Edge innovation: a creative approach to revealing the unexpected?

Edgein­nov­a­tion illus­trates how invest­ment in ori­gin­al or atyp­ic­al research can unlock unex­pec­ted research aven­ues and res­ults, open­ing up new per­spect­ives for tech­no­lo­gic­al and sci­entif­ic development.

Edge innov­a­tion refers to the strategy of invest­ing in research pro­jects that are off the beaten track and out­side the imme­di­ate pri­or­it­ies of sci­ence and tech­no­logy. Unlike tra­di­tion­al research focused on clearly defined object­ives and dir­ect applic­a­tions, these pro­jects explore peri­pher­al ques­tions, often spec­u­lat­ive, but which can lead to revolu­tion­ary dis­cov­er­ies. The import­ance of this approach lies in its abil­ity to decom­part­ment­al­ise sci­entif­ic research and open up new per­spect­ives. By focus­ing on more unusu­al areas, research­ers can identi­fy nov­el con­nec­tions and innov­at­ive solu­tions to com­plex problems.

The his­tory of sci­ence is rich in examples of major dis­cov­er­ies res­ult­ing from seem­ingly mar­gin­al research. One of the most fam­ous examples is that of X‑rays, dis­covered by Wil­helm Con­rad Rönt­gen in 1895 while study­ing the prop­er­ties of cath­ode rays¹. This chance dis­cov­ery revolu­tion­ised medi­cine and phys­ics, demon­strat­ing the enorm­ous poten­tial of explor­at­ory research. Sim­il­arly, Albert Einstein’s the­ory of relativ­ity emerged from his reflec­tions on prob­lems of mech­an­ics and elec­tro­mag­net­ism that were not cent­ral to the sci­entif­ic con­cerns of his time. These examples illus­trate how edge innov­a­tion can lead to major sci­entif­ic and tech­no­lo­gic­al breakthroughs.

An emblem­at­ic example of edge innov­a­tion is the search for extra­ter­restri­al sig­nals, not­ably through ini­ti­at­ives such as Berke­ley and NASA’s SETI (Search for Extra­ter­restri­al Intel­li­gence) pro­gramme². Although the prob­ab­il­ity of detect­ing extra­ter­restri­al sig­nals is uncer­tain, the tech­no­lo­gies and meth­ods developed for this type of research have poten­tial applic­a­tions in oth­er fields of sci­ence and tech­no­logy. The data pro­cessing algorithms and sig­nal detec­tion tech­niques used by the SETI pro­gramme have been adap­ted to ana­lyse large data­sets in the life sci­ences, cli­ma­to­logy and even fin­ance. This cross-dis­cip­lin­ary use of tools and meth­ods is a per­fect illus­tra­tion of the concept of edge innovation.

Invest­ing in uncon­ven­tion­al research can also have a sig­ni­fic­ant impact on the devel­op­ment of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI). Advances in AI often bene­fit from dis­cov­er­ies made in seem­ingly unre­lated fields. For example, research in neur­os­cience has pro­foundly influ­enced the neur­al net­work mod­els used in AI.

To max­im­ise the bene­fits of edge innov­a­tion, it is vital to have research man­agers who are will­ing to sup­port this approach and to put in place spe­cif­ic strategies to optim­ise exist­ing resources.

Proposal #1: Encourage interdisciplinary research

Col­lab­or­a­tion between dif­fer­ent dis­cip­lines is essen­tial to foster edge innov­a­tion. By bring­ing togeth­er experts from dif­fer­ent fields, it is pos­sible to cre­ate syn­er­gies that enable the dis­cov­ery of innov­at­ive solu­tions to com­plex prob­lems³. Col­lect­ive intel­li­gence feeds on the diversity of view­points so that “1 ⊕ 1 = 3” since the intel­li­gence of two people exceeds the sum of their sep­ar­ate intelligences.

Research insti­tu­tions and uni­ver­sit­ies should pro­mote inter­dis­cip­lin­ary pro­jects and provide plat­forms to facil­it­ate these col­lab­or­a­tions. High­light­ing proven meth­od­o­lo­gies for inter­dis­cip­lin­ar­ity can act as a cata­lyst in the pro­cess, improv­ing effi­ciency and hence res­ults⁴. Par­tic­u­lar atten­tion needs to be paid to the oth­er com­pon­ents of research to involve them in the pro­cess and to ensure the community’s sup­port. “Inter­dis­cip­lin­ary research is not car­ried out at the expense of basic research but sup­ports it to reveal its full potential.”

Rather than hav­ing to jus­ti­fy budgets with excess­ive fre­quency, it is pos­sible to ration­al­ise and real­loc­ate exist­ing resources to more explor­at­ory pro­jects. For example, by real­loc­at­ing some of the funds alloc­ated to tra­di­tion­al pro­jects to more uncon­ven­tion­al research, it is pos­sible to diver­si­fy research port­fo­li­os and encour­age innov­a­tion. This real­loc­a­tion can be achieved by present­ing the res­ults and the per­form­ance achieved. In fact, these are often more effect­ive in the long term⁵⁶, par­tic­u­larly when they enable us to respond to a new field such as the use of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence for agri­cul­ture, the eco­lo­gic­al trans­ition, medi­cine, etc.

To select pro­jects for fund­ing, it is there­fore recom­men­ded that a rig­or­ous eval­u­ation grid be put in place, pri­or­it­ising ini­ti­at­ives with strong poten­tial for dis­rupt­ive innov­a­tion, close align­ment with the organisation’s stra­tegic object­ives and suf­fi­cient tech­no­lo­gic­al matur­ity to ensure their feas­ib­il­ity. This stra­tegic real­loc­a­tion, by favour­ing explor­at­ory research pro­jects, offers a for­mid­able lever for stim­u­lat­ing innov­a­tion. It will allow for the devel­op­ment of new expert­ise, push­ing back the fron­ti­ers of our field and acquir­ing a sus­tain­able com­pet­it­ive advant­age. Although this approach involves the uncer­tain­ties inher­ent in research, the poten­tial bene­fits in terms of major dis­cov­er­ies and new applic­a­tions are considerable.

Proposal #3: Make the most of productive failures

Edge innov­a­tion often involves a degree of risk, and it is cru­cial to make the most of pro­duct­ive fail­ures. Fail­ures in these areas can provide valu­able inform­a­tion and open up new aven­ues of research. Cre­at­ing a cul­ture that val­ues exper­i­ment­a­tion and accepts fail­ure as an integ­ral part of the sci­entif­ic pro­cess is essen­tial to encour­age innovation. 

Proposal #4: Rely on citizen participation

Edge innov­a­tion can also emerge spon­tan­eously in the event of a major crisis. The Cov­id-19 pan­dem­ic⁷, major mil­it­ary events or cli­mate change are obvi­ous examples. When the com­mon interests of human­ity are at stake, cit­izens from all walks of life come togeth­er to con­trib­ute their know­ledge, skills and expert­ise in the ser­vice of the gen­er­al interest.

Edge innov­a­tion often involves a degree of risk, and it is cru­cial to make the most of pro­duct­ive failures.

There are sev­er­al mech­an­isms that can be used to encour­age cit­izen par­ti­cip­a­tion. For example, co-cre­ation plat­forms offer a space for dia­logue where cit­izens, research­ers and com­pan­ies can work togeth­er to define research issues, co-con­struct pro­jects and share the res­ults. Anoth­er pos­sib­il­ity is to organ­ise open ideas com­pet­i­tions. This enables innov­at­ive pro­pos­als to be col­lec­ted and emer­ging tal­ent to be iden­ti­fied. Finally, open­ing up data is a major way of facil­it­at­ing the emer­gence of these col­lab­or­at­ive ven­tures⁸⁹.

Cit­izen par­ti­cip­a­tion offers major pro­spects for edge innov­a­tion. It brings new research ques­tions to the fore by bring­ing togeth­er the whole of civil soci­ety, of which research­ers are an act­ive stake­hold­er. It fosters the cross-fer­til­isa­tion of ideas and their com­bin­a­tion to meet the high expect­a­tions of the pop­u­la­tion and accel­er­ates the adop­tion of ideas and innov­a­tions, facil­it­at­ing the dis­sem­in­a­tion of knowledge.

Edge innov­a­tion offers an essen­tial per­spect­ive for broad­en­ing the scope of sci­entif­ic and tech­no­lo­gic­al research. This approach, which involves explor­ing uncon­ven­tion­al or peri­pher­al areas, is prov­ing its worth by open­ing up aven­ues of dis­cov­ery often over­looked by tra­di­tion­al meth­ods. His­tor­ic­al examples show that major break­throughs, such as the dis­cov­ery of X‑rays or the the­ory of relativ­ity, emerged from seem­ingly mar­gin­al research, under­lin­ing the import­ance of sup­port­ing such initiatives.

In an increas­ingly com­pet­it­ive and spe­cial­ised research envir­on­ment, edge innov­a­tion is prov­ing neces­sary to stim­u­late dis­rupt­ive advances. By encour­aging inter­dis­cip­lin­ary col­lab­or­a­tion, real­loc­at­ing resources to explor­at­ory pro­jects, and mak­ing the most of pro­duct­ive fail­ures, this meth­od makes it pos­sible to diver­si­fy approaches and reduce the risk of sci­entif­ic dead-ends. What’s more, cit­izen par­ti­cip­a­tion can enrich this dynam­ic, by provid­ing new per­spect­ives and pro­mot­ing the social accept­ance of innovations.

In con­clu­sion, edge innov­a­tion is not just an option, but a neces­sity for research insti­tu­tions wish­ing to remain at the cut­ting edge of sci­entif­ic and tech­no­lo­gic­al dis­cov­ery. It is an essen­tial com­ple­ment to tra­di­tion­al approaches, enabling the explor­a­tion of uncharted ter­rit­ory and the anti­cip­a­tion of future challenges.