In recent years, the European Commission has increasingly advocated the involvement of citizens in research, as the social, environmental, and economic challenges of our time can only be solved jointly by science and society.

“Interaction between citizens, scientists and policy makers is essential to enrich
research and innovation, and reinforce trust of society in science.“

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth

However, researchers often do not have enough opportunities to gain experience with stakeholder involvement in research and to learn from this encounter. The OIS Enrichment Fund therefore aims to introduce researchers to stakeholder involvement in research. In doing so, the OIS Enrichment Fund teaches why research can benefit from stakeholder involvement, what methods are available for doing so, and how to set up and implement „good“ stakeholder involvement.

Two funding tracks are available:

• OIS Experiment: Funding of up to 10,000 € is available for activities to experiment with Open Innovation in Science approaches and practices and to gain initial experience with stakeholder involvement in research.
• OIS Integration: Funding of up to 80,000 € is available for activities to sustainably integrate the idea of Open Innovation in Science into research at Ludwig Boltzmann Institutes and Ludwig Boltzmann Research Groups.

In both funding tracks of the OIS Enrichment Fund, the OIS Center supports projects with offers ranging from feedback on the idea or proposal, to support for the actual implementation of the engagement activities and tailor-made trainings oriented towards the projects needs. All funded projects will be evaluated after the funding period in order to identifiy further conditions of success for the integration of stakeholders and to be able to offer appropriate support in the future.