مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

A strategic turn has taken place in research and innovation (R&I) policy over the past years. Technology foresight is increasingly oriented towards socio-economic aspects, interdependencies, and towards innovation systems and its transitions. (Weber, 2012). This turn is characterised by a shift away from structure-centered approaches to R&I policy, aiming to foster innovation performance per se as a main driver of competitiveness, and towards prioritisation of R&I societal challenges and generic technologies.

Particular attention was paid to fostering societal demand side aspects in the governance of science, technology and innovation (Edler and Georghiou, 2007). Arising first in programmatic manifestations (Declaration, 2009) and extending to wider processes in innovation policy, the result is a proliferating variety of new approaches, processes, and instruments (Cagnin et al., 2012; Georghiou and Harper, 2011; Haegeman et al., 2012; Marinelli et al., 2014). Beyond the EU, the need for a broader understanding of innovation for societal demands is also reflected in concepts such as green economy (Gibbs and O’Neill, 2015), social innovation (Shier and Handy, 2015), and in the 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development (Sustainable Development Goals).

This strategic turn also implies that it is not sufficient any more derive the rationales for R&I policy from a deficit model, i.e. by drawing on the identification of perceived deficits in the conditions and practices of research and innovation in order to legitimize policy action. Instead, a forward-looking approach is needed to address in a pro-active way the challenges and opportunities that are likely to arise in a faster than ever changing future (European Forum on Forward Looking Activities (EFFLA), 2012), often referred to as ‘foresight’.