Radical innovation: crossing knowledge boundaries with ...

period of time, both because it is only by sustained investment in people and facilities
that one can build leadership and only over long periods can one generate a payback
on that research investment. We expect that many of the considerations apply as well
to commerce as they do to government. While we have not collected specific evidence
from this project, much seems transferable to the industrial sphere and it would all be
well-aligned with current commercial aspirations and practice in innovation.
5.1.3 Selling narratives in terms of innovation policy
Sponsorship from public funding agencies relies not simply on decisions of a specific
organisation, but on the public policy environment within which the innovation
horizon of that organisation is defined. Radical innovation therefore requires direct
engagement with policy agendas, even at the level of individual projects.
In a later section of this report, we discuss the implications for research policy, of our
findings regarding the relationship between interdisciplinarity and innovation.
However, a particular understanding of this relationship is already evident in research
policy today, and in the policy environment that had resulted in many of the
enterprises that were described at our workshops. The concerns of branding and
selling an enterprise apply also to those who are establishing strategic priorities for
research funding. These concerns include a demand for innovation as an expected
outcome of public investment in research activity (whether this is investment in
academic research or in commercial research through tax incentives). They also
include dissatisfaction among sponsors and policy makers with the constraints that
‘disciplines’ (or other structurings of knowledge) place on research, where these
constraints are seen as preventing or reducing innovative outcomes.
Historical analysis of policy change can help to understand the way that policy is
driven using various discourses and narratives. In our own project, we have seen some
of the social drivers of interdisciplinarity, for example demand for public engagement,
for accelerated development of new technologies, or for user-centred design.
Interdisciplinarity is primarily an achievement of teams, but post-hoc narratives
around successful projects generally emphasise the role of heroes. These narratives
often result in the establishment of new inter-disciplines, with a charismatic figure
honoured as a founder, but not necessarily further interdisciplinary innovation -
indeed, the need to play a ‘heroic founder’ role is likely to make it hard for that person
to engage in future interdisciplinary innovation. Professional historians constantly
battle the ‘great men’ versions of history, with their message that the real story was
more complex, and that many people contribute to processes of historical change.
Nevertheless, people like stories with a clear hero. This can result in a dynamic that
Geof Rayner 28 found frustrating, where the founder of a significant inter-discipline is
appropriated by some other discipline (perhaps one in which they had initial training
or professional affiliation), thereby denying legitimacy to the new inter-discipline. An
28 Expert witness report
Innovation and Interdisciplinarity 45