The STEPS Centre Symposium, 26 September 2009, focused on our Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto project. This presentation by STEPS co-director Andy Stirling was one of those given at the event. For more information see: www.anewmanifesto.org

1. Andy Stirling, SPRU – Science and Technology Policy Research Annual STEPS Symposium, Brighton 24 th September 2009 Democratising Innovation: towards more accountable institutions

3. progress PAST FUTURE conventional ‘linear’ understandings of technology change still prevail in mainstream technology governance eg: “history is a race to advance technology ” - Royal Academy of Engineering Treats innovation as homogeneous: no distinctions … no alternatives … no politics … no choice ! Similarly unidirectional notions of ‘sustainability’ and ‘development’ The Missing Politics of Direction

4. space of technological possibilities time Policy worldwide sees innovation converging on single direction This is a ‘scalar’ (rather than ‘vector’) view – highlighting questions of scale, rate & leadership, rather than direction Conventional economic and technology strategy reinforce this view… focusing on: rates, optimisation, efficiency, diffusion aspiring to be: first movers, catching up, forging ahead, leapfrogging afraid of: barriers, falling behind, laggards, stranding The Missing Economics of Direction

5. time BUT! – common picture in all understandings of innovation: multiple diverging directions many possible feasible / viable paths, of which only some will be realised The Missing Economics of Direction

6. time a diversity of processes ‘close down’ possible directions of change economics: homeostasis, lock-in, regimes, trajectories history: contingency, momentum, path-dependence philosophy: autonomy social studies: shaping, co-construction, expectations, imaginations political science: entrapment , alignment innovation is ‘vector’ not ‘scalar’ The Missing Economics of Direction

22. ANNEX: summary of recommendations for institutional reforms The institutions responsible for shaping innovation and the distribution of its benefits and risks should be made more accountable to their stated beneficiaries. C-1: Annual reports to document the overall prioritisation of all public sector R&D and innovation activities C-2: Each state should establish a 'Strategic Innovation Forum' including grassroots national civil society organisations C-3: Programme for progressively increasing proportions of public sector research and innovation accountable to users and grassroots civil society C-4: Private sector organisations should report on scale, orientation, and distribution of innovation to national Strategic Innovation Forum C-5: The G8 and G20 should reform laws and procedures for the creation and enforcement of intellectual property C-6 Promote alternative models for incentivising innovation for poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability C-7: Constitute a Global Innovation Commission to monitor and challenge the societal purposes and efficacy of global innovation activities

23. The institutions responsible for shaping innovation and the distribution of its benefits and risks should be made more accountable to their stated beneficiaries. ANNEX: specific recommendations for institutional reforms – national: C-1: Annual reports to the national legislature should document the overall prioritisation of all public sector R&D and innovation activities thus facilitating open transparent political debate about the aggregate resource allocations in relation to societal needs and distributional consequences. C-2: Each state should establish a body to fulfil the function of a 'Strategic Innovation Forum' including representation from a full range of grassroots national civil society organisations to oversee and deliberate on the reporting process, and match relevant R&D and innovation activities to societal needs. C-3: An explicit programme should be established to make progressively increasing proportions of public sector research and innovation activities – both in competitive evaluation and in project governance – accountable to users and grassroots civil society organisations. C-4: It should be a statutory requirement of private sector organisations above a specified audited turnover, that the scale, orientation, and distributional implications of R&D and innovation activities be a matter for transparent regular reporting in the country of legal incorporation, subject to formal regular comment from the national Strategic Innovation Forum.

24. ANNEX: institutional recommendations (continued) – international: C-5: The G8 should work with the G20 to open an honest dialogue with the wider international community, including the’ least developed countries’ to reform the laws and procedures for the creation and enforcement of intellectual property rights at national and international levels. C-6 Civil society and commercial organisations should promote alternative models to incentivising innovation for poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability goals, and continue to experiment with, stretch and extend the flexibilities provided under the WTO TRIPS agreement. C-7: A Global Innovation Commission should be established to promote the emerging 3D agenda for innovation, sustainability and development and provide co-ordination and oversight at an international level. Comprising a broad diversity of actors (especially from the global South), this should be constituted in association with (but independent from) the existing institutional frameworks of the UN and others concerned with international development and world trade regulation, under a governance structure to include representation from civil society organisations participating in national level Strategic Innovation Fora . The remit of the GIC is to monitor and challenge the societal purposes and efficacy of global public and private sector innovation activities, thus facilitating more democratic political debate and so help improve the diversity, direction, and distributional consequences of intergovernmental, national & commercial innovative activity.