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Innovation policy for societal challenges
Reported by Karan Bali, CSaP Policy Intern (Jan - April 2023)
Dr Eoin O'Sullivan, Director, Centre for Science, Technology & Innovation Policy (CSTI), University of Cambridge; chaired a discussion with Dr Molly Morgan Jones, Director of Policy, the British Academy (BA); and Dan Shah, Director of Investment Strategy and System Insight, UKRI; at CSaP’s Annual Conference on 6 June at the Royal Society. The discussion focussed on how societal challenges feature in the UKRI and BA Strategies as well as the importance of working with other countries to tackle global challenges.
Dr O’Sullivan kicked off the session by giving an overview of what constitutes a societal challenge. He argued that the general principles here lie in accepting that a grand challenge cannot be solved by conducting business as usual, and there must be an emphasis on inspiring and motivating, as well as translation and absorptive capacity. After discussing examples of grand challenges, Dr O’Sullivan emphasised that when confronting a grand challenge, science and technology are not enough and a key factor is the scaling up of supply chains.
Moving the discussion forward, Dan Shah presented UKRI’s framework for innovation policy. Stressing that there are six strategic frameworks, such as building a greener future and ensuring healthy ageing and wellbeing, Mr Shah emphasised that the UKRI has three innovation accelerator locations around the country, with the organisation focussing on how it can optimise investment to create maximum impact. He continued his speech by informing the audience that the UKRI is not the only investor in these innovation systems and argued that the UK has a comparative advantage since it contains the smallest R&D sector with excellence across different disciplines. Stating that many of these grand societal challenges are inherently global and will involve partnerships with non-natural allies, Mr Shah once again highlighted the importance and benefit of the UK's aforementioned advantage.
On the other hand, Dr Morgan Jones started her speech by talking about the BA's innovation strategy, with a focus on the Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy (SHAPE) disciplines. Informing the audience that the BA has three priorities and five strategic objectives which can be found in their recently published strategic plan; Dr Morgan Jones said that the BA not only collaborates with other funders such as the UKRI, but it also contributes on the policy side as well. She then argued that this ensures that there is alignment between funding organisations when addressing societal challenges. Dr Morgan Jones continued her speech by stating that when confronting challenges, it is important to realise that we cannot just focus on science and technology; and argued the societal impacts of COVID as an example. She finalised her speech by suggesting that this interdisciplinary collaboration must also extend to the government and that the best way to address challenges is by focusing on long term commitments and also by ensuring cross-department and cross-party support.
The session concluded with a question-and-answer session with audience participation, with a particular focus on how grand challenge programmes can inspire the public. The panel members agreed that alongside inspiring people, there should also be a focus on manufacturing capabilities and researching the possible spill over effects of any innovation - adding that some things, such as housebuilding, are really about maintaining societal functions and thus the levers of innovation policy used to address grand societal challenges are not best applied here.
You can listen to the session recording here: