Relevant to: Policy
Sector: Cross-sectoral

Summary

This report considers how governments can better design and run national innovation agencies, and what mix of policies and programmes will be most effective in a given national context. The authors reviewed 10 different innovation agencies, from around the world, based on a cross section of geographies, approaches and levels of national development. The authors gathered data and stories about why each agency was set up and how each has changed over time, their organisational management structures, the methods and instruments that they have used to support innovation, and the impact their interventions have had.

The authors synthesized the approaches of each of the innovation agencies to outline a typology of four roles that innovation agencies might play. They then considered how these insights might be used to inform practical decision making by policy-makers around the world in the context of their own national circumstances and priorities. They finished with a set of conclusions drawn from their research, along with in-depth, qualitative case studies of the 10 agencies used in this research.

The main limitation of this study, that it examines only 10 agencies, is acknowledged by the authors. Indeed they see this report as a starting point for a longer and broader policy research agenda. Policy-makers involved in or considering the design or management of their own national innovation agencies should find this report particularly useful.

The report can be accessed at: http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/how-innovation-agencies-work