White Spaces Innovation in Sweden - Innovation policy for ... - Vinnova

WHITE SPACES INNOVATION IN SWEDENthis. Applying design thinking starts with the explorative question “What might be thesolution?” (to the mystery; Fig. 4.3) This is iteratively given shape and contour viaexperimenting and prototyping by, for example, using Living Labs. In a collaborativesetting this process is a co-creative effort with learning, interpretation and negotiationfrom individual to group and back to individual, leading to provisional shared interpretationof what might be actionable.How to compose a relevant policy mix?The process described above is inclusive in the design phase so that in principle publicagencies should be involved and giver their contributions in the translation/ specificationprocess. In principle this kind of interagency collaboration is asked for and allowedin the Swedish governance system. In practice it does not work so well. There exist bothformal and informal blockages to interaction that might increase the connectivity betweenministries and agencies. One is that policy design of “ill defined” issues havebeen left to special investigators (särskilda utredare) or to parliamentary commissions inpart because the organising idea for ministries and agencies is to reflect independencerather than interdependence. That means that collaborative governance that as a rulemust be founded on the perception of interdependence and “shared fate” is not the firstresponse to complexity. For agencies to participate in collaborative design processeswith other groups of stakeholders might also in some instances be considered to be atodds with impartiality. For these reasons it might be advisable to develop collaborativethinking and training for public actors in Sweden on “issue driven policy design andcollaborative governance”. The work with a national innovation strategy might be agood example to start with. The fact that several regions are doing the same strategizingfor their regions adds further strength to the idea.The next step is managing e the interfaces between ministries and agencies in theimplementation of a designed policy mix. Remember then the message about actorshaving a repertoire of actions of which some were activated by whole-parts “causation”.The collaboration in the US between the Eeconomic Development Agency (EDA) andother national agencies concerning Regional Innovation Clusters seems for an outsiderto follow that logic. The entry point is a call about proof of concept launched by EDAwhere successful applicants can leverage funds received by getting additional fundsfrom about 8-10 other agencies if certain provisions are met. Collaboration here is issuebased.That is also the case with the collaboration between VINNOVA and Tillväxtverketconcerning cluster policy where in addition shared practice developed over a longertime period facilitates the successful collaboration between these agencies. This experiencelends some evidence to the hypothesis that joint implementation will not be successfulunless it is based on joint design.107