The governance of transformative mission-oriented STI policies

In their final chapter, the authors draw overall conclusions with regard to the governance of ambitious, transformative mission-oriented STI policies. Based on the contributions in this book, they inductively derive 10 key governance challenges and position them within a framework of four main governance functions to be fulfilled, namely orienting, programming, performing, and effecting STI policies. This framework allows for the assessment of these challenges in terms of their relevance for performing the four governance functions. The authors also argue that a more differentiated approach to mission governance is needed to do justice to the diversity of contextual conditions for and specificities of transformative missions. Such a differentiated approach needs to iteratively combine bottom-up learning processes and top-down directive governmental power with further elements of mission-oriented policy along the process from mission definition to mission implementation. A set of governance principles and analytical questions are proposed to support the development of such a differentiated approach to mission governance. The chapter finishes with a short suggestion for a future research agenda.