Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI

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  • Publication
    Bringing research into policy: understanding context-specific requirements for productive knowledge brokering in legislatures
    ( 2024)
    Karaulova, Maria
    ;
    Edler, Jakob orcid-logo
    Background: Knowledge brokering is suggested as an instrument to improve productive use of research in policy organisations. Previous research asserted that research utilisation is dependent on dynamics of knowledge exchange in institutional settings, but these claims have not received substantial empirical attention (Saarela et al, 2015; Akerlof et al, 2019; MacKillop et al, 2020). Viewing knowledge brokering as the involved role, three specific challenges are identified: high legitimacy requirements for the brokered knowledge and the broker; the need to cater for a wide range of topics, audiences and uses; and the need to compete with other evidence suppliers. Aims and objectives: The research question of the article is: how do legislative knowledge brokers navigate context-specific knowledge transfer challenges presented by their institutional context? Methods: An in-depth interpretive case study of the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. The analysis includes interviews with parliamentary actors, shadowing and participant observation. Findings: The results substantiate the challenges of legislative knowledge brokering in the UK context and inductively identify a further challenge of demonstrating impact. Legislative knowledge brokers employ multiple strategies to navigate the challenges: co-shape and adhere to the norms of impartiality, mobilise external expertise, collaborate with in-house and external research support actors, employ anticipation techniques, build broker chains, seek understanding of own role and impact. Discussion and conclusion: The article contributes to the understanding of knowledge brokering as a context-dependent role. The conclusions discuss influence of knowledge brokers’ work remit and positionality in deploying strategies to overcome the legislative challenges.
  • Publication
    Intangibles. A Challenge to Policy Decision Makers
    ( 2024)
    Gadepalli, Sarada Devi
    ;
    Edler, Jakob orcid-logo
    ;
    Lampel, Joseph
    In this study, we seek to highlight the necessity of policies for intangibles. While the extant literature on policies, especially science and technology-related policies, has drawn attention to policies for R&DI, other forms of intangibles specific to the organisation have received scant attention. We describe in detail the characteristics of intangibles and draw attention to the challenges these present for policymakers.
  • Publication
    Social innovation, transformation, and public policy: towards a conceptualization and critical appraisal
    ( 2024)
    Edler, Jakob orcid-logo
    ;
    Ostertag, Katrin orcid-logo
    ;
    Schuler, Johanna orcid-logo
    This article conceptualizes the role of social innovation (SI) in transformational innovation policy, identifies policy options, and points out potential risks of mobilizing SI for transformations. We illustrate our conceptual claims based on selected policy examples and propose a set of distinctions about the basic role of policy for SI in the context of transformation. We distinguish the importance of SI for the two policy approaches: transformative innovation policy and mission-oriented innovation policy. It follows that politics must differentiate between the various types of SI and their different significance for missions and transformations. To decide whether and how policy intervenes, ex ante and ex post analyses of the transformational effects of SI and the policies that act on them must be developed and applied. It is crucial to accompany and promote the diversity of SIs politically in such a way that they can constructively unfold their transformation potential.
  • Publication
    Technology sovereignty of the EU: Needs, concepts, pitfalls and ways forward
    ( 2024)
    Edler, Jakob orcid-logo
    Technology sovereignty has become a major concern in science, technology and innovation policy debates in the last years. An intensive discussion has unfolded as to how countries and the EU should safeguard their abilities to produce and use the technologies needed, based on their own values and independent from unwanted foreign interference. The EU is lagging in a number of technologies, and is reliant on foreign input of knowledge, technological components and raw material. At the same time, it has been a long-held principle to work towards ever more openness, in particular for science, technology and innovation. Against this background, the chapter aims to shed some light on the specific challenges and opportunities related to technology sovereignty faced at EU level, delving into the conceptual underpinning of the concept and its link with open strategic autonomy and economic security, and current approaches adopted to determine the EU’s sovereignty position. The chapter concludes with a number of considerations towards an effective and efficient technology sovereignty strategy at EU level.
  • Publication
    Demand, public procurement and transformation
    (Fraunhofer ISI, 2023)
    Edler, Jakob orcid-logo
    In this article we want to explore the role of the state to influence and support the demand for innovation in the context of transformation with a triple focus. First, we discuss the importance of demand for innovation and transformation. Second, we elaborate the conceptual underpinning of state intervention on the demand side. This In doing so, we link the demand side interventions with both the transformation debate and the innovation based competitiveness of systems debate. We then zoom into the main focus of this discussion paper, public demand and public procurement practice for innovation and transformation as this is - or can be - a powerful lever to spur both transformation and innovation which is largely underexplored and underused. Here we differentiate different forms of public procurement as well as different functions it can play in different transformation contexts. Rather than elaborating individual instruments and measures to support procurement, which is done in many ways elsewhere, we conclude with a number of high level recommendation for policy and analysis in order to further a debate the value of which has been recognised, but yet which has not materialised in any serious policy strategies for procurement.
  • Publication
    Bringing research into policy. Understanding context-specific requirements for productive knowledge brokering in legislatures
    (Fraunhofer ISI, 2023)
    Karaulova, Maria
    ;
    Edler, Jakob orcid-logo
    This paper examines the influence of the institutional setting on knowledge brokering work in legislatures. We argue that legislative brokers face three specific challenges: heightened legitimacy requirements for the brokered knowledge, the need to cater for a wide range of topics and different audiences, and the need to compete with other suppliers of research. Based on the in-depth interpretive case study of the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, we develop a functional framework for productive in-house legislative knowledge brokering. We argue that in order to survive and strive in the challenging legisla-tive science advisory ecosystems, knowledge brokers need to develop a broader range of competencies than brokers in government do, in particular, the ability to organise for impact of their work. This paper contributes to the view of knowledge brokering as the involved, strategic, context-dependent activity and offers lessons for practitioners to improve research utilization in legislatures.
  • Publication
    Transforming Germany: How mission agencies can pioneer innovative solutions for grand challenges
    (Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2023)
    Lindner, Ralf orcid-logo
    ;
    Wittmann, Florian orcid-logo
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    Jackwerth-Rice, Thomas orcid-logo
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    Daimer, Stephanie orcid-logo
    ;
    Edler, Jakob orcid-logo
    ;
    Posch, Daniel
    This discussion paper suggests an institutional paradigm shift in the field of transformative, mission-oriented politics that has been little discussed so far: the establishment of a specialised agency as a central "mission owner" that ensures a lead and comprehensive steering of transformative missions that cut across established policy fields. Such a mission agency, located in the responsibility of the Federal Chancellery, would accompany and help to shape the mission throughout the entire mission cycle as an independent actor within the framework of its mandate.
  • Publication
    Technology sovereignty as an emerging frame for innovation policy. Defining rationales, ends and means
    ( 2023)
    Edler, Jakob orcid-logo
    ;
    Blind, Knut orcid-logo
    ;
    Kroll, Henning orcid-logo
    ;
    Schubert, Torben orcid-logo
    In recent years, global technology-based competition has not only intensified, but become increasingly linked to a more comprehensive type of competition between different political and value systems. The globalist assumptions of the post-Cold War era that reliable mutually beneficial agreements could be reached with all nations, regardless of ideology, have been shattered. A previously less visible, mostly political, risk dimension has been brought to the fore by recent geopolitical and geo-economic developments. Against this background, the notion of technology sovereignty has gained prominence in national and international debates, cutting across and adding to established rationales of innovation policy. In this paper, we propose and justify a concise yet nuanced concept of technology sovereignty to contribute to and clarify this debate. In particular, we argue that technology sovereignty should be conceived as state-level agency within the international system, i.e. as sovereignty of governmental action, rather than (territorial) sovereignty over something. Against this background, we define technology sovereignty not as an end in itself, but as a means to achieving the central objectives of innovation policy - sustaining national competitiveness and building capacities for transformative policies. By doing so, we position ourselves between a naive globalist position which largely neglects the risks of collaboration and the promotion of near autarky which disregards the inevitable costs of creating national redundancies and reducing cooperative interdependencies. We finish by providing a set of policy suggestions to support technology sovereignty in line with our conceptual approach.
  • Publication
    Die neue Governance von Innovationssystemen
    ( 2023)
    Botthof, Alfons
    ;
    Edler, Jakob orcid-logo
    ;
    Hahn, Katrin
    ;
    Hirsch-Kreinsen, Hartmut
    ;
    Weber, Matthias
    ;
    Wessels, Jan