Welcome to the FRANCIS Project!
This Frugal innovation by Citizens for Citizens project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101006220.News and Blog
Read our latest blog posts, articles, and announcements.
FRANCIS at InnoFrugal 10th Anniversary Conference in Cambridge: Championing Frugal Solutions and Citizen-Led Innovation
On February 18, 2025, the Provost’s Lodge of King’s College, Cambridge set the stage for the 10th Anniversary of InnoFrugal, a conference dedicated to resourceful innovation—doing more with less. FRANCIS partners contributed through a panel session spotlighting our project’s open innovation successes and citizen led solutions.
Innovating For Travel, Hotel, and Outdoor Experiences: Highlights from the Second Challenge of FRANCIS
The second challenge of the FRANCIS initiative brought together people from around the world to rethink hotel, travel, and outdoor experiences. Launched on 11 July 2024, this challenge aimed to inspire ideas that make travel and leisure more inclusive and eco-friendly. Here’s a quick look at the journey, the numbers, and what’s coming next.
India Outreach Activities for the FRANCIS Hotel, Travel and Outdoor Challenge
As part of the FRANCIS project, the outreach team in India successfully implemented a multi-faceted strategy to engage key stakeholders in the hospitality and travel sectors, promoting awareness and encouraging participation in the second challenge of this exciting initiative. Here’s a glimpse into the efforts and accomplishments that made this campaign a success.
FRANCIS
FRANCIS’ consortium includes six partners from five European countries – Fraunhofer from Germany, VTT from Finland, Finnish non-profit organization InnoFrugal, The Behavioural Insights Team from the United Kingdom, the French tech startup Agorize and Turkey’s BSH Home Appliances.
The FRANCIS project aims to develop frugal innovations by citizens for citizens within the scope of open innovation challenges.
The project’s results will include a guideline with recommendations on how to involve different participant groups in the challenges and how to encourage the development of ideas (Citizen Frugal Innovation Framework and Toolbox). It will also aid with measuring the impact of Citizen Frugal Innovations.
Challenges
Launched in February 2021, the first phase of the project in 2021 and 2022 established a scientific foundation with recommendations on how to involve different participants groups in challenges and how to encourage the shared development of ideas. The second phase, which takes place from 2023 to 2024, runs two open innovation challenges, each mentored by industry coaches, who support the participants in detailing their ideas. The project ends in April 2025.
Contact Us
Project Coordinator
Liza Wohlfart
Fraunhofer IAO
Email: liza.wohlfart@iao.fraunhofer.de
Communication and Dissemination Manager
Venkata Gandikota
InnoFrugal
Email: venkata@innofrugal.org