Research Education Programmes Collaborate Speaking Tools Recognition Story Download CV Get in touch

Innovation strategist · Speaker · Educator

Helping leaders future-proof their organisations.

My work centres on one idea: innovation capability under uncertainty — how organisations anticipate, open, transform and scale when the future refuses to sit still.

I'm Dr Justyna Dąbrowska — an internationally recognised innovation strategist bringing research-grade thinking on foresight, open innovation and digital & AI adoption into strategies, capabilities and tools that organisations actually use.

Explore collaboration See the research agenda 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

Scroll

The through-line

Innovation capability under uncertainty

Most organisations can run a project. Far fewer can build the capability to keep innovating when markets, technologies and rules keep shifting. That gap — between one-off innovation and a system that adapts — is the problem I've spent my career on.

01 Anticipate

See change before it's obvious — through foresight and scenario thinking.

02 Open

Access and orchestrate knowledge, technology and partners beyond your walls.

03 Transform

Rewire how value is created with digital technologies and AI — through people, not just tools.

04 Scale

Turn experiments into durable organisational capability that lasts.

Foresight, open innovation, and digital & AI adoption aren't three separate services — they're the stages of one capability. Here's the research behind it →

0Funded research programs

0Partner institutions connected

0Countries in network

0Wiley Award–winning papers

0Years across academia & industry

The disciplines behind it

Three fields, one capability

The arc runs on three research disciplines I've spent fifteen years in. Most organisations treat them as separate projects. They're stages of the same operating system for renewal.

Foresight — to anticipate

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

Open innovation — to open

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

Digital & AI — to transform and scale

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

Foresight tells you where to look, open innovation gives you the partners to get there, and digital & AI build the capability to deliver.

Ways to collaborate

Three ways to build capability under uncertainty

Each conversation starts from the challenge you're facing, not a fixed package — and works back to the mix of foresight, open innovation and AI that fits. Depending on the opportunity, that might take shape as a talk, an executive-education session, a research collaboration or an advisory relationship.

The advantage of working with me is access to someone who is actively researching these phenomena internationally — publishing on them in leading journals, testing ideas with real organisations, and teaching them to executives and students. You get current thinking, not last decade's playbook.

Anticipate

Future-Proof Your Innovation Strategy

Turn uncertainty into a strategy you can act on — spotting where value is moving before it's obvious.

Strategic foresight & scenario planning
Innovation portfolio review
Technology & innovation roadmapping

Open

Build an Open Innovation System

Move from ad-hoc partnerships to a repeatable capability for innovating beyond your walls.

OI capability diagnostic
Ecosystem & partnership strategy
Operating model & dedicated OI function design

Transform & scale

Build Innovation & AI Capability

Lift your people's ability to innovate and adopt AI — through simulations, tools and applied learning that stick.

Innovation capability building & operating models
AI uplift for leaders, academics & educators
Executive education via simulations & experiential tools

Ways in

Speaking · Executive education · Research & advisory

A conversation might begin as a keynote that shifts how a room thinks, an executive-education session, an industry research collaboration, or an ongoing advisory relationship. Many start on stage — and each finds its own right home.

See speaking & keynotes

Speaking & keynotes

On stage, in the room, on the record

A sought-after keynote speaker on innovation strategy, AI in leadership and transformation culture — from corporate summits to national agencies and business schools.

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?

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

Invite me to speak

The research agenda

My research asks one question

How can organisations build innovation systems that are systematic enough to scale, yet open and adaptive enough to respond to uncertainty?

Anticipate

How can foresight help organisations recognise emerging opportunities before they become obvious?

Strategic foresight · scenario planning · technology roadmapping

Open

How can organisations systematically access and orchestrate knowledge, technologies and partners beyond their boundaries?

Open innovation · ecosystems · dedicated OI functions

Organise & scale

How can organisations move experimentation into sustainable, repeatable organisational capability?

Innovation management · capability building · transition

Running through all three: digital transformation and AI adoption — the technologies reshaping how organisations anticipate, open and scale. This thread anchors my EINST4INE work on industry digital transformation and my research on AI in leadership and education.

The evidence

Peer-reviewed, and translated for practice

Read the article — or watch the short video that unpacks it for practitioners. Research shouldn't stay behind a wall of jargon.

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 Watch (2) 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

Innovation education

Rethinking how we teach innovation

Innovation can't be learned from slides alone. I design evidence-based simulations, AI mentors and experiential tools that put learners inside innovation decisions — where they make the call, apply the framework and live with the consequences. This work earned RMIT's Dean's Merit Award for Innovative Learning & Teaching (2025).

01 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

02 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

03 Playable tools · Six 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 Myth vs evidence · Circular economy Regenerative Futures Mythbusters A circular-economy edition: the common assumptions about regenerative and sustainable business models, tested against the evidence — for teams rethinking how value is created and kept. Explore the myths Evidence-graded resource The Evidence Room — Creativity & Innovation Practice Twenty-three creativity activities you can run tomorrow, each graded by evidence strength with its effect size, facilitator script and the study behind it — including the ones the research doesn't support. Free under CC BY-NC-SA. Enter the room

AwardedDean's Merit 2025

Accessfree · no login

Used inBachelor · EMBA · corporate

See all tools on one page

04 Curriculum design

A dedicated Bachelor-level course in Open Innovation

Designed and delivered at RMIT — integrating research, innovation practice, AI-enabled tools and gamified learning, and now complemented by Executive MBA teaching on technology and innovation strategy across courses at bachelor, master's and executive level.

RMIT + LUTBachelor · Master's · EMBA

Integratesresearch · AI tools · gamified learning

Programmes & organisational work

Research programmes & advisory with proof behind them

The large-scale research programmes I've led or contributed to, and the organisations I've advised — where the thinking above meets real budgets, partners and decisions.

01 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

02 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

03 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

04 Advisory

Advisory for cities, agencies & mission-driven organisations

Translating research into strategy for partners including the City of Melbourne, Wyndham City Council, 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

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

Let's start a conversation

Speaking, podcasts, executive education, research collaborations, advisory or a capability-building partnership — tell me what you're working on and we'll find the right way in.

Get in touch Connect on LinkedIn RMIT profile Download CV

Depending on the opportunity, a conversation might become a keynote, an executive-education session, a research collaboration, an advisory role or a student project — let's find the right fit.

contact@justyna-dabrowska.com · Melbourne, Australia