Samenvatting

There are current pressures to seek innovative solutions to problems associated with environmental sustainability, and in this context, it is likely that SMEs will have to collaborate with a wider variety of specialist partners. In 2009 three Dutch Universities joined with an Australian and Swedish University to compare their experience in this context, and planned a research project to address potential barriers and opportunities. One of the project goals was to implement techniques to foster effective collaboration in joint innovation projects. In this paper we consider a particular reference modeling framework (ARCON) as a candidate tool to both plan projects and identify some emergent issues. Some observations about the utility of the framework and supplementary matters of agency and participant experience are made.