F1: M., researcher EUR
It varies by partnership. Some have a director and team (almost like an organization). Often it’s lighter: steering committee, operational/implementation team, perhaps advisors. A facilitator isn’t always needed; they can be internal (from one party) or external. Early on an internal broker may work well; when tensions rise, an external broker can help.
F3: M., Digi
Facilitator, a researcher who is always involved—more on content, researching certain
topics. Then of course the client. And we have “challenge owners”: people who own specific
goals.
F4: M., Digi-ICTU
In terms of roles, the structure included work package leads, partners, lead partners, a steering committee, and a sounding board for advice. Every partner had an incentive to contribute actively — you had to prove your involvement to receive funding, so nobody could just sit back. Roles were largely standard and assigned at the start, without a separate collaboration agreement.
F5: A., PBA
Key roles in any partnership span three levels: strategic leadership to endorse the overall direction, operational experts to deliver on commitments, and facilitators or support staff to keep communication flowing and handle administration. When there’s no team, the partnership architect fills all the gaps — including the unglamorous ones.
F6: A., Signalen - VNG
Project owner, community manager…
F7: L., PBA
Depends on partnership and maturity. Bigger organisations will have layers of partnership and programme managers (more like e.g. war child) and they will do a lot of the strategic thinking. For smaller partnerships the senior levels of the stakeholders will decide, facilitator is the connector and operational level will do implementation. When a partnership projects has proven itself to be succesful and starts to mature, slowely more sub projects will emerge.
F8: A.
Project manager for every project
F9: J., Novum
Multiple roles are involved in an innovation project. The client is always internal to SVB, holds ownership of the issue, and must be sufficiently senior in the organisation to be able to make decisions. The Innovation Designer (such as Jeroen) guides the process in terms of content, designs the working methods, and facilitates collaboration between parties. The business employees are the subject-matter experts who do as much of the work as possible themselves — conducting interviews, co-designing — so that they become owners of the solution. The portfolio manager oversees the whole from the outside. In addition, there are sometimes external chain partners (UWV, Tax Authority, municipalities) who join as stakeholders or collaboration partners. For larger decisions, the strategic innovation manager also plays a role, setting the overall direction and making the final calls. What stands out is that the team deliberately tries to keep the number of roles filled by Novum itself as small as possible — the business must lead, Novum facilitates. A project team always includes someone or a team from the business (SVB) who should hold ownership and, after the innovation project, can continue with implementation within the business itself — at which point Novum’s involvement ends.