Transformative Innovation Policy in Practice
A hands-on, practitioner-focused course in transformative innovation policy for those working on strategic transition within government agencies and regions.
About the course
Moving society toward greater ecological and social sustainability requires radical change in the fundamental social and technical systems operating at regional, national and global levels. This kind of development involves both small, incremental shifts and more sweeping, large-scale transformations. These sustainability transitions open the door to industrial renewal and lasting economic success for those who contribute to global solutions, while at the same time risking leaving behind companies, regions and countries that fail to keep pace.
The shift toward sustainability is therefore changing the very conditions under which innovation policy operates. Simply stimulating innovation is no longer enough; a new direction must be charted, paired with a solid understanding of the systems involved. This new “transformative” innovation policy calls for additional tools and a renewed practice within regions, national authorities and government departments. Making sense of, managing and fully harnessing this shift demands new knowledge and a shared vocabulary around innovation and sustainable transition, forums for discussion, collaboration and coordination between authorities, departments and regional transition actors, and a sharper understanding of how different types of interventions complement, overlap with, or work against one another.
The Chalmers Initiative for Innovation and Sustainability Transitions (CIIST) offers a practitioner-oriented, network-building course where those responsible for strategic programme development and evaluation at departments, agencies and regions can deepen their knowledge of transformative innovation policy in practice. The course has been developed in dialogue with the Region of Västra Götaland, the Swedish Energy Agency, Vinnova, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, and the Swedish Transport Administration, and draws on experience from previous course rounds. In 2025, the course runs for the fourth year in a row.
Timing, location and format
The course runs continuously throughout spring 2025. In addition to the scheduled sessions, you should set aside roughly 30 hours for reading materials ahead of sessions and following up afterwards.
On top of this comes the time you spend on your own project, as well as adapting what you learn on the course to your own practice.
Introduction and navigating transition processes
Purpose
An introduction to the course and to your fellow participants, followed by a review of theories, frameworks and methods for navigating transition, set in dialogue with practical experience and perspectives.
Core content
In this session, we’ll cover the fundamentals of, and differences between, various approaches to navigating sustainable transition, drawing on the latest research. We’ll then focus on how backcasting expeditions can be used as an overarching tool for tackling complex sustainability challenges and transformation. Leadership and learning are central themes that will also be explored further during this session.
Analysing transition and innovation dynamics
Purpose
To get acquainted with a number of concepts and conceptual models that underpin the scientific analysis of transition processes, and to understand how these differ from other models commonly used to analyse, justify or argue against policy interventions.
Core content
This session covers how systems thinking relates to other scientific approaches; how basic system dynamics can be used to understand different perspectives on which policy instruments might be considered effective and desirable; what a socio-technical system is and how the concept can be used to describe, explain and evaluate societal change; how transition thinking has emerged as a political paradigm and an alternative to the growth paradigm; two well-known models that describe and explain transition; how a portfolio of policy instruments can be used to influence the direction of development; and the importance of reflecting on your own dual role as both observer and actor.
Evaluating interventions with transformative ambitions
Purpose
To clarify different perspectives on evaluation, focusing on what distinguishes the evaluation of “transformative” interventions from that of more traditional innovation policy measures, and to identify the key challenges involved in such evaluations and discuss what research has found so far about how to address them.
Core content
This session covers the various purposes of evaluation as well as different approaches to evaluating innovation policy interventions. We’ll also present the different perspectives on evaluating transformative interventions found in the academic literature. Most of the session will focus on discussing the various challenges involved in evaluating transformative interventions, and the approaches research has proposed so far for addressing them, including how to study (and measure) the outcomes of interventions and assess their significance for the transition processes they aim to support.
Course wrap-up
Purpose
Participants present their respective cases and describe how they’ve been able to develop them over the course, along with the current status and next steps for putting a more transition-oriented innovation policy into practice.
Learning objectives
The course aims to strengthen participants’ ability to: understand what a transformative perspective on innovation policy means and how it differs from other established perspectives; analyse their own role and innovation policy tools in relation to those of other actors at regional, national and global level; further develop various innovation policy tools and adapt them to transformative goals; and initiate, implement and evaluate programmes, strategic plans and tools that support a transformative agenda.
Structure
The course is built around (a) established theories and methods for sustainable transition, (b) participants’ own experience and practice, (c) participants’ reflections on their own roles and organisations, and (d) a personal project assignment (a case study of a specific transition) that participants are responsible for throughout the course.
Course language
Swedish, with occasional contributions in English from invited experts and in course texts.
Project assignment
From a transformative perspective, design, propose or evaluate a programme, strategic plan, tool or process connected to your own organisation (past, ongoing or future). The assignment is based on your own work, developed throughout the course in consultation with course leaders and fellow participants, and presented at the course wrap-up.
Contact and registration
Johan Holmén
Visiting Researcher, Physical Resource Theory, Energy and Environment
johan.holmen@chalmers.se
031-772 68 13
Lecturers
Course Participant profile
Those responsible for strategic collaboration, programme and organisational development, and evaluation at national authorities, government departments and regions with a clear transition mandate.