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Universities are increasingly recognized for playing a proactive role in supporting culture and creativity-led regional development. Meanwhile, they are also expected to distinguish themselves in their core activities via mission differentiation. Often these two demands are pitched against each other while little attention has been paid to the way universities can manage them. Drawing on a case study involving 29 semi-structured interviews carried out with key actors, this article examines the way a public university located in a peripheral region in the Netherlands navigated such a complex institutional environment. The findings suggest that the university formulated a hybrid response strategy, engaging in both institutional demands simultaneously while prioritizing collaboration with cultural and creative industries and talent attraction over other sub-demands. More importantly, the authors demonstrate that organizational identity, which itself is influenced by peripheral characteristics as well as other institutional factors, plays a significant role in the formulation of a hybrid response strategy. They therefore argue that universities’ contribution to culture and creativity-led regional development is not only dependent on their resource capacity – as is often suggested in the literature – but also on how they envision their organizational identity; that is, the type of institutional profiling they want to pursue.

The growing attention to the political goal of achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century reflects past failures to alter the trajectory of GHG emissions. As a consequence the world now needs to decarbonize all economic sectors at unprecedented pace. This commentary discusses how the net-zero challenge presents transition scholarship with four enhanced research challenges that merit more attention: 1) the speed, 2) breadth, and 3) depth of transitions as well as 4) tensions and interactions between these.

Research and innovation policies (IPs) across Europe, particularly in Sweden, are increasingly framed by an orientation towards societal challenges, missions, and transformative change. Innovation-funding agencies are adapting to these new approaches but struggle with a host of new questions and challenges on how to re-structure public policy interventions and develop new structures for monitoring, learning, and evaluation. In this article, we investigate how this IP paradigm shift is dealt with in the IP discourse and practice in Sweden and how an incomplete shift creates mismatches and tensions with existing structures for programme evaluation and monitoring. Despite the new paradigm, the implementation of evaluation strategies mostly follows a traditional ‘summative’ framing. The ongoing discussions in Swedish IP demonstrate that a paradigm shift towards transformative innovation cannot unfold its potential unless it is also followed by a shift in the practices of programme implementation and evaluation.

Experimentation has become one of the prevailing modes of governing the transition toward sustainable practices in urban environments. The spatial variation of urban sustainability transition has been attributed to a variety of conditions erected at different spatial scales. What remains less well-understood is how spatial situatedness shapes agency in urban experiments and the shapes agency can take is a field that requires further research and frameworks. The paper addresses this gap by introducing a framework from the literature on regional development, identifying three distinct types of agency that shape regional development processes. Combining this framework with a process perspective on urban experiments, we develop an analytical framework, which allows for a more granular understanding of agency in urban sustainability transitions. The analytical framework is then brought to use in a case study of an urban experiment aiming to electrify public transport in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Under pressure from fiscal austerity measures, rapidly rising housing prices and growing wealth disparities, cities are increasingly unable to meet the need for affordable and accessible housing for their citizens. Across many regions, including Australia, the UK, the US and much of mainland Europe, responsibility for the delivery of this housing is being devolved from the government to cross-sectoral partnerships between state, for-profit and not-for-profit actors. At the same time, access to affordable housing in many of these regions has drastically declined. New partnerships, models of delivery and governance structures are emerging in this context, often conceptualized through the lens of organizational hybridity. While literature has substantially unpacked the overarching trend towards organizational hybridity, it hasn’t examined the business models that make this possible. In this paper, we argue that understanding the governance arrangements and partnerships, target populations, prioritization of social and economic values and institutional frameworks within which housing is delivered can elucidate the capacity (or lack thereof) for housing projects and organizations to scale. Understanding these business models reveals the strategies that are currently privileged or constrained in current housing policy, the residents most likely to benefit from existing housing delivery and the pathways that may allow for the scaling of housing solutions.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are heralded as tools to address and tackle a variety of socio-ecological challenges. NBS are increasingly discussed as a response to shocks and stresses such as loss of biodiversity, air pollution, heat waves, flooding, droughts; and issues around residents' health and wellbeing. In recognition of these multiple functions and potential co-benefits, cities are increasingly developing NBS strategies through urban forests, green walls and facades. There has recently been a vibrant debate about extending, linking or merging successful NBS - often framed as 'scaling-up'. Despite the increasing popularity, little is known about the mechanisms and conditions for scaling-up of NBS and how this plays out in practice. How is scaling-up understood and is there an optimal scale for NBS? Previous work has addressed that the misinterpretation of scale can produce suboptimal outcomes for the resilience and sustainability of human-environmental systems. Particularly challenging is the introduction of new and adjusting established institutional arrangements to drive and coordinate socio-ecological change. Using the strategy 'Living Melbourne – Our metropolitan urban forest' as a case study, this paper explores and analyses how NBS and scaling-up are addressed and implemented in a metropolitan-wide greening strategy. The study shows that scaling-up of NBS is complex and needs inter- and transdisciplinary expertise to cope with a range of ecological, institutional and socio-cultural challenges. Intermediaries are needed to provide platforms of ongoing exchange between the heterogenous stakeholders from public and private sectors, academia and society.

Established urban policy and planning approaches are ill-equipped to deal with the wicked nature of urban resilience problems and challenges. To break down bureaucratic silos and foster transformat...

One of the central, flagship actions of the Resilient Melbourne Strategy has been the development of a metropolitan urban forest strategy, called ‘Living Melbourne’. Its explicitly metropolitan sco...

Considering intractable uncertainties and the wicked nature of many sustainability challenges, there is a need to both forecast and assess the potential for improvements in sustainability with new ventures. While it is tempting to think of forecasting in terms of ‘predicting outcomes’, such an interpretation assumes a causal logic, failing to acknowledge the effectuation processes often at work in sustainability-focused innovative and entrepreneurial activity. In this paper, we argue that effectuation theory implies a new way of conceptualizing sustainability impact in such contexts. Leveraging the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) concept, we develop an arena in which both impact forecasting and assessment can be achieved in line with effectuation processes via what we term a Responsible Innovation Lab (RIL), understood as a type of living lab. After examining the concept of RRI, we delve into effectuation theory, deriving relevant insights for sustainability impact in new venture contexts. We then present the RIL as a conceptual synthesis of RRI, living labs, and effectuation theory. Further leveraging effectuation theory, we develop two tools (the Responsible Innovation Tool and Responsible Impact Tool) to both guide multi-stakeholder sustainability-focused innovation activity in a RIL, as well as facilitate the development of context-specific methodologies for forecasting and assessing sustainability impacts.

The aim of this paper has been to explore, in depth, the place-based conditions enabling and constraining the directionality of responsible innovation in the Tasmanian salmon farming industry, and to discuss how this case can inform the broader literature on directionality of innovations. Theoretically, we argue that the combination of literature on responsible research and innovation (RRI), regional innovation system (RIS) and discourse theory is a useful starting point for addressing innovation as a territorial complex consisting of a material dimension in terms oftechnologies and resources, an organizational dimension in terms of innovation systems and regulations, and a discursive dimension in terms of narratives in play. When applying the complex to analyze how place-based conditions have enabled and constrained the directionality of responsible innovation in the Tasmanian salmon industry, the case discerns that the directionality of responsible innovation arises from a rather mature and well-organized regional innovation system, which allows multiple stakeholders to articulate their narratives. Under such circumstances, responsible innovation becomes a multidimensional, interactive, and co-created phenomenon consisting of several dilemmas. Still, although the contextualization of responsible innovation is highlighted, our case study acknowledges that certain &ldquo, universal&rdquo, characteristics shine through. By this we mean that context sensitivity must not supersede the fact that place-based responsible innovation is always subject to some generic dynamism: under all circumstances there will be a territorial innovation complex at play.

In the last decade, there has been a marked growth in formalised city networks. City networks of late have transcended beyond municipal collaborations towards more complex networked governance arrangements. City networks are noted also to raise the level of ambition among cities learning from and competing with each other with regard to the deployment of low-carbon technologies and policies. Over the last two decades, at least nine urban climate networks have been established around the world. This article consolidates the academic literature on C40 within the context of three key themes that are drawn upon from earlier work of Davidson et al. with the goal of drawing out the key implications of researching, and putting into practice, urban studies in an age of increasingly networked urban governance and the role of city networks. We conclude the paper with articulating a new research agenda that places a focus on the effects of city networks on institutional relevance of traditional planning in ways that have not yet been considered in practice and scholarship. We argue a key challenge is to align and potentially synthesise these traditional and new forms of city shaping in an urban age era of rapidly unfolding endangerment.

Due to a spatial turn in the socio-technical transition literature, the geography of energy transitions has recently been taken increasingly seriously, leading to burgeoning research output on regional energy transitions since early 2010. Amidst this wealth of publications, however, it can be difficult to keep track of its diverse and constantly evolving landscape. This editorial therefore aims at developing a framework that allows for bringing multiple approaches to regional energy transitions into conversation with each other and that helps to understand and explain the complexity of these interdependencies in ways that go beyond observing regional variety in energy transitions.

This study assesses the entrepreneurial potential and feasibility of developing a mobile system for purifying and bottling biogas in portable cylinders for wider society consumption and benefit. Our findings reveal that existing research has neglected the entrepreneurial potential in biogas energy that could increase energy supply and access in developing countries. Therefore, using a multimethod approach, the paper provides a comprehensive analysis of how an entrepreneurial business model could be developed and integrated into the biogas socio-technical system in Uganda. The analysis from the transitional model canvas shows that current biogas users have a relatively high satisfaction rate (50%) and with the adoption of the entrepreneurial business model this satisfaction could be captured on a wider social spectrum. Results from the feasibility study indicate that by sourcing materials locally, system builders (entrepreneurs) achieve a marginal cost reduction of 64% compared to when they are imported. Both findings from the transitional model canvas and the feasibility study indicate a high probability of not only reducing the supply gap but also a reliable energy source for developing countries and a potential for income generation and employment for the wider society.

Networked urban governance is emerging as a major feature of metropolitan strategy and activity. The field of urban studies is yet to deeply engage in the debates on the new forms of cross national networking that are potentially framing and reframing urban governance and strategy. Yet this dimension of urban governance can no longer go unnoticed. In this article we draw together insights from the extant literature into a research agenda on reconfiguring urban governance. We propose a research agenda centred on three themes: the political economy of ‘new-gen’ networks, especially in relation to the role of economic power in determining participation and influence; the knowledge dynamics in city networks in understanding the socio-spatial configurations that are underpinning the decision-making processes and outcomes; and the implications of city networks for traditional institutions that have in the past shaped cities’ strategies, development and government. Our commentary considers and links these emergent themes, noting how these bear serious and urgent consideration for mainstream urban studies.

This special issue deals with various research questions regarding the impact of urban experimentation on transitions towards sustainability in different industries and sectors. Cities have been identified to play a vital role for sustainability transitions. Not only are they places with an increased urgency for change, but they also bring about many current sustainability initiatives and interventions. This special issue focuses on investigating the relationship between urban experimentation and institutional change. The articles shed light on various characteristics of urban environments that influence experimentation and potentially lead to institutional change and thus elaborate on some of the distinct mechanisms through which urban experimentation can lead to broader systemic changes.

Urban Living Labs (ULL) are considered spaces to facilitate experimentation about sustainability solutions. ULL represent sites that allow different urban actors to design, test and learn from socio-technical innovations. However, despite their recent proliferation in the European policy sphere, the underlying processes through which ULL might be able to generate and diffuse new socio-technical configurations beyond their immediate boundaries have been largely disregarded and it remains to be examined how they contribute to urban sustainability transitions. With this study, we contribute to a better understanding of the diffusion mechanisms and strategies through which ULL (seek to) create a wider impact using the conceptual lens of transition studies. The mechanisms of diffusion are investigated in four distinct ULL in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Malmö, Sweden. The empirical results indicate six specific strategies that aim to support the diffusion of innovations and know-how developed within ULL to a broader context: transformative place-making, activating network partners, replication of lab structure, education and training, stimulating entrepreneurial growth and narratives of impact.

The need to view innovation policy through the lens of policy mixes has gained momentum given the growing complexity, the dynamics of real-world policy and the wide array of difficulties to address the current great societal challenges, notably the increasing pressure on the ecosystems that support our society. One of the main challenges concerning the transition towards bioeconomy, is to gain a more in-depth understanding on the policy mix to stimulate innovation in sustainability transitions. Our paper aims at enriching the portfolio of empirical case studies on policy mixes for innovation and sustainable transitions, by investigating the development of the policy mix underpinning the sustainability transition of the pulp and paper industry in Sweden. We apply a case study approach which draws on event history analysis, semi-structured interviews with industry and policy makers, literature reviews, a participative workshop with stakeholders from the pulp and paper industry, as well as on the IEA databases on climate change and energy efficiency policies and measures. Our analysis emphasises coordination, timing and scale in policy mixes as important elements to understand how instruments interact to accelerate sustainability transitions. The mapping of the policy mix shows that destabilising policies were crucial for accelerating the transition process of the industry. Prior to novelty creation policies, destabilising policies (e.g. environmental policies) were needed for 'innovation policy instruments' to be effective. More specific instruments (e.g. carbon tax), targeting particular functions of the innovation systems, require 'on-the-ground' policy intelligence and benefit from close interaction with industry.

The responses by Acuto, Frantzeskaki, Gordon & Johnson, Pinault and Smeds all draw attention to the need to situate C40 in a wider political and economic context. Global city networks such as C40 facilitate, orchestrate, test and diffuse critical innovations for urban climate action through processes of experimentation. How these processes of on-the-ground experimentation in networked cities relate to global climate action and governance remains however poorly understood. Further research is needed to disclose and unpack the hidden politics, knowledge dynamics and institutional reconfigurations of such experiments curtailed by seemingly inclusive but rather opaque concepts such as living labs, co-creation and co-production.

Theory development on the geographies of innovation has been very successful in incorporating the changing patterns of knowledge dynamics due to globalization, lifting the gaze beyond processes of localized learning and increasingly acknowledging the multilevel, multiscalar governance of innovation. Arguably less attention has been directed to the changing qualities and impacts of innovation as a result of globalization, notably in view of social polarization and climate change. The aim of the article is to provide suggestions for how research on the geography of innovation can be improved by engaging with a more capacious understanding of innovation and territorial development. The authors explore how socio-ecological innovation can be introduced in contemporary discussions and practices of place-based smart specialization policy. They conclude by suggesting that future research should address and interrogate (1) the rise of the foundational economy as an expression of place-based innovation, which entails new forms of co-governance, and (2) the challenge of experimentalism in the public sector, a sector that looms large in lagging regions and the places that were deemed not to matter until they took their revenge on the mainstream political system.

More and more cities are developing strategies and implementing actions to increase their resilience to a diversity of environmental, social and economic challenges. International networks such as 100 Resilient Cities, established by the Rockefeller Foundation, are supporting cities to find and implement solutions to ‘shocks and stresses.’ This new approach to urban governance, often initiated by philanthropic organizations, is debated. On the one hand, these initiatives are celebrated as catalysts for transformational change through ‘collaboration’ and ‘co-design’ in contexts such as mobility, energy, green space or housing. On the other hand, urban resilience initiatives have been criticized for prioritizing private sector agendas and top-down approaches and hollowing out public sector tasks and democratic participation. However, little is known how urban resilience strategies are actually implemented in practice. Embedded action research on the implementation of the Resilient Melbourne strategy provides the opportunity to have a closer look at this highly contested topic. This paper provides first insights into the research project Urban Resilience in Action, using the Resilient Melbourne strategy to assess the implementation of selected actions. It shows that a reconceptualization and new analytical dimensions are needed to understand urban resilience as an urban innovation strategy.

The orientation towards grand societal challenges can be seen as a new wave or paradigm for innovation policy. Such policy aims at system-wide transformation and is often referred to as system innovation policy. While insights from transition studies have provided novel and useful rationales for innovation policy targeting system-wide transformation, it remains unclear how to design, implement and evaluate such policies. The contribution of this paper is to translate and concretize the challenges of system innovation policy towards scope for policy action and analysis. Building on insights from transition studies we group the challenges into four domains: directionality, experimentation, demand articulation, and policy coordination and learning. We relate challenges within the four domains to three generic features of innovation systems: interests and capabilities of actors, networks, and institutions. The derived framework is applied in a case study on the strategic innovation programmes, a recent policy initiative by Vinnova, Sweden’s Innovation Agency, targeting system innovation.

This review covers the recent literature on the geography of sustainability transitions and takes stock with achieved theoretical and empirical insights. The review synthesises and reflects upon insights of relevance for sustainability transitions following from analyses of the importance of place specificity and the geography of inter-organisational relations. It is found that these contributions focus on the geography of niche development rather than regime dynamics, and that there is an emphasis on understanding the importance of place-specificity at the local level. While there is a wide consensus that place-specificity matters there is still little generalisable knowledge about how place-specificity matters for transitions. Most contributions add spatial sensitivity to frameworks from the transitions literature, but few studies suggest alternative frameworks to study sustainability transitions. To address this, the review suggests promising avenues for future research on the geography of sustainability transitions, drawing on recent theoretical advancements in economic geography.

Regenerative development is a whole systems approach that partners people and their places, working to make both people and nature stronger, more vibrant and more resilient. It aims to increase the vitality, viability and adaptability of a place through understanding its story, its flows and how developing positive relationships enhance the potential of all stakeholders. Key to working regeneratively in an eco-city is understanding the essence of place and what needs to be strengthened to enable adaptation through future change. Smart specialisation is a process through which understandings of the socio-technical potential of the system can seed entrepreneurial opportunities and new positive relationships. When this is broadened to the social-ecological perspective underpinned by regenerative development, it can guide our transition to a thriving eco-city.

This chapter aims to better understand the implications of transformative change for regional innovation systems (RIS) research and policy by looking more closely into processes of structural change within coal regions against a context of transitions to a low-carbon future. Case studies of Germany’s Ruhr and Australia’s Latrobe Valley are used to demonstrate the challenges in implementing regional innovation policies under conditions of fundamental uncertainty. In the absence of regional innovation system structures and institutions, there is first and foremost a need for organisational and institutional innovation to arrive at working configurations of actors, networks and institutions that could act as proto- or ‘pop-up’ innovation systems. This chapter aims to shed some light on how to approach such processes. It argues that policymakers and researchers should explicitly acknowledge the experimental nature of RIS policy and conceptualize RIS policy development and implementation as a series of governance experiments.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in innovation studies towards grand challenges, and in how demand-side policy instruments can supplement traditional supply-side policy measures. To contribute to an improved understanding of how demand-side policy requires new governance responses, this article presents a case study of trialling assisted living technologies to address the grand challenge of demographic ageing. The article departs from an innovation policy framework that incorporates theorising on transformational system failures, governance modes, and policy mixes. This framework serves as an entry point to explore how different modes of governance condition the ways in which demand for assisted living in healthcare is orchestrated across multiple stakeholders. The case study is embedded in a wider system shift from a reactive to a proactive system of healthcare provision, enabling the elderly to live independently at home longer and thus avoiding or postponing institutionalised care. (Less)

The ‘Technological Innovation System’ (TIS) framework and its system functions have become a popular analytical tool for the study of clean-tech innovation. There is increasing attention for the role of emerging economies in global clean-tech innovation, but the applicability of TIS to emerging economies cases is not entirely straightforward. A key issue is the limited geographical considerations, in particular transnational dimensions in TIS, whereas earlier perspectives on innovation in emerging economies have stressed the role of such transnational dimensions. This paper elaborates transnational TIS actor-networks and institutions, categorizes these in relation to TIS functions, and describes their potential to induce or block TIS development in emerging economies. We draw on insights from the perspectives of National Learning Systems, International Technology Transfer, and Global Production Networks for this purpose. We conclude that the potential effects of these transnational dimensions may be accurately grasped by the existing list of system functions, lending credence to its further application of the TIS framework on emerging economy case studies. Policy makers in emerging economies should recognize these transnational dimensions and seek to optimize their potential effect on domestic TIS development, taking in to consideration a realistic assessment of its role in the global TIS.

In this concluding chapter, we draw insights from earlier chapters on (i) urban transitions as a key phenomenon and (ii) transition theory, especially the role of place and space therein.

This chapter provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on characteristics that make urban sustainability transitions distinct from domain-based transitions. It also focuses on experimentation and its role in urban sustainability transitions, and the politics of urban space, conflict and urban sustainability transitions. The book shows that "a combined approach of urban ecology and sustainability transitions can provide insights into the functionalist components of the city while addressing the social and political construction and meaning" of these relations and infrastructures. It offers a perspective on the extent to which different urban contexts open up or not the appropriate context of experimentation, and in those in which it happens, how experiments can lead to demonstrable sustainability improvements. It suggests that examining the politics of urban sustainability transitions will provide a fuller explanation of the ways solutions in cities are debated, adapted and hybridised.

This article provides an overview of the literature on demonstration projects and trials, and accounts for how insights drawn from this literature can contribute to the development of a sustainable bioeconomy. The article reviews the literature on demonstration projects and trials, covering both more broad-based studies on demonstration projects mainly carried out in the US and more specific studies on demonstration projects for energy technologies carried out in Europe, the US, and Japan. The aim of the article is to account for how demonstration projects and trials can contribute to the development of a sustainable bioeconomy.

Coenen L., Moodysson J. and Martin H. Path renewal in old industrial regions: possibilities and limitations for regional innovation policy, Regional Studies. This paper analyses the potential, barriers and limitations for regional innovation policy to facilitate industrial renewal in old industrial regions. It draws on a case analysis of the policy programme ‘Biorefinery of the Future’ geared to promote renewal of the forest industry in Northern Sweden. It is shown that infusion of radical emergent technology is necessary for new regional path development, but not sufficient. To avoid a singular focus on technology-push, policy should pay more attention to complementary experimentation processes in relation to demand-side characteristics, firm strategies and business models as well as regulatory aspects. Moreover, coordination between regional innovation policy and adjacent domains and levels of policy-making is needed as some of the most pressing obstacles for renewal are not specific to the region but i...

According to some scholars in evolutionary economic geography (EEG), the role of (territory-specific) institutions is relatively small for explaining where a new industry emerges and grows as firms develop routines in a path-dependent and idiosyncratic manner. This article evaluates this assertion by studying the evolution of the biogas industry in the region of Scania in Southern Sweden. The biogas is predominantly used as a fuel in the regional transport system and is considered as a crucial means to achieve environmental goals in the region. Recently, regional public policy has been actively promoting this biogas industry, aiming for cluster development. Drawing on literature from EEG and technological innovation systems, this article seeks to unpack the evolutionary process that has led to the emergence of this industry. In particular, it studies to what extent territory-specific institutions have been crucial in that respect. The analysis is case-based, drawing predominantly on in-depth inter...

Highlights: The aim of this commentary is to discuss how to engage analytically with the changing spatial realities of clean-tech sectors and TIS. The commentary argues for a situated rather than a descriptive notion of context in TIS studies. The commentary suggests how concepts and mechanisms from economic geography can be incorporated into TIS research.

This paper unpacks resource mobilisation for biorefineries by studying investment decisions of incumbent pulp and paper firms in Sweden and Finland. The analysis highlights that the limited adoption of biorefinery technologies can be attributed to both insufficient abilities (lack of needed competencies and partnerships) and interests (preference for improving existing technologies) by pulp and paper incumbents. Drawing on the technological innovation system perspective complemented with insights from the management literature on the role of incumbents in technological change, four issues are empirically identified as important for improving resource mobilisation for biorefinery technologies: establishing loosely coupled divisions in pulp and paper firms; creating internal markets for new bioproducts aimed at further technological development; entering purchasing agreements with downstream actors; and investing in new managerial competencies.

The concept of a bioeconomy can be understood as an economy where the basic building blocks for materials, chemicals, and energy are derived from renewable biological resources. Biorefineries are considered an integral part of the development toward a future sustainable bioeconomy. The purpose of this literature review is to synthesize current knowledge about how biorefinery technologies are being developed, deployed, and diffused, and to identify actors, networks, and institutions relevant for these processes. Several key findings can be obtained from the literature. First, investing more resources in R&D will not help to enable biorefineries to cross the ‘valley of death’ toward greater commercial investments. Second, while the importance and need for entrepreneurship and the engagement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is generally acknowledged, there is no agreement how to facilitate conditions for entrepreneurs and SMEs to enter the field of biorefineries. Third, visions for biorefinery technologies and products have focused very much on biofuels and bioenergy with legislation and regulation playing an instrumental role in creating a market for these products. But there is a clear need to incentivize non-energy products to encourage investments in biorefineries. Finally, policy support for biorefinery developments and products is heavily intertwined with wider discussions around legitimacy and social acceptance. The paper concludes by outlining current knowledge gaps.

Grand societal challenges such as climate change, ageing population and food security feature increasingly on the agenda of policymakers at all scales. While traditional mission-oriented research and innovation policies were largely framed in technical terms, challenge-based policies claim to be less instrumental and more open-ended. One cannot simply specify the problem and develop a diagnosis but one needs to learn about the nature of the grand challenge in order to address it. This implies greater deliberation and contestation, both with respect to policy aims and means, and involves new actor constellations that include a larger variety of actors, and consider new roles for traditional actors (Kuhlmann and Rip 2014). Even if policies start to be aimed at addressing these challenges, this new framing of research and innovation policies is still under-developed and it remains unclear how to implement such policies (Coenen et al. 2015; Schot and Steinmuller 2016).