Supporting bottom-up innovative initiatives throughout the spiral of innovations: Lessons from rural Greece

•Innovative initiatives emerge everywhere, even under adverse circumstances.•The Spiral of Innovations, when used in a non-linear fashion, facilitates the analysis of innovation trajectories.•New-wave Innovation Support Services (ISS) are vital in the success of bottom-up innovative initiatives.•ISS vary depending on the innovation at hand and the Spiral phase.•Networking between heterogeneous actors is a major strategy for innovation co-generation.