Green Book. National Science and Innovation Policy for sustainable development (English version)

The Green Book 2030, which Colciencias (today Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia) presented to the country in 2018, constituted a first step in the renovation of national science and innovation policy – a step which grounded, in strategic terms, on defining conceptual foundations, principles and pathways for public action, as well as interactions among different actors in the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation (SNCTI).

This policy was being developed around what the authors termed a “transformative focus”, the central aim of which is to contribute to the solution of the major social, economic and environmental challenges Colombia was facing, as they are set forth in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2010 Agenda adopted by this county as a roadmap for sustainable development in the middle and long term. To this end, the focus of this document sought to facilitate the transformation of current socio-technical systems to make them more sustainable.

To implement the Green Book 2030, policies needed to advance along three fronts: i) promoting the adoption of a transformative focus within the SNCTI and other related systems, ii) guiding national science and innovation, and iii) supporting the adoption of a transformative focus to achieve the SDGs at the territorial level. The book sought to promote, in a cross-sectional manner, the incorporation of five fundamental principles or ideas to inspire action: directionality, participation, learning and experimentation, interdisciplinarity, and anticipation of outcomes and effects.

The Green Book 2030 was the result of a process initiated nearly two years ago, when Colciencias created together with the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) and science and innovation agencies in Sweden, Norway, Finland and South Africa, the International Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium, in which Colciencias analysed new possibilities to guide public science and innovation policy in a way that would better respond to major global and national challenges. This effort, involving the participation of nearly 1,500 persons, became the starting point for initiating, at the national and regional level, a series of conversations and reflections (interviews, panel discussions and workshops) on how to orient our science and innovation policy toward a transformative focus.