Institutionalising experimentation in innovation policy: challenges and solutions in upscaling

The paper addresses one of the major weaknesses of transformative innovation policy: the lack of solutions for institutionalising experimentation beyond pilots. To address this issue, we explore a) pilots and policy labs as two potential approaches to experimentation, b) the issue of institutionalising experimentation in the regional context through individual agencies or bottom-up, self-organised stakeholder involvement, and c) methodological issues in implementing partnerships for regional innovation (PRI). In our argumentation, we draw on the experiences from the EU regional innovation policy, particularly from the Slovenian research and innovation partnerships (SRIP) and regions in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. Although they are cases from institutionally different contexts, they are all explicitly or implicitly grounded in the ‘learning networks’ approach. Our analysis suggests that: a) pilots and policy labs as the mainstream institutional solutions to experimentation, at least in the context of the EU regional innovation policy, face serious challenges, b) transformative regional policies require complementary national or regional government-facilitated approaches complemented by bottom-up driven partnerships for regional innovation, and c) organisationally these partnerships can build on the accumulated experience of network-based programs. We provide tentative advice on how policies should be designed to increase the chance of upscaling.