Mission driven science

Mission-oriented Innovation

Mission-oriented innovation – an approach to science, technology and innovation epitomised in the 20th century by the space race – has re-emerged as a vehicle for transformational change in addressing the challenges of this century.

Once described as ‘big science solving big problems’, it is now being reimagined as a mobilisation of coordinated and sustained efforts across disciplines and sectors, incorporating a broad range of perspectives and interests, to deliver impact and build innovation system capability for the long term.

Responding to climate change and the risk of biodiversity collapse, ensuring water and food security, maintaining human health and wellbeing, addressing regional instability and tackling the decline in public trust and social cohesion are complex and interdependent challenges. The level of complexity and urgency of these challenges requires new thinking and new forms of collaboration from public institutions, industry, the research sector, civil society and the community.

• Convening missions - A playbook for collective implementation of mission-oriented innovation (plain text TXT (63 KB))