Next generation innovation policy

This chapter outlines what one could call a new generation of innovation policy. In a nutshell, innovation policy has traditionally focused on supporting activities intended to make economies more competitive and boost welfare. The new generation of innovation policy, however, is intended to support the transformation of systems in order to cope with clearly defined societal challenges. This is an ambitious development, as it necessitates a different understanding of the state's role in innovation policy vis-à-vis society and the economy, a modernized portfolio of interventions, and new governance approaches, structures and capabilities. This chapter outlines this new aspiration of innovation policy and the governance changes it requires.