In March 2022, the Society hosted the fourth in the series of roundtable discussions, which explored the idea of ‘innovation commons’ and the possible application of the concept in the context of Wales.

The innovation commons is a new theory of innovation, which in particular considers the initial emergence of new innovative activity – ‘where do new ideas come from?’ – which emphasises the processes of cooperation and resource pooling, as preconditions for how classically understood industrial innovation begins to happen. The concept of innovation commons is thus defined as a space and a means of sharing data, knowledge and information, including that which value has yet to be determined, in order to facilitate learning and discovery.

Part of the roundtable discussion centred on how relevant the innovation commons approach was for activity being undertaken in the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR), and the commons’ emphasis on the cultural and environmental aspects of innovation within the commons approach was seen as a potential opportunity for Wales.