VTT's Matti Pihlajamaa's presentation dove into the depths of transformative innovation policy and the potential of innovative public procurement. Find out more at the ORSI project website: https://www.ecowelfare.fi/en/
Unlocking the Future - Dr Max Blumberg, Founder of Blumberg Partnership
Innovative Public Procurement and Grand Challenges
1. D.Sc. (Tech) Matti Pihlajamaa, Senior Scientist
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Innovative Public Procurement and Grand Challenges
What Is an Eco-Welfare State seminar 21.1.2020
2. The evolution of science, technology and innovation policy
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Figure: Diercks et al., 2019
The three framings: Schot & Steinmüller, 2018
3. The evolution of science, technology and innovation policy
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Figure: Diercks et al., 2019
The three framings: Schot & Steinmüller, 2018
”Innovation for growth”
- WW2→
- Boosting basic research
and private R&D for
economic growth
4. The evolution of science, technology and innovation policy
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Figure: Diercks et al., 2019
The three framings: Schot & Steinmüller, 2018
”National Systems of
Innovation”
• 1980s→
• Creating institutions,
policies and networks that
ensure national
competitiveness.
”Innovation for growth”
- WW2→
- Boosting basic research
and private R&D for
economic growth
5. The evolution of science, technology and innovation policy
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”National Systems of
Innovation”
• 1980s→
• Creating institutions,
policies and networks that
ensure national
competitiveness.
”Innovation for growth”
- WW2→
- Boosting basic research
and private R&D for
economic growth
”Transformative
innovation policy”
• 2010s→
• Promoting innovation
for solving grand
challenges
Figure: Diercks et al., 2019
The three framings: Schot & Steinmüller, 2018
6. Why do we need transformative innovation policy?
Problems with promoting innovation for
innovation’s sake:
– Economic competitiveness is
not sufficent to solve many
environmental and social
problems
– Innovations produce negative
effects: emissions, inequality,
oppression, excessive use of
natural resources…
– We are unable to address
these negative externalities by
regulation
– Significant share of global
human capital goes to
generating unnecessary or
harmful innovations
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7. Creating demand for an eco-welfare state
• Need for a ’normative turn’ in
innovation policy
• Until recently, the policy
measures to tackle ’grand
challenges’ have mostly
focused on investing in
research (e.g. Lund
Declaration 2015;
Horizon2020).
• New emphasis on demand-
side measures: public
procurement as an engine for
promoting and guiding
innovation.
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8. The potential of innovative public procurement
In Finland, public authorities
spend ca. 35 billion € annually
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9. Innovative public procurement
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Type Aim In practice
Pre-commercial procurement:
buying solutions that don’t yet exist
Increase R&D towards solving
societal problems
Buying concepts or prototypes for
solving an identified problem
Procurement of new innovative
solutions: government as a lead
user
Boosting further innovation,
generating customer references
Buying novel solutions with few
use cases
‘Catalytic’ procurement of
innovation: catalysing the
development of innovations for
broader public use
Market creation for innovative
solutions
Aggregating the demand of
multiple procurers: KEINO buyer
groups in Finland
Innovation-friendly
procurement: practices for
ensuring that innovative solutions
are not excluded
Wider diffusion of innovations Market dialogue, quality criteria,
functional or outcome-based
specifications
Modified from Uyarra et al., 2020
10. Challenges for research and practice
• From grand challenges to concrete actions
• Improving procurement skills and capabilities
• Scaling local successes
• From innovative public procurement to effective policy mixes
• Challenges from directionality:
– Co-creating desirable futures
– Vulnerable to lobbying and political opportunism
– Avoiding ‘picking the winners’
– Taking care of those who the innovations affect in negative ways
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11. Thank you
Matti Pihlajamaa
D.Sc. (Tech), Senior Scientist
Ethics and responsibility of innovations
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Vuorimiehentie 3, Espoo, P.O. Box 1000, 02044 VTT, Finland
Phone: +358 40 673 1050
Email: matti.pihlajamaa@vtt.fi
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