Do facts and scientific evidence matter in policymaking? For those of us with a strong belief in the scientific process, the answer seems like it should self-evidently be ‘yes’. But the situation is not always so clear — there are … Continued
On Thursday (8 October), Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, and Sir David Attenborough launched a £50m “Earthshot Prize”, which, they claim to be “the biggest environmental award ever”, and which, they hope, will become the equivalent of a “Nobel … Continued
Christos has suggested this week’s topic: Do we need an “Industrial policy” in the 21st century and if so, what are the instrument that should be employed? Back in 2004, Dani Rodrik starts his excellent piece on the need for … Continued
Famously, Google’s unofficial motto was ‘Don’t Be Evil’ (sometimes misdescribed as ‘Do no evil’) but any such corporate claim will inevitably lead to tensions since corporations, especially those that span the globe with a professed interest in having an impact … Continued
Today the Labour Party issued its latest policy announcement #BroadbandForAll – i.e., spend £15.9bn to improve superfast broadband (on top of the £5bn already earmarked by government) and nationalise BT Openreach (worth c£15bn). This comes on the heels of previous … Continued
The notion of the triple helix of Etzkowitz et al echoes some of our earlier discussions and interposes universities between business and government nominally replacing the military in what Eisenhower warned of as the ‘military-industrial complex‘ into a seemingly more … Continued
What is the future for the leading US tech giants? Google/Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook are, on the one hand, technology giants able to exert some degree of market power in their main segments and defend against new entrants … Continued
One of the big questions for those interested in policy is how and why significant change happens. We discussed Kingdon’s view of policy windows and policy entrepreneurs and how such critical advocates can help opening windows and taking advantage of … Continued
Growth, equity and/or sustainability: do we need to choose? In TP1, we were discussing some of the challenges of measuring innovation and competitiveness and how the goal of dedicating 3% of GDP to R&D has come to be seen as … Continued
Should innovation policy consider wider social benefits and if so, how should we define what constitutes the public good? The immediate motivation lies in today’s Financial Times headline: Qantas hopes its ultra-long-haul flights will go the distance: routes from Sydney … Continued