Large companies confront an innovation dilemma: they often have immense technological know–how, but find it hard understand what is valuable for people in their everyday lives. To make matters more difficult, the boundaries between infrastructure, content, equipment, software, products and services, are constantly changing.

Interaction design offers companies a way out of the innovation dilemma: it delivers new service concepts that are perceived by their users to have quality, richness and value. This process also generates new business concepts. Interaction Ivrea provides its industrial Associates with a context for making new connections, association with the leading minds in interaction design, and 'first–mover proximity' to new concepts, tools and processes as soon as they emerge. Interaction Ivrea is a completely independent Association – but its industry Associates are not passive sponsors: they will develop many new ways to share the concepts, skills – and people – that the new Institute produces.

Interaction Ivrea is an addition – not an alternative – to university postgraduate departments and corporate research laboratories. In order to do things differently, organisations need to see things differently. The emphasis at Interaction Ivrea will be on know–how rather than know–what. Its unique focus will be the integration of engineering with cultural design – and the development of new business models. Teaching and research will be driven by people and culture, not by technology. The Institute will also have a different model of learning from that of traditional academic institutions: more doing, less listening to lectures.The Institute will stimulate connections among new combinations of experts and organisations; these new connections will feed into and out of the industry Associates in a continuous process. Interaction Ivrea is not like a corporate lab whose success is measured by the value of its patents or intellectual property rights (IPR); the key success criterion of the Institute is that associated companies, organisations, and individuals will apply its knowledge and best practices in their own situations.

There are two ways by which industry associates will benefit from the knowledge created by Interaction Ivrea: participation in activities; and hiring its graduates. These two approaches are developed in the following scenarios:

Support ongoing thematic projects: provide financial support for such projects as Wearables, Knowledge Management, Smart City. We hope the Associates will allocate people to see these new methods in action, to get ideas for your own markets, and to connect with other corporate participants.

Sponsor major projects: from time to time, Interaction Ivrea will undertake in-depth research, and design pilot products, on a specific theme that interests us Ð and you.

Fellowships: companies can support the work of a researcher Ð an excellent way for you to develop a long–term relationship with a potential employee – or to support the development of someone who already works for you.

Internships: hiring Interaction Ivrea interns allows you to introduce the way we think and work into your own environment for an experimental period.

Design clinics: if you have a new product or service whose interaction design is causing you difficulty – or which you would like to be evaluated independently Ð we can organise a desgn clinic involving our students and faculty.

Prospecting visits: many companies possess technologies and expertise which have untapped potential in different applications, or in different markets. Designers are good at making these lateral connections: we could send in a team to 'prospect' among your in–house assets.

Annual Associates Conference: every year we will bring all our industry and business partners together for a two–day meeting.

Research services: preparation of special–interest meetings; abstraction service; (ie best bits taken from other sources); design and delivery of short–courses for third–party participants.