Introducing Research Loop to Achieve Open Innovation for Research Centers in Quintuple Helix

: Open Innovation has great signiﬁcance and so far several deﬁnitions have been proposed, the most widely accepted deﬁnition referring to the correlation of Open Innovation with research organizations. Helix models have been proposed to analyze how collaborations work among key stakeholders and research centers and they were found to have a prominent part in all their iterations. This work presents the challenges that research organizations face in terms of interaction with other organizations, their operations (resources, funding issues), and how they determine the research directions to be followed, and analyzes how the adoption of Open Innovation practices can tackle these challenges and the effects it has. The Open Innovation practices of outsourcing and co-creation are mentioned, with the latter needing to be further developed and elaborated. We propose a novel process, called Research Loop, which aims and succeeds to provide Open Innovation for research organizations. It achieves to involve several different organizations, identify existing research gaps, and produce new knowledge. The proposed process includes the various advantages of applying Open Innovation to the analyzed research centers.


Introduction
Research institutes and organizations are vital players in fundamental and applied technological progress and innovation research.Despite their high value, many completed research projects do not have a practical implementation.Open Innovation principles require research to be more accessible and shared.Research centers are connected to different partners in the innovation ecosystem as they act as intermediaries among the industry and other stakeholders.Many factors affect collaborations, but trust, openness, and commitment are important for succeeding with different research projects [1].While trust and commitment are essential for the success of the projects implemented by research institutes, it has been proved that transparency and communication between the collaborators of any project help everyone to be in the same direction regarding achieving the project's scopes and expectations [1].Research outcomes and knowledge transfer increase is based on interconnectedness with different partners [2].
Research centers are the main contributors for research production and have a central role in any collaboration.As the collaborations and their corresponding models become more and more complex, questions have arisen about how these collaborations could be optimized and how the research centers' role and contribution could be increased.As of now, there are no specific instructions or guidelines for how this can occur successfully and for this purpose the current novel methodology is proposed as a way to overcome these issues.Here, we examine the positives, the negatives, the breakthroughs, and the setbacks that Open Innovation's principles have towards research centers so that a more precise picture can emerge regarding their contribution to Open Innovation and how they are affected by it.We investigate Open Innovation towards the proposed helix models to better explain how Open Innovation collaborations work and the research centers' positioning.
In this work, we present a novel methodology on how to apply Open Innovation principles in the research centers and how to investigate the existing research gaps and needs, how research centers could widen their research directions, how to attract and involve other key players from the regional ecosystems, and how to establish cooperation with other research institutes, firms, authorities, investors, and the society.All these issues indicate and prove the need and significance of this current research work as these problems are present in most collaborations and can derail them at any time.We propose the novel co-creative mechanism of Research Loop, where research institutes have a dominant role.The core theme focuses on how to define research and scientific aspects.We propose a methodology consisting of four phases of Research Loop, where the contribution of all participants is essential, as they contribute to the identification of the industries' needs in terms on new products or services or the ICT needs in public administration for the digital transmission following Industry 4.0 and others.Therefore, the proposed model ascertains the advantages gained by the adoption of Open Innovation and it contributes to the provisions of answers in the challenges faced by the research centers and, finally, it describes by the cooperation of external actors-the main principal of Open Innovationand how their contribution of ideas, knowledge, and experiences can provide viable solutions to existing problems and pave the way for further research.
Section 2 describes the main aspects and significance of Open Innovation, and Section 3 briefly discusses the helix models proposed to explain the Open Innovation process.Section 4 focuses on the research institutes and the challenges they face.A possible answer is the introduction and adoption of Open Innovation principles by Research Institutes, which is presented in Section 5. A novel co-creative model, the Research Loop, is proposed in Section 6, and its implementation methodology is described in detail.Section 7 describes the benefits of adopting Open Innovation for research centers and the corresponding helix's collaborative partners, and Section 8 concludes the paper.

Open Innovation and Its Significance
Chesbrough introduced Open Innovation in 2003 [3].Open Innovation is based on combining synergistically internal and external ideas that are more beneficial than using the already established traditional and rigid research and development model [4].Various definitions have been proposed for this term since then.The most general definition is that Open Innovation uses purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal Innovation and expand the horizon for external use of Innovation, respectively.The above interactions described as Open Innovation were present even before the term's introduction.However, the term's coinage gave a specific name to all these collaborations and separated them from the more closed-off model that firms used for their innovative pursuits [5].Collaborations among industries, research centers, universities, and other organizations are vital.The complex nature of the issues stemming from Industry 4.0 and other current trends makes the cooperation among stakeholders from different areas a necessity [6].
The interdisciplinary nature of the research being produced needs expertise from many experts from various types of science that are impossible to co-exist in a single organization [7].Research centers of small stature or that are dedicated to a single discipline would be unable to pursue broad research or projects that require input from multiple and disparate sources, making various partnerships a necessity for moving forward.Thus, Open Innovation is significant to research centers as the collaborative and co-creative process does feasible research that would otherwise be unattainable.To this end, there is a substantial interest in Open Innovation in research centers and the benefits they provide [8].
Adopting Open Innovation procedures has lent to many successful results depending on the different partners and the nature of their collaboration.Essential outcomes are produced in research and development along with the creation and/or improvement of new projects and services following Open Innovation [9].Furthermore, there are many societal benefits [10].Open Innovation exploits various approaches such as open access, open source, and open-source science that increase the number of participants, and the results are shared by all, even by those that would have been excluded under other circumstances [11].
However, for an organization to follow Open Innovation principles, it must introduce essential transformations and change its mentality.The organization's structure, the principles used, and how the projects are managed must be changed to follow the new paradigm, which is a multi-step, time, and capital-consuming process.These changes will allow the different partners to collaborate, successfully implement a new research project and capitalize on it [12].Research centers in order to implement Open Innovation must reconfigure their structures and their recruitment process and how they communicate with the other stakeholders [13].
Additionally, many questions arise about the relationships between research and technology centers; and how they organize research and development and their relationships and their collaborations with SMEs.By studying these interactions, it was found that many different variables affect these collaborations.The innovation strategy followed by these centers, their structure, and whether they focused or not on SMEs, are the key characteristics that affect these collaborations.Research centers have defined roles towards market, clear targets on how these collaborations will support SMEs, and the resources needed [14].By analyzing how the research and development units of the research centers work with the SMEs, several conclusions are inferred.Depending on the specific industry environment, there are required different strategies to achieve excellent performance.When the research centers are more open to the other partners, it was observed that a higher technology level and innovation performance is achieved.On the other hand, when the research centers are more consecrated on their engineering projects, a higher interest towards turnover was observed [15].
Nevertheless, Open Innovation is not just an abstract theory whose principles are used by research centers, firms, universities, and individuals principles to create tangible results, but an inspiring organizational methodology.NASA is a well-known organization that has successfully used Open Innovation in many different projects.Projects that concerned asteroid identification [16], low-earth orbit satellites [17], miniature satellites that could be used for both research and educational purposes [18], and many others have had excellent outcomes through Open Innovation.Other prominent examples are Huawei (Shenzhen, China) [19], Amazon (Seattle, WA, USA) [20], General Electric (Boston, MA, USA) [21], and Coca-Cola (Atlanta, GA, USA) [22] who are successfully and profitably using Open Innovation in many projects.

Innovation through Helix Models
The triple, quadruple, and quintuple helix models were proposed to explain the Open Innovation process and the interactions, contributions, and collaborations among the critical stakeholders.The first proposed model is the triple helix, which assumes that the critical stakeholders towards Innovation are the industry, research centers, and the government.This model describes the interactions between the three helixes, how they evolve inwards, and how they exchange knowledge, services, and resources to create an Open Innovation system.The triple helix model is the fundamental model that has been expanded, and from which all the following models have originated.
The social aspect was added to the quadruple helix model to present the involvement of society in the Innovation process.Therefore, public interest and aspects such as media and culture have become part of Innovation.Society is the end user of any produced innovation, which is why it is integrated into the helix process, and Society can steer the Innovation process up to a point.The new model assumes the co-creation and co-development of products and services based on the requirements of the public users, as the users become co-creators of the innovation process [23,24].
The quintuple helix is a further extension of the triple and quadruple helix models of Innovation, where the environmental aspect is added.This concerns how the helixes interact, affect the environment, and examine how the innovative network works.
The quintuple model has all the previous components of Innovation co-existence and interaction needed to promote sustainable development in the innovation ecosystem [25,26].The environment is inclusive: it includes the landscape, the people living in it, and the existing infrastructure, and, as a result, a more integrated and interactive innovative ecosystem is created [27,28].In the quintuple helix, the new appendage of the environment and the added ecological issues are used as a driver of Innovation and research [28][29][30].
In principle, the triple helix model has acknowledged the need for and importance of research (and higher education) for Open Innovation, emphasizing knowledge production in the economy.
The quadruple helix model is linked to Open Innovation as there are multiple alignments between the four helixes of the quadruple helix model (academia, industry, government, society) and the four sources of evidence (scientific literature, practitioners, organizations, stakeholders).Therefore, Open Innovation apparently moves towards knowledge co-creation involving multiple stakeholders and a crossing of the boundaries between scientists and society.
The Quintuple Helix model is linked to Open Innovation due to its broader and more comprehensive nature, by contextualizing the Quadruple Helix (University and Research Centers, industry, government, and public and civil society) and by additionally expanding the helix (and perspective) of the environment.This model highlights the need for a sociological transition of both society and the economy in the new era of Industry 4.0.
Within the Quintuple Helix Model, the environment (natural and cultural environment, resources, political and financial system) plays a pivotal role in Open Innovation.Moreover, it focuses on the societal and academic exchanges and interactions within a country, or a region, intending to promote and envision a collaborative system of innovation and knowledge in order to address the development challenges [31].
As is evident from the abovementioned, the applications of Open Innovation require the collaboration of all the participants of the helixes in Figure 1.Therefore, when an organization and specifically a research center seeks to expand its research dimensions or seeks to produce innovative products and services, it has to ensure the active involvement and contribution of the other helixes.Their contribution of new knowledge and ideas will help research centers find innovative solutions to the existing needs and support the industries, regional ecosystem, and society.
Sustainable Innovation plays a key role in the ecosystems emerging from the above described models.Sustainability is vital to creating Innovation in a balanced way among the environment, society, and the economy.An organization who is adopting the principles of sustainable Innovation will continuously create innovations and advanced research outcomes [32].
The individual components in all helix models contribute synergistically to the innovation process; knowledge and know-how are shared through a continuous interaction approach, and better products and services are produced through these collaborative and co-created efforts.This accumulation of intertwined stakeholders creates an ecosystem from which a novel Open Innovation system emerges, which is illustrated at Figure 1.Sustainable Innovation plays a key role in the ecosystems emerging from the above described models.Sustainability is vital to creating Innovation in a balanced way among the environment, society, and the economy.An organization who is adopting the principles of sustainable Innovation will continuously create innovations and advanced research outcomes [32].
The individual components in all helix models contribute synergistically to the innovation process; knowledge and know-how are shared through a continuous interaction approach, and better products and services are produced through these collaborative and co-created efforts.This accumulation of intertwined stakeholders creates an ecosystem from which a novel Open Innovation system emerges, which is illustrated at Figure 1.

Main Challenges for Research Institutes
The collaborations between the research institutes and the other partners of the quintuple helix raise many issues.The required balanced and compatible collaboration introduces new challenges and issues that the scientific community must address.
Most of the time, the collaboration between research centers and Industry aims to provide research results that will improve the firms' standing both in Innovation and market-wise.However, research institutes do not have the same goals as firms.Even though it has been shown that the technology transfer between research centers and firms has positive effects, several issues in these collaborations can derail the partnership and hinder its results [33].Differences in management, resource allocation, and research goals can pose serious problems.Another issue is that firms are more interested in improving their products and services through research, while a research center usually wants to pursue research projects for scientific purposes only.These differences can be overcome by adopting different tailor-made strategies for each collaboration [33].
Another issue is that investment in information technology (IT) has been proven to be highly beneficial.However, research institutes must be wary and not overinvest in IT, as it will receive diminishing returns due to overexposure to outside ideas and influences [34].This can lead to another significant problem in these collaborations, as when attempting to find the correct information, the research center might overreach and collect more

Main Challenges for Research Institutes
The collaborations between the research institutes and the other partners of the quintuple helix raise many issues.The required balanced and compatible collaboration introduces new challenges and issues that the scientific community must address.
Most of the time, the collaboration between research centers and Industry aims to provide research results that will improve the firms' standing both in Innovation and market-wise.However, research institutes do not have the same goals as firms.Even though it has been shown that the technology transfer between research centers and firms has positive effects, several issues in these collaborations can derail the partnership and hinder its results [33].Differences in management, resource allocation, and research goals can pose serious problems.Another issue is that firms are more interested in improving their products and services through research, while a research center usually wants to pursue research projects for scientific purposes only.These differences can be overcome by adopting different tailor-made strategies for each collaboration [33].
Another issue is that investment in information technology (IT) has been proven to be highly beneficial.However, research institutes must be wary and not overinvest in IT, as it will receive diminishing returns due to overexposure to outside ideas and influences [34].This can lead to another significant problem in these collaborations, as when attempting to find the correct information, the research center might overreach and collect more data than is needed.Time and effort will be spent trying to shift through all this information (which might also be irrelevant to the research matter), leading to delays [35].
Although several collaborations seem inevitable due to various reasons, such as the lack of resources and the competition created for them, most of the time, not all research institutes and universities are in a position to fight for them [36].Characteristics such as the available resources, personnel, prestige, and even the region where a research center is located can be assets that will put them in front of other institutes.Moreover, institutions that are more focused on research are in a better position for collaborations than those more dedicated to teaching, which is the case of universities.When a new collaboration initiates, it will be easier for a more prestigious institution to manage to be part of it, while a similar but lesser institution will be overlooked [36].Furthermore, concerning the 4th Industrial Revolution, a study showed that there seems to be a predetermination of the research centers that will pursue research in specific subjects (related to the topics of Industry 4.0), which led to the exclusion of several research centers that could most likely help with the relevant research [13].
However, applying the Open Innovation paradigm to research centers and institutes has many other challenges.Managing and organizing cooperation, especially when different disciplines are involved, has been proven to be difficult and complex, which in turn shows the need for new and improved collaboration procedures [37].Knowledge sharing and the collaborations needed for Open Innovation are getting more complicated [37].Another complication that can occur during these collaborations is that if a project is deemed too challenging, it is perceived to not be as valuable as it will take a lot of time and resources, leading to problems for the collaboration as the partners are not as engaged to the point of dropping out [38].
Funding is another critical issue in these collaborations.Failure to compensate the research center for the time and effort spent can end the collaboration, as research funding is critical for research centers and can lead to project abandonment or severe delays [39].Furthermore, whenever public funds are being used, there is always a fear that crowding out will occur.However, it can be offset in Open Innovation configurations, especially when addressing problems arising from market failure [40].

Introducing Open Innovation Approaches and Principles for Research Institutes
The participation of the universities and research centers in the helix models has raised several questions about how they affect the Open Innovation process, what Open Innovation offers to these institutes, and what conditions could impact the success of Open Innovation.By analyzing the effects of Open Innovation on different cases in research institutes, it was found that Open Innovation had a highly beneficial effect [2].This is justified for several reasons, as Open Innovation was instrumental in solving severe issues in many paradigms.
When a research institute adopts Open Innovation principles, it provides many benefits for the institute and its partners, and the projects researched this way.By tearing down the borders of Closed Innovation, the skills and the expertise of the involved researchers are boosted.In addition, the internal relationships among researchers and research groups of the institutes are significantly improved.All these changes also affect the standing of the research institute as it is determined that Open Innovation makes it stronger [2].
A critical aspect in these collaborations is the synthesis of the personnel and their characteristics, such as background [8], while the infrastructure also plays an essential role in the outcome of any partnership.Open Innovation collaborations and the diversity of the people working on a project ensure positive effects as the different perspectives of everyone involved lead to better products, services, and research created with this process [41].Concerning infrastructure, the investment in IT resources for the desire of research institutes to collaborate in an Open Innovation environment is highly beneficial.An investment in IT is a wise investment for an institute or firm that desires to complement its knowledge, research, and resources with another partner [34].The perceptions and hopes for the collaboration outcomes determine the duration of the collaboration.If the benefits of the collaboration are expected to have great value, the collaboration will pull through as the partners are more engaged [38].

Approaches for Adopting Open Innovation
Knowledge is widely distributed, and no organization can innovate effectively in isolation, no matter how capable or broad it is.Fundamental research questions cannot be answered by a single scientist or laboratory but require multiple workgroups who work together in an interdisciplinary way.
Open Innovation is a brilliant approach to adopt because it reduces costs, accelerates time to the market, increases differentiation in the market, and creates new revenue streams.
In order to generate new ideas, services/products, and attract new knowledge and inspired researchers, research institutes shall adopt and establish Open Innovation initiatives that will pave the way for the attraction and creation of novel methodologies.The proposed Open Innovation procedure is based on the following approach that shows how an organization can bring in new ways of thinking and doing things and how openness can lead to Innovation.

•
Crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing invites people to share information and submit ideas via several ways, such as online requests made through social media, smartphone apps, or dedicated crowdsourcing platforms.Crowdsourcing allows experts with the wherewithal to solve a problem to set innovatively or recommend innovative ideas on a specific issue.Suggestions can quickly be evaluated according to relevant criteria, and the most practical ideas are selected and implemented.This initiative is helpful for research institutes that do not have an adequate number of researchers or the specific expertise and research background to solve a problem that might arise.Crowdsourcing offers the diversity of ideas and experience needed.This practice has been proven to be very useful in the research spectrum of IT, especially in software coding; • Co-creation: Co-creation is a fundamental strategy of Open Innovation that involves external experts/agents in an organization, aiming at adding value and content to the designed products and services.Organizations or companies do not have all the knowledge they need for Innovation, so it is inevitable to search for ways to achieve it.Therefore, co-creation appears as the best strategy to achieve such an assumption, with external experts actively participating in the development phases of products and services and significantly increasing the possibilities of meeting their needs and expectations.Co-creation partnerships are considered the most effective way to innovate the business model to enhance a company's innovative capacity [42].In this concept, research centers aiming to widen their research directions can periodically organize co-creative events by inviting external experts to collaborate in this innovative process to share more meaningful information.Compared with crowdsourcing, co-creation establishes stronger bonding with the involved stakeholders/experts, as experts meet in physical places or digitally (during COVID-19 pandemic), a fact that creates the circumstances for further discussions and meetings.

Introducing Research Loop: A Co-Creation Model
The model of Research Loop has been inspired by the initiative of Innovation Loop generated in the region of Vasterbotten, Sweden, and can be an excellent approach for research institutes to achieve Open Innovation practices through co-creation.Frequent meetings are organized to share public/private Innovation and creativity in Innovation Loop.The process mainly identifies current needs among the participants.Once settled, the Innovation loop translates their needs into sustainable and innovative concepts and prototypes.This process has led to innovative services, products, and methods serving the entire community's interests, private individuals, companies, organizations, and the public sector.
Following this initiative, we introduce here the model of Research Loop, an open procedure which embeds and produces new knowledge and co-creative Innovation.The operation of Research Loop supposes the participation of key players from the research/ entrepreneurial ecosystem in order to define needs and gaps in terms of research solutions necessary for the industry and government (aviation, health, education etc.) and recommends methodologies to mind this gap and receive possible support from the authorities.This co-creative process is mainly based on the engagement and commitment of everyone involved and co-generates innovative ideas and prototypes into innovative solutions (products, services, processes) for regional and national innovation ecosystems.
The proposed approach of Research Loop follows three parts: (a) Co-identify problems and ideas to solve them, (b) Co-generate solutions, and (c) Implement solutions.It is also based on organizing four different types of co-creation events: Information meetings, Idea workshops, Prototyping workshops, and Implementation Workshops.
Research Loop is organized and led by a research institute.It requires the participation of the Industry, NGOs, funding organizations, business support organizations, and other entities.There are planned fixed meeting places and frequent temporary meetings for co-creative public/private Innovation aiming to join forces to address research challenges.The objective is to identify existing problems and lacking research solutions faced by the industry/government and meet them through sustainable and innovative ideas promoting digital services, innovative smart products and processes that serve all the ecosystem's interests, private, individuals, companies, and organizations and the public sector.The quadruple helix participants come together with a common interest to define research gaps, recommend solutions, and facilitate fruitful and continuous communication throughout a collaboration.
The Research Loop includes participants with varied resources and experiences to have an efficient use.The proposed implementation approach ensures that essential perspectives, opinions, insights and ideas are integrated into feasible concepts.It drives the production of a cycle of ideas and skills exchanges across organizational boundaries where different skills, perspectives, and backgrounds can meet and enrich each other and open the door for innovative solutions based on a sustainability perspective.Existing ideas and solutions can be recycled, refined, and integrated into new ones.

The Proposed Research Loop Methodology
The best duration of the Research Loop process is proposed to last one year.The research institute/center must organize the Research Loop process with the active participation of the relevant stakeholders.Following the Quadruple helix approach, different co-creation workshops engage multi-stakeholders during this period.The researchers, entrepreneurs, and representatives from public authorities are seeking R&D solutions in several sectors; they co-identify challenges and research needs that will be the basis for co-generating solutions and the ways to implement them.The moderator of every workshop has a vital role; she/he facilitates the process and guides group decision-making while constantly inspiring the participants by asking new questions and suggesting new perspectives.The active participation of all participants is critical, so the knowledge broker encourages silent participants to join in.The moderator creates trust in the participants and makes sure interactions are fair.
Research Loop consists of four phases, which are depicted in Figure 2: Phase 1: Co-definition of the research gaps/needs.This phase lasts two months, and several workshops are organized.During them, the participants identify the existing research gaps encountered in Industry or other aspects of interest of the public sector (aviation, health, education, governance, climate change, etc.).In this phase, the industry owners or R&D responsible for an industry or managers responsible for applying innovative practices in the public sector have a dominant role.They are the end users who daily face the research gaps in their entity's operation, so their contribution is precious in this phase.
Phase 2: Co-definition of methodologies for providing possible solutions to the identified problems.This phase lasts four months; the participants exchange ideas and knowledge about the methodologies that should be applied to shape the identified problems.The participants' previous experience in similar issues will lead to the successful implementation of this phase.
Phase 3: Co-definition of the actors that will ensure the solutions to the identified problems.This period lasts three months, and here, the research institutes have a dominant role in co-defining the key actors necessary for applying the defined methodologies to achieve the desired solutions.These actors are the required human resources, technologies, funds, patents, necessary equipment, collaborations, or other relevant factors that are valuable to work towards innovative research services and products.Phase 4: Co-organization of the defined methodologies.This is the final phase, which lasts three months and closes the Research Loop.There are co-defined methodologies and core actors needed to tackle the co-identified research needs, so in this phase the selected one is implemented.Timeframes, resources, technologies, and collaborations are defined and organized.
When the Research Loop has been concluded, the exchange of ideas and concerns expressed during the whole process paves the way and boosts the next iteration of the Research Loop.
lems.The participants' previous experience in similar issues will lead to the successful implementation of this phase.
Phase 3: Co-definition of the actors that will ensure the solutions to the identified problems.This period lasts three months, and here, the research institutes have a dominant role in co-defining the key actors necessary for applying the defined methodologies to achieve the desired solutions.These actors are the required human resources, technologies, funds, patents, necessary equipment, collaborations, or other relevant factors that are valuable to work towards innovative research services and products.
Phase 4: Co-organization of the defined methodologies.This is the final phase, which lasts three months and closes the Research Loop.There are co-defined methodologies and core actors needed to tackle the co-identified research needs, so in this phase the selected one is implemented.Timeframes, resources, technologies, and collaborations are defined and organized.
When the Research Loop has been concluded, the exchange of ideas and concerns expressed during the whole process paves the way and boosts the next iteration of the Research Loop.The research institutes can apply the proposed Open Innovation Initiative by engaging researchers, academics, local stakeholders, entrepreneurs, and any other key player to co-create new solutions that correspond to research needs, industry needs, social needs, or regional needs to transform society towards a sustainable future with raised quality of life.Everyone's contribution is essential in the co-creative, co-design process where functional new perspectives can emerge.Whether or not a new perspective is a step forward can only be proven by testing it in reality.
We propose to organize the Research Loop on a local/regional level, and after gaining experience and the know-how of how to implement the Research Loop, it can potentially be organized on a national level.On a local/regional level with a broad research ecosystem, the most prominent research/academic entity could be the lead partner for The research institutes can apply the proposed Open Innovation Initiative by engaging researchers, academics, local stakeholders, entrepreneurs, and any other key player to co-create new solutions that correspond to research needs, industry needs, social needs, or regional needs to transform society towards a sustainable future with raised quality of life.Everyone's contribution is essential in the co-creative, co-design process where functional new perspectives can emerge.Whether or not a new perspective is a step forward can only be proven by testing it in reality.
We propose to organize the Research Loop on a local/regional level, and after gaining experience and the know-how of how to implement the Research Loop, it can potentially be organized on a national level.On a local/regional level with a broad research ecosystem, the most prominent research/academic entity could be the lead partner for organizing the Research Loop and to invite all the research centers of the area, industries, public authorities, decision making organizations, and NGOs.The incentive for such an initiative could be the intention of the local/regional government to launch calls and funding opportunities addressed to the local research and industrial ecosystem.The recondition for launching such a call relies on the decision-making partner to have a concluded idea about the local/regional state of the art regarding the research needs, available technologies, and necessary methodologies.In this case, the purpose and the expected outcomes of the Research Loop have been defined.It is expected to provide the most correct suitable directions and dimensions that the forthcoming calls should focus on because they aim to provide solutions to the existing and commonly defined needs during the Research Loop.This is the first time that the proposed co-creative methodology for introducing Open Innovation principles and approaches in Research Organizations has appeared.It has not yet been implemented in the integrated methodology that is described here.Thus, we cannot present any qualitative or quantitative results.However, there are some theoretical implications that deserve mentioning.These are the specifics of how open innovation practices can be used for identifying research questions, improving research methodologies, accomplishing research objectives, and achieving research outcomes, and so we propose an integrated methodology on how to implement open innovation in research centers in a way that is beneficial to all stakeholders.Additionally, the proposed research loop offers a mechanism that, once established, it can be used for multiple cycles.This can be achieved from the same partners, or with the further addition of others in a way that embellishes the already established collaborations, leading to even better stronger partnerships and better final results.Furthermore, the proposed loop can be used as a blueprint for other co-creation efforts that pertain different kinds of collaborations and partnerships.
As for the practical aspects of this proposed methodology, these will become apparent and studied once the loop is implemented into real life partnerships.
We expect that its application will pave the way for more focused research.In future work, we are planning to organize a pilot implementation to further analyze the Research Loop process, along with the step-by-step evaluation of each phase.We plan to produce an algorithmic approach for the organization and implementation of the Research Loop, where possible new parameters will be included and studied for the effect of a strict deadline for the outcomes, or the definition and selection of specific thematic for the Research Loop.
From a macro level perspective, the proposed Research Loop could receive strong support from the broader research community at the national and international level and mobilize and engage more research institutes, companies, and organizations every year to join the co-creative innovation endeavors.

Benefits of Adopting Open Innovation
This section aims to summarize, discuss, and justify the benefits of adopting Open Innovation for Research institutes, public organizations, SMEs, and all the relevant stakeholders.This section aims to critically evaluate other studies and present the main advantages of adopting Open Innovation; it aims to serve as an inspiration for future studies where a comprehensive survey could incorporate empirical and bibliographical analysis.

Advantages in Research
Research centers adopting Open Innovation provide research on new fronts so that they can successfully do research and mitigate almost unsolvable problems.Small organizations tend to be dedicated to one discipline and usually have limited connections to other parts of scientific research.When these organizations work on projects whose context is not related to their specific expertise, all the deficiencies that will most likely appear can become an issue that will make progress difficult or unattainable [43].Open Innovation principles are necessary for small organizations; they can mitigate these issues by combining forces and the help of stakeholders to minimize any gap that a collaborator has.
Collaborations between research institutes, universities, and industries have proven to improve research performance [44].Research Institutes and Universities that have positioned themselves as partners to their industry counterparts and have staff, resources and management mechanisms dedicated to these collaborations, publish more research papers and produce more patents.However, this seems to be more evident when there are formal arrangements for the collaboration and, on a second note, when government funding can be accessed for this cause [44].The factors that affect the success of the transfer of knowledge in government-funded research institutes are highly relevant to their mission [45].However, when an institute focuses more on the engineering aspects, there is a better flow of technology transfer through the patents [45].Researchers that collaborate on an international level produce more research publications than their colleagues that are focusing on a more local level [46].
Researchers that adopt Open Innovation schemes and collaborations have increased the number of published research articles and produced patents [47].Moreover, it has also been observed that besides an increased publication rate, citations at these articles are also higher compared to the citations accrued before the collaboration.Furthermore, co-authoring is higher for researchers that take in the collaboration regardless of seniority.Wherever the interactions with the rest of the partners are concerned, it is shown that high-quality research has been produced in the case of Open Innovation collaborations [48].The bilateral and trilateral interactions within the quintuple helix have a positive and significant effect on the scientific performance of research institutes.As research institutes come closer to the Industry, they are better positioned to share knowledge and resources and create research beneficial to all partners [48].
The emergence of the 4th Industrial Revolution provides new opportunities for research centers to adopt Open Innovation.Industry 4.0 is based on the interconnectedness among different organizations and industries, mainly exploiting digital tools.Concerning the human resources of the research center, it has been demonstrated that the necessary digital transformations needed for the 4th Industrial Revolution can be achieved by just switching up the working personnel [13].

Advantages for the Collaborating Partners
Research and development are the major components of several firms and companies.The standard structure for these organizations is a research center that promotes and expands research and the business unit.When Open Innovation is used, there is a positive impact on both the financial and the innovation frontier.More specifically, the research center benefits from collaborations with universities and other organizations [35].It has also been found that a network arises among all partners as collaborations and partnerships are created [49].The partners' position in this network has been proven to be highly important.When universities have a more central position in the network, they tend to develop openness as preexisting connections grow stronger and build upon them, a fact that can help create a framework that supports knowledge transfer [49].
In several countries, public research institutes have been established and funded by governments in order to promote research projects and technologies of high importance [40].They are usually concerned about promoting local capabilities to develop and upgrade domestic firms and industries, which translates into economic growth, especially if the outcomes have commercial potential.
SMEs usually seek help and support from research institutes.In order to facilitate this process and create more efficient collaborations, the characteristics of the SMEs can be clustered and analyzed to promote the right research center [50].Better results are achieved as the research centers understand the characteristics and potential of SMEs and their needs and support them accordingly [50].However, it would be helpful to determine how the firms operate under such conditions and, more specifically, how the firms can absorb and exploit what the research centers offer.It has been determined that a firm's human recourses department is vital for this function as this is the sector that is burdened with the onus of the cooperation agreements with the other partners [51].When SMEs and research centers collaborate to increase their trust and satisfaction inside the partnership, the results are significantly improved [44].
By adopting Open Innovation initiatives, such as co-creation meetings at the local/regional level, the barriers that usually prevent collaborations can be overcome, and solutions can be found locally to the different problems that concern them [52].Open Innovation at the local level can help SMEs expand their network and benefit from it, while at the same time, large firms can collaborate with them on a local level to solve different problems [52].Accordingly, research centers can promote Innovation in small firms, public organizations and rural areas.Research centers are knowledge providers for firms and organizations that can help overcome any obstacle and fill in possible knowledge gaps.Any distance between partners can be overcome by using digital tools, such as video conferences, which also lowers the cost of communication as in-person visits can be avoided [53].
Such an example is the case of a small SME in rural Greece producing pork products, which wanted to implement a novel traceability system.On its own, the SME would be unable to do this as it lacked the funds, the infrastructure, and the know-how.However, it was successfully implemented by collaborating with a research center that already had expertise on traceability systems [54,55].The research organization and the SME followed the principles of Open Innovation collaborated and successfully implemented a traceability system [56].

Conclusions and Future Work
This work introduced a novel methodology, the Research Loop, which aims to impact how Research Institutes organize and plan their interaction and contribution within the quintuple helix structure.It presents in detail how to exploit and achieve all the Open Innovation assets, mainly for research centers and all components of the quintuple helix.It is presented a detailed methodology on how to apply the Research Loop, which consists of steps and procedures.Research Loop is a new addition to the existing body of knowledge, which aims to fill a research gap on how to apply Open Innovation principles.
The proposed Research Loop consists of a novel tool, a co-creative process that can be adopted by the research centers so as to involve all the technological, scientific, industrial, and decision-making entities in the process of producing new knowledge and achieving new research results.Crowdsourcing and co-creative procedures are standard practices for Open Innovation.We describe a well-developed process, divided into phases, with specific phases, roles, and duration for each one, which performs a new proposal for research institutes that desire to investigate the existing research gaps and widen their research directors, simultaneously mobilizing and involving the local/regional key players.
Open Innovation principles are an asset for increasing the research results as their successful implementation can help mitigate problems in many circumstances.Issues with insufficient resources shortages, personnel, and/or infrastructure can be solved by exploiting the collaborative partnership.Open Innovation helps create new collaboration networks and promotes the research efforts for all involved stakeholders.Some setbacks and resistance are reasonable when considering the heterogeneity of the partners of a quintuple helix, which could be overcome with the proposed Research Loop methodology.Here, we discussed the helix models to better understand how Open Innovation is applied, and consequently the importance of research centers emerged.
By examining the research centers and their contribution to the research process created by Open Innovation, it becomes clear that the benefits are significant and that the presented issues and challenges can be overcome.When the research centers adopt Open Innovation principles, research of better quality is created, and complex projects and problems are tackled successfully.The research centers help bridge the gaps among collaborators, and using everyone's resources led to promising results concerning the project outcome and the quality of research.The goal for the proposed methodology is to be used extensively, as well as by other organizations besides research centers.In this way, a new mechanism for cocreation and crowdsourcing is opened up that envelopes all of the different components of the quintuple helix.This is the first time a methodology of this kind, concerning the quintuple helix, which can be utilized even further by researchers for similar collaborations, is proposed.This article's primary focus is to propose and present the Research Loop (RL) methodology.It is the first time such an integrated methodology is proposed for applying Open Innovation in Research Organizations with the synergistic collaboration of all the quintuple helix stakeholders.The proposed Research Loop methodology comes as a result of investigating the main challenges that research institutes face, in which we propose to introduce the approaches and principles of Open Innovation for Research Institutes, and we describe their benefits.This is another novelty of our paper; as we present and

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Main components of triple, quadruple, and quintuple helix models.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Main components of triple, quadruple, and quintuple helix models.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. The four phases of the Research Loop.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. The four phases of the Research Loop.