McLaren, Julie;
Kattel, Rainer;
(2022)
Policy capacities for transformative innovation policy: A case study of UK Research Innovation.
(Working Paper Series: IIPP WP
2022/04).
UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose: London, UK.
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Abstract
The 2008 financial collapse, climate crisis and COVID-19 have raised many questions about the sustainability of current systems and how to rebalance the impacts these have on, for example, the environment or rising inequality. A new generation of innovation policy, including a reimagined ‘mission’ approach, centres around using innovations to tackle societal challenges. This emphasis on directionality, coordination of different actors and policy mixes goes beyond standard science, technology and innovation (STI) or wider innovation policy, engaging other policy domains. While transformative policy measures, such as challenges and missions, are popular and there is growing research on their implementation, there is much to understand about how such models evolve in practice. A stark gap in the literature is the policy capacities to deliver more transformative missions. This article provides a case study on how UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) — the main public funder of research and innovation in the UK — is implementing a mission- or challenge-oriented approach in practice. It finds that the policy capacities for missions are not fully present, but there is evidence of those capacities emerging as policies evolve. The paper makes recommendations for how funders like UKRI can enhance those policy capacities further, and suggestions for how mission-oriented innovation policy analysis might be developed to include a stronger emphasis on policy capacities, and for further conceptual and empirical research on this aspect of mission implementation.
| Type: | Working / discussion paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | Policy capacities for transformative innovation policy: A case study of UK Research Innovation |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/site... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Transformative innovation policy, mission-oriented innovation, policy capacities, research and innovation bureaucracies |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Inst for Innovation and Public Purpose |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10196047 |
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