The emergence of the world-wide web (WWW) during the last three decades has completely changed the possibilities of information exchange, regarding volume, speed and efficiency of combination of different types of information. The WWW has opened new possibilities in academic and industrial research and development that has made possible novel ways of doing business. This was particularly enabled because the WWW was open and freely available. In fact, the currently most valuable companies in the world could not have developed without a free and open accessible infrastructure, namely the WWW. In analogy, we describe here the potential of Open Innovation for the development of new business models with emphasis on the role of the ESFRI BMS Research Infrastructures and their knowledge and data networks. In a revision requested by the Project Coordinator we included examples and applications pertinent to pharmaceutical research and industry and emphasised the role ESFRI BMS Research Infrastructures can play in Open Innovation.