How Innovation Ecosystems Foster Citizen Participation Using Emerging Technologies in Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands

Annex A. Methods

The research carried out in this study explores the innovation ecosystems of emerging technologies for citizen participation with three objectives:

1. Define the actors, resources, and enablers that are part of the ecosystems for citizen participation and emerging technologies in Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands.

2. Assess the processes and interactions within these innovation ecosystems in Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands with a view of understanding how they impact on the access, use, generation, and scaling up of emerging technologies for citizen participation.

3. Provide governments with actionable insights about opportunities to enhance innovation ecosystems for citizen participation and emerging technology in the three countries.

Using a mixed-methods research that employed desk research, surveys (Systemic Mapping Survey), interviews, and workshops, this study offer the opportunity for an in-depth analysis of the innovation ecosystems at the national level, while ensuring methodological consistency that enables a comparative assessment of effective practices and common challenges. This evidence based approach points out concrete actions that governments can take to boost the innovation and adoption of emerging technology for citizen participation.

The techniques and instruments combined in this methodological approach include:

• Desk research conducted in each country to initially identify actors, communities, and networks. It was used to explore the innovation, cultural, business, historical and civic context for technology-supported citizen participation in each country.

• Digital survey (Systemic Mapping Survey) of organisations, communities, and networks in each country gathered information about actors’ practices, roles and resources; linkages between actors and the surrounding environment; the value chain; and the political, economic and innovation environment. The survey was drafted in English and translated into Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch for respondents to choose their language. It was open from May to July 2024. Responses to the survey were used to undertake social network analysis in order to generate an overview of interactions between actors (see Table A A.1)

Table A A.1. Survey respondents

	Public sector	Private sector	Civil society	Academia	Total
Portugal	11	11	11	2	35
Spain	23	36	13	13	85
Netherlands	14	27	8	9	58
Total	48	74	32	24	178

• Research interviews with 20 key actors in each country gathered their insights on the roles they play, their relationships with other actors, the value chain for innovation and implementation of citizen participation, and the political, economic and innovation environment and the social, cultural and historical context for citizen participation and emerging technology. Interviewees covered the ecosystem segments defined under the “Quadruple Helix” (see Table A A.2).

Table A A.2. Interviewees

	Public sector	Private sector	Civil society	Academia	Total
Portugal	5	7	6	2	20
Spain	5	5	5	5	20
Netherlands	8	7	2	3	20
Total	18	19	13	10	60

• Validation workshops in each country brought ecosystem actors together to validate draft ecosystem maps and participate in an exercise to simulate the interactions between actors. Two 2.5 hour workshops took place in each country, and were held in the Netherlands on 11^th and 12^th June 2024 at Digicampus in The Hague, in Spain on June 26^th 2024 at INAP in Madrid, and in Portugal at AMA in Lisbon on 18^th June 2024.

• Citizen workshops took place in each country, engaging citizens to share their experiences of citizen participation and co-create prototypes for enhancing citizen engagement in democracy. These followed the user-driven prototyping methodology developed at Digicampus. They were held in the Netherlands at Digicampus in The Hague on 11^th June 2024 (7 university students), in Spain on June 27^th 2024 at INAP in Madrid (10 participants, aged 18-29), in Portugal in Ibn Mucana Secondary School in Alcabideche on 19^th June 2024 (16 participants, aged 18-28).

• A virtual workshop with EU institutions and actors working internationally on citizen participation explored the enablers and challenges for citizen participation across the European Union. This took place on 3^rd July 2024. The workshop engaged representatives of leading European private sector actors, national public sector organisations, international organisations, civil society, and internationally recognised researchers and experts.

• Network visualisations were generated using a specific software (Gephi), allowing for the illustration of the position of relevant actors and their mutual connections in each country with a view of framing and sharpening the analysis of the innovation ecosystems. Original files can be accessed here.