On 20 November, the European Week of Regions and Cities included a CO-VALUE roundtable held within the framework of the Alicante Futura Summit, hosted at the Alicante Science Park. The event brought together startups and established companies to reflect on a new way of driving innovation from within society. 

The session, led by CO-VALUE, focused on a key idea: citizens should not be limited to validating innovations once they are developed – they must be involved from the outset, co-creating solutions alongside companies and other ecosystem actors. 

The roundtable was facilitated by Marzia Mazzonetto, from StickyDot, a consultancy specialised in participatory methodologies and coordinator of the CO-VALUE project. She opened the discussion by emphasising: “We must adapt valorisation methodologies so that citizens participate in innovation from the very beginning – beyond simply asking whether they like a product or not.” 

Representatives from Aguas de Alicante, Golden Owl, Solublion, and InferIA took part in the session. These four organisations are actively collaborating with CO-VALUE to explore how to integrate citizens into R&D&I processes through professionally guided co-creation methodologies. 

Startups Solublion and InferIA agreed that working “from scratch” with citizens helps avoid technical bias and leads to the creation of products that respond to real, ethical and emotional needs. “Technical bias prevents us from seeing beyond what we already know. Citizens are the light that shows us where innovation should go,” said Daniel Domene, from Solublion. 

David Tomás, from InferIA, contributed one of the event’s most powerful reflections: “We haven’t found the ‘million-dollar idea’, but we have discovered something far more valuable: what truly matters to citizens – their ethical boundaries and real needs.” 

Meanwhile, Golden Owl and Aguas de Alicante highlighted that citizen participation provides primary information that cannot be found in any database, offering new perspectives on security, privacy, social contradictions and collective priorities. “Citizens give us a source of information that doesn’t exist in any database. Their awareness of security and privacy forces us to rethink the entire innovation process,” explained Ana Beik, from Golden Owl. 

From Aguas de Alicante, Cristina Ramos stressed the transformative impact of the process: “For a large company, this process humanises. It connects you with realities you don’t see from within and gives you insights that are priceless.” 

This awareness among the companies did not emerge solely during the roundtable itself. On the previous day, Marzia Mazzonetto facilitated a reflective session with the participating organisations to revisit their initial expectations about the project and the role of citizens, and to compare them with what they had actually experienced throughout their involvement in CO-VALUE. The companies acknowledged that while some of their expectations had been met, many others had been exceeded or entirely reshaped, revealing unexpected insights. They agreed that the process had been deeply enriching, prompting them to challenge assumptions, uncover new perspectives and gain a more profound understanding of the true value of working alongside citizens. 

The roundtable clearly demonstrated that CO-VALUE’s approach – based on structured and professional citizen co-creation processes – is not only viable, but also generates innovations that are more relevant, socially valuable and aligned with real needs. 

Marzia Mazzonetto closed the session with a clear call to action: “Our goal is for this approach to be replicated. We need more experiments in companies that want to create real added value together with citizens.”