Mission-oriented innovation at Vinnova

As former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once put it, addressing contemporary governance generally, "We are taking 21st century challenges, evaluating them with 20th century ideas, and responding with 19th century tools." 

And so addressing Vinnova's core purpose of coordinating Sweden's innovation ecosystem, we must continue to innovate the way we innovate. We need to prototype innovation processes and cultures that enable integrated actions for Albright's complex 21st challenges, drawing form multiple perspectives, working in the gaps between silos, at the edges of disciplines and sectors, and with participative people- and place-centred projects as much as traditional expertise. 

Hence mission-oriented innovation has emerged in recent years as a potentially powerful new approach. In the context of innovation strategies, missions are bold, inspirational, with wide societal relevance. They indicate a clear direction, ideally targeted and measurable, with ambitious innovation actions. They are delivered through multiple top-down and bottom-up solutions, and rely on cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral and multi-level relationships and activities. 

Professor Mariana Mazzucato at UCL IIPP has led much of the thinking around mission-oriented innovation, and for further background, her two reports for the European Commission are a good place to start. These reports have also ensured that mission-oriented innovation is a core part of Horizon Europe, the forthcoming research agenda for the Commission.

At Vinnova, we're working with multiple collaborators, across the Swedish public, private and third sector, to co-design and develop missions, and learning as we go. As Sweden is only one country testing and developing these new methods, alongside the Netherlands, Japan, Finland, UK, and many others, we're in frequent discussion about this approach. With that in mind, we've also created external reference points with entities like UCL's Mission-Oriented Innovation Network, OECD OPSI, STIPP/TIPC, Climate-KIC, UNDP and many others. 

Follow our updates in this blog! And do get in touch if you want to know more.

/Dan Hill