In this article we discuss barriers for conducting Open Innovation in Public-Private Innovation Partnerships. We argue that inviting private actors to contribute to innovations in the public sector resembles an opening of the innovation process as termed Open Innovation. The connection seems intuitively valuable since public sector innovation may also enjoy the advantages of sourcing new ideas from both inside and outside the organisation. However, based on a literature review, the paper concludes that it is necessary to modify the concept of Open Innovation to make it applicable in Public-Private Innovation Partnerships. This is due to barriers raising from legislations and embedded tensions between public and private partners.
