The System What I Do Research Portfolio Recognition Story Download CV Work with me

Innovation strategist · Speaker · Educator

Helping leaders future-proof their organisations.

I'm Dr Justyna Dąbrowska — an internationally recognised innovation strategist working at the intersection of open innovation, digital transformation and strategic foresight. I turn research-grade frameworks into strategies, capabilities and tools that organisations actually use.

Book a keynote or workshop Explore the research Download CV

RMIT UniversityVice Chancellor's Research Fellow, Melbourne

UC BerkeleyAdvisory Board, Open Innovation Labs

R&D ManagementEditorial Board Member

15+ years bridging academia & business across Europe, Australia & the US

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0Funded research programs

0Partner institutions connected

0Countries in network

0Wiley Award–winning papers

0Years across academia & industry

One connected system

Open innovation. Digital transformation. Foresight. They only work together.

Most organisations treat these as three separate projects. My research — and fifteen years of practice — shows they are one operating system for renewal.

Open innovation opens the walls

Ideas, talent and technology flow across organisational boundaries — through ecosystems, partnerships and dedicated OI functions that make collaboration a capability, not an accident.

Digital transformation rewires the engine

Emerging technologies — including AI — change how value is created and captured. But transformation succeeds through people, culture and capability, not tools alone.

Strategic foresight sees around corners

Scenario planning and technology roadmapping turn uncertainty into strategy — so organisations shape the future instead of reacting to it.

Foresight tells you where to look, open innovation gives you the partners to get there, and digital transformation builds the capability to deliver.

What I do

Three ways we can work together

From a single keynote to a multi-year capability program — every engagement translates rigorous research into practical, energising formats.

Keynotes & Lectures

Evidence-based, energising talks that make innovation strategy and AI adoption tangible for executives, boards and conferences.

Building (open) innovation capabilities for a disrupted world
Leading with AI — strategy masterclasses for executives
How AI will rewire entrepreneurship & education
Demystifying innovation for non-innovation teams

Workshops & Training

Hands-on formats where teams explore and apply new approaches — leaving with roadmaps, playbooks and skills, not just slides.

Strategic technology roadmapping (incl. quantum & AI)
Foresight & scenario planning sprints
Organising for open innovation & ecosystem design
Gamified learning experiences for teams & classrooms

Capability Building & AI Uplift

Longer-term advisory that builds lasting innovation capability inside organisations — and lifts AI confidence among academics and educators.

Innovation capability audits & operating models
AI uplift programs for academics & teaching teams
Executive education design (EMBA, corporate academies)
Advisory for cities, agencies & mission-driven orgs

Justyna delivering the keynote at the Corporate Innovation Summit, Perth — **Corporate Innovation Summit, Perth**Keynote: Building (Open) Innovation Capabilities for a Disrupted World

Justyna facilitating a hands-on AI in teaching workshop — **AI uplift in action**Hands-on workshop: How do you currently use AI in your teaching?

Research, twice told

Every paper, two ways in

Read the peer-reviewed article — or watch the short video that translates it for practitioners. Research shouldn't stay behind a paywall of jargon.

Watch the video series

R&D Management · Wiley Award

Waking the Sleeping Beauty

How Swarovski — a 125-year-old family business — reinvented itself through open innovation, and what legacy organisations can learn from its journey.

Watch Read the paper

California Management Review

Beyond the Buzz

Unpacking the forms and practices of the dedicated open innovation function — how leading firms actually organise, staff and run OI beyond the hype.

Watch Read the paper

Innovation Transition Roadmap video thumbnail

Research-Technology Management · 2026

The Innovation Transition Roadmap

A practical tool for navigating the exploration–exploitation divide — helping teams scale promising innovations without killing what made them work.

Watch Read the paper

2022 Digital transformation, for better or worse: a critical multi-level research agendaR&D Management · with Chesbrough, Ritala & 14 co-authors · Wiley Award → 2023 Crowd-resourcing in response to the COVID-19 pandemicIEEE Transactions on Engineering Management → 2021 The emergence of community-driven platforms in response to COVID-19Research-Technology Management → 2024 Teaching open innovation in business schoolsThe Oxford Handbook for Open Innovation · Oxford University Press →

All publications on Google Scholar

Portfolio

Tools, programs & projects with proof behind them

A selection of the platforms and AI tools I've built, the research programs I've led or actively contributed to, and the playful learning formats I design for educators and corporate teams.

01 Educator tool · Live artifact

OI Navigator

An interactive map of Australia's open innovation ecosystem — built as a hands-on tool for educators, students and organisations to explore who innovates with whom, and how. Designed, researched and built end-to-end.

Open the OI Navigator

Interactiveecosystem map

Foreducators & orgs

Focusopen innovation

02 Educator tool · Two live GPTs

AI Mentors for Innovation Education

Two custom AI-powered role-play simulations — the Open Innovation AI Mentor and the ExecMBA AI Mentor — that turn GenAI into an interactive learning partner rather than an answer machine.

Instead of handing over answers, the mentors place learners inside realistic innovation and strategy scenarios: make a decision, defend an assumption, apply a framework, then live with the consequences. The OI Mentor supports undergraduate learning around open innovation, collaboration and ecosystems; the ExecMBA Mentor puts experienced professionals inside complex technology and innovation strategy calls.

OI AI MentorOpen innovation skills · undergraduate ExecMBA AI MentorInnovation strategy · executives

Buildscritical thinking & reflection

Methodlearning by doing

03 Playable tools · Four live experiences

Gamified learning for educators & corporate teams

Innovation theory doesn't stick from slides. These are the browser-based games, simulations and workshop modules I build so teams can argue, decide and get things wrong in a safe room — used in bachelor and EMBA classrooms and in corporate workshops alike. All free, no login, open in any browser.

Simulation game Breaking the Boundaries: The Open Innovation Quest Puts you in the role of an innovation leader making strategic calls across an ecosystem — learning OI principles through play, not lectures. Earn a certificate on completion. Play the game Workshop modules JustInnovate — The Foresight Arc Four playable modules — Signal or Noise, The Grid, The Four Worlds, Wind Tunnel — taking strategy teams from weak signals to real options across several futures. Free under CC BY-NC-SA. Run the workshop Myth vs evidence Innovation Mythbusters Tests the innovation beliefs everyone repeats against what the research actually shows — a fast, opinionated warm-up for workshops and lectures. Bust some myths Myth vs evidence · AI uplift HEI AI Mythbusters The same format aimed at higher education: the claims and fears circulating about AI in teaching and research, held up against the evidence. Built for academic AI uplift sessions. Start the session

AwardedDean's Merit 2025

Accessfree · no login

Used inBachelor · EMBA · corporate

04 EU research program

EINST4INE

Co-Chief Investigator of the €4.06M European Training Network for Industry Digital Transformation — RMIT, Cambridge, Berkeley, LUT and 16 multinational firms.

€4.06MEU MSCA

16industry partners

05 EU research program

DREAM+PLAN

Driving climate-positive futures — contributor and PhD co-supervisor on a €9.1M multinational program applying foresight to climate innovation.

€9.1MEU MSCA

2025–ongoing

06 EU academic network building

OI-Net

Consortium manager and principal proposal author of the European Academic Network for Open Innovation — 52 organisations, 35 countries, and Europe's first OI education framework.

52organisations

35countries

07 Advisory

Advisory for cities, agencies & mission-driven organisations

Translating research into strategy for partners including the City of Melbourne, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology — from innovation capability under heightened sensitivity to demystifying AI for operational teams.

City of Melbourneopen innovation & foresight

ARC Lifebloodcapability building

Bureau of Meteorologyinnovation & AI

08 Curriculum design

Australia's first Bachelor course in Open Innovation

Designed and delivered at RMIT — aligning academic content with real corporate innovation practice, and now complemented by Executive MBA teaching on technology and innovation strategy.

RMITBachelor + EMBA

Firstof its kind in Australia

Recognition

Awarded for research and for teaching

Dean's Merit Award for Innovative Learning & Teaching

RMIT University · 2025 — for gamified, practice-connected innovation education.

Outstanding Teaching Score Award

RMIT University · 2025 — recognising consistently exceptional student outcomes.

Wiley Award — twice

R&D Management · 2019 & 2022 — for the Swarovski open innovation study and the digital transformation research agenda.

€35M+ in competitive research funding

EU MSCA, Horizon 2020, Erasmus+, EIT and TEKES programs across Europe and Australia.

Advisory boards

Open Innovation Labs · UC Berkeley RMIT Commercialisation & IP Committee International Observatory of Innovation

Editorial boards

R&D Management Journal World Open Innovation Conference ISPIM

Recent keynote stages

Corporate Innovation Summit · Perth RMIT EMBA & Activator ARC Lifeblood Australian Bureau of Meteorology

The story

Four countries, one obsession: how organisations build innovation capabilities and renew themselves

I started in industry — supporting international and diplomatic accounts at General Motors Europe in Germany, and then managing sales across six markets in Central and Eastern Europe from Poland. That's where I first saw how large organisations struggle to change.

The question pulled me into research. In Finland, I completed a PhD in open innovation at LUT University while directing multi-country innovation programs worth over €23M — and building OI-Net, a network of 52 institutions across 35 countries.

Since 2019 I've been in Melbourne as Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow and Bachelor of Business Strategy and Innovation Major Manager at RMIT — writing, teaching, advising and building tools that help leaders adopt emerging technologies, including AI, through ecosystems and partnerships. I still believe the best strategy work happens where academia and business meet.

GermanyIndustry roots — international & diplomatic accounts at GM Europe

PolandCEE sales leadership across six markets

FinlandPhD in open innovation · €23M+ programs · OI-Net

AustraliaRMIT Research Fellow · Major Manager · advisor · educator

Let's talk

Bring rigour and energy to your next room

Keynotes, executive masterclasses, hands-on workshops, or a longer capability-building partnership — tell me what your organisation is facing.

Email me Connect on LinkedIn Download CV

Prefer email? dab.justi@gmail.com · Melbourne, Australia