This research explores the configurations of innovation practices ("recipes") that were at work for open innovation project developers during the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Using a sample of 13 Brazilian projects, the research uses fuzzy qualitative comparative analysis (Fs-QCA) to identify how the three innovation practices - causation, effectuation, and bricolage - combined during the process. A context variable is added: the presence or lack of collaboration with the academic research community. The analyses identify two recipes for innovation success, both of which include a high level of effectuation. Depending on whether or not research is involved, a variant occurs: in the positive case it is causation that combines, whereas in the absence of research partnerships it is bricolage that is at work. This counter-intuitive result leads us to question from a new angle the mode of research collaboration in a crisis context where resilience is the objective.