Facing Bold Challenges with Bottom-up Innovation

In an inspiring keynote during InnovatieExpo 2021, Mariana Mazzucato, who has layed the foundation of Mission Oriented Innovation Policies worldwide, explains how the government contributes to technical innovations. In the following round table, Mazzucato discusses the Dutch situation with Mona Keijzer and Stientje van Veldhoven, among others. Watch both sessions online.

Mazzucato, professor in the Economics of Innovation & Public Value at University College London and founding director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), is an expert in innovative capacity of government. By designing missions to solve bold challenges, the government can use the full potential of innovative solutions. She often compares this mission oriented approach with the Moonshot Programme of president John F. Kennedy in 1962.

In her keynote, she explains how this works. Watch the session online:

“Begin with the really bold challenges, designing missions that get lots of different sectors involved. Than redesign the procurement and the grants and the loans, to foster that bottom-up innovation, just like they had to get to the moon.”- Mariana Mazzucato

Following the keynote, Mazzucato joins in on the roundtable to discuss what this approach means for the Dutch Mission Driven Top Sector and Innovation Policy. Mona Keijzer (State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy), Stientje van Veldhoven (State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management), Robert-Jan Smits (President of the Executive Board of Eindhoven University of Technology) and Jaap Bond (Chair of Topsector Horticulture and Starting Materials) discuss with Mazzucato what is necessary to reach the impact on the policy goals for 2030.

Watch the discussion online:

“Going Dutch should be conceived as the constant interaction between bottom-up and top-down. That’s what we did in our Top Sector and Innovation Policy. We came up with missions. And now the missions are put in to the world top-down, but the missions are created in a bottom-up dialogue, with universities, companies and everybody involved.” - Mona Keijzer

Do you want more information on the InnovatieExpo 2021 or watch other sessions? Have a look at the website.