Towards Transformative Innovation Policy for Norway

Blog and video reflecting on how Norway is navigating a transition away from oil dependency through transformative policy approaches to innovation, combining traditional growth and coordination approaches with a stronger frame-three focus on responsible, inclusive and experimental change.

As Elisabeth Gulbrandsen, Research Council of Norway (RCN)’s Special Adviser and board member at TIPC, aptly puts it, ‘we are between the no longer and the not yet’. As many governments and communities across the world contemplate their own grand challenges and question the impact of their current economic, societal and environmental situations, so too is Norway.

Norway’s increasingly urgent challenge is to steer its economy towards other profitable industries to divert reliance from a hegemonic oil sector. The decline in oil prices, and also productivity, of the past ten years gives Norway the opportunity and impetus to develop new directions. As a central strategic actor in the country’s innovation system, the RCN are pivotal in guiding this. In recent times, they have moved toward Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) policy design within projects showing characteristics of the ‘frame three’ thinking of Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP). An illustration of this played out during the 2014 bidding process for the National Centre for Digital Life. Here the need for collaboration between participating actors became pertinent and of greater value than just competition. The necessity for a long-term, sustained vision was also nurtured. Developing an approach to RRI has been crucial. The Norwegian ‘Framework of Responsible Innovation’ (2015) has done this with its four guiding principles:

• Be ‘anticipatory’ to capture positive capacities and foresee societal implications before they occur,
• Engage in ‘reflexivity’ to examine the hidden assumptions and areas of ignorance with a broad range of stakeholders, including scientists themselves, to identify possible crossover learnings and to give activities directionality,
• Seek ‘inclusivity’ to open up to more actors, bringing in alternative stakeholders to expand contribution to the science and technology sector and its results,
• Be ‘responsive’ by using the acquired knowledge to provide, where required, alternative governance. Accept the learning and implement in the process.

It was from four of their programmes that the ‘Framework of Responsible Innovation’ emerged – the Research Programme on Biotechnology for Innovation (BIOTEK2021); the Research Programme on Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (NANO2021); the Initiative for ICT and digital innovation (IKTPLUSS); and the Programme on Responsible Innovation and Corporate Social Responsibility (SAMANSVAR). Other such potential transformative initiatives a country may implement along with RRI might include, for example, Strategic Niche Management, Transition Management or Inclusive Innovation.

‘A rich tapestry of the three frames of innovation policy are present in Norway, observed Johan Schot, TIPC academic director. The closing questions to take into the next phase of TIPC would be – how might transformative approaches support work on Norway’s own ‘grand challenges’ (faltering oil prices, higher public spending, decline in productivity)? By applying TIP (along with a policy mixes featuring the two other frames) how can new economic, societal and environmental results be achieved? How can these then be evaluated and measured? How can the results be implemented and scaled-up? As TIPC evolves to the next stage, we can expect these answers, and inevitably more questions, to become illuminated.

‘These challenges need more figurations than solutions,’ reflected Elisabeth Gulbrandsen, Special Adviser, Research Council of Norway. ‘Figurations are trans-discursive and invite across boundaries… They indicate directions but they are not solutions. We are far away from the solutions and I think this realisation is valuable.  We are ‘between the no longer and the not yet’ and that’s where we have to stay! …. We expect of ourselves to come up with solutions. It is difficult to tolerate not giving the answers, not being the ‘expert’ all the time and instead taking some time for learning, reflecting and experimenting.’

Johan Schot and Laur Kanger reflect on Transformative Innovation Policy in Norway