundary spanning"—a persistent effort to navigate the cognitive, structural, and institutional frontiers that separate scientific inquiry from societal impact.
This article presents a dataset comprising Master-level students’ prompts and discussions with generative AI as part of a challenge-based innovation problem-solving process. Openly accessible through Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17857679), the data consists of 466 pages of students’ conversations with generative AI tools and a 28-page extract comprising only the prompts. The data was collected through a survey for students participating in week-long intense innovation education programs at CERN IdeaSquare throughout 2024. The data can be used to advance practice and theory regarding the use of generative AI in problem solving and innovation education. Scholars are encouraged to use the data in various forms of analysis, including thematic, content, and narrative analysis. The data can also complement other similar datasets in larger studies examining the effects of different pedagogical approaches, student profiles, problem-solving situations, or other factors on the use of generative AI.
This study focuses on the investigation of the key functions played by Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) in public higher education institutions in Mexico. To address this issue, a comprehensive review of the literature at the global level, as well as specific studies for Mexico, was conducted. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 24 TTO directors. As a result, 18 essential functions performed by Mexican TTOs were identified using Atlas.ti software as an analysis tool. Each of these functions is detailed thoroughly to facilitate their understanding and study. In addition, these functions were contrasted with those performed by TTOs at the international level, which allowed us to identify coincidences and discrepancies. The results obtained are a valuable tool for both TTO directors and public decision-makers.
Understanding and creativity are intertwined cognitive processes that shape ideation and innovation potential in interdisciplinary teams. This article investigates how varying levels of language sophistication shape students’ conceptualizations of technology, guiding them toward either high-level abstract reasoning or concrete, domain-specific thinking. Through an experimental design involving 63 participants from diverse academic backgrounds, we examined how simplified, intermediate, and technical explanations of terahertz sensing technology affected participants' cognitive focus and creative application generation. Our findings demonstrate that language sophistication manipulates psychological distance and construal level: simplified explanations induce high-level construal leading to benefit-focused understanding and abstract applications, while technical explanations induce low-level construal resulting in mechanism-focused thinking and domain-specific ideas. Technical language also creates cognitive fixation effects that constrain cross-domain creativity, while abstract language serves as an effective de-fixation strategy. Intermediate complexity explanations yielded optimal ratings for perceived technological potential, suggesting a balance between accessibility and depth. Based on these findings, we propose a staged ideation model that strategically sequences language complexity to harness both divergent and convergent thinking processes. This research extends Construal Level Theory into innovation management contexts and provides practical tools for optimizing creative processes in interdisciplinary environments.
It is very difficult to overestimate the role that metaphor plays in making sense of organizations, particularly when the metaphors are cosmic and dramatic. Stars, galaxies, black holes. These concepts have been borrowed by so-called strategic experts with such enthusiasm that physicists now flinch when they hear the word “vision”. But never afraid to gently reinvent the cosmic wheel, the IdeaSquare self-appointed innovation team set itself the challenge of understanding organizational implosion through the historical journey of black hole research. In other words: “black-holifying” the study of organizational collapse, a word that, much like many others, exists only because someone insisted on using it. Armed with this galactic ambition, the team decided not to follow any strict methodological roadmap (as it is already traditional) but instead float freely through the universe of ideas, allowing gravity, coffee, and meeting fatigue to guide its inquiry.
Whether contact with domain experts enhances or constrains creativity at the start of innovation projects is widely debated. Guidance in many innovation programmes advises teams to avoid experts during initial ideation to limit anchoring and conformity, yet empirical evidence at the team level is limited. This exploratory study investigates how early exposure to experts influences idea generation in multidisciplinary teams participating in the CERN IdeaSquare Summer School. Drawing on qualitative reflections from 15 of 25 participants, the study examines how expert guidance affected the novelty, feasibility, and evolution of team ideas. Findings suggest that expert input can both enhance creativity, by providing technical knowledge that clarifies opportunities and constraints, and introduce bias by anchoring ideas to familiar solutions. Teams with diverse disciplinary backgrounds appeared better able to integrate expert insights without losing originality, suggesting that team composition moderates the impact of early guidance. Although limited by sample size, the findings provide preliminary insights into designing collaborative ideation processes and inform future research on optimizing expert engagement in early-stage innovation.
This study aims to explore the relationship of the language used when solving a problem, and the creative ability to find a solution for it. For this, participants completed a task in their first language, and a similar task in their second language and the results were evaluated on fluency, flexibility and originality. The findings suggest that the use of second language can be a disadvantage if the speaker does not use it fluently, while it can be an advantage for frequent users since it provides a separation from first language associations and conditionings.
