About the project
In recent years, research and innovation policy has been tasked with playing a more central role in tackling societal challenges. New forms of challenge-based innovation policies like ‘missions’ have been widely implemented in response but have struggled to live up to expectations. The design process of these policies lays the foundation for their later success, but key aspects take place behind closed doors, and consequently, they have received little attention in the literature. This PhD project responds to this gap with ethnographic observations of the design process of the Norwegian mission on sustainable animal feed. It looks at what happens when a societal problem ‘out there’ in the public discourse, is brought down and addressed at the interpersonal ‘micro’ level of policy development meetings. Specifically, it investigates how micro-level actors deal with complexity, contestation and uncertainty, and what the implications are for the design processes of future research and innovation policies.
Thesis supervisors
- Professor Taran Mari Thune (TIK Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo)
- Assistant Professor Iris Wanzenböck (Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University)
Commentator
- Assistant Professor Matthijs Janssen (Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University)
About the candidate
Benjamin Smith is a PhD candidate at the TIK Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture at the University of Oslo. He has worked at the Research Council of Norway since 2016 and Nordic Energy Research before that. He has a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Management from Lund University.
How to participate
The seminar is open for everyone to join - either at TIK (Meeting room 1040) or via ZOOM. Welcome!
Meeting ID: 658 0683 0290
The manuscript is available upon request. Please send the request to Benjamin Smith b.d.smith@tik.uio.no.