Transformative Innovation Policy in Practice

Introduction

Moving society towards greater ecological and social sustainability depends on far-reaching changes in social and technical systems at regional, national and global level. Such development involves small, incremental changes alongside more radical, large-scale ones. These sustainability transitions open the door to industrial renewal and economic success for those who help solve global sustainability challenges, while the same change risks pulling the ground out from under companies, regions and countries that fail to keep pace.

The conditions have also changed fundamentally in just a few years. War in Europe, the energy crisis, trade conflicts and a new security environment mean the transition now has to be managed alongside goals of competitiveness, resilience and security of supply. EU industrial policy has taken a clearer direction, and the major green industrial investments in Sweden and Europe have shown both the opportunities and the risks. The need to understand systems and to handle conflicting goals has therefore grown, not shrunk.

Together, this changes the terms for innovation policy. That innovation policy needs a direction is now widely accepted. The hard question is which direction, and how several, sometimes conflicting, goals should be weighed against each other with a sound grasp of the system. A “transformative” innovation policy calls for additional tools and a renewed way of working in regions and at national agencies and ministries. Understanding, managing and making full use of this change requires new knowledge and a shared language around innovation and sustainable transition, forums for discussion, collaboration and coordination between agencies, ministries and regional transition actors, and a better understanding of how different kinds of measures complement, overlap or work against each other, both within and across policy areas.

The Chalmers Initiative for Innovation and Sustainability Transitions (CIIST) offers a practice-oriented, network-building course where those responsible for strategic programme design and evaluation at ministries, agencies and regions can develop their knowledge of transformative innovation policy in practice. The course was developed in dialogue with Region Västra Götaland, the Swedish Energy Agency, Vinnova, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and Formas, and draws on experience from earlier course rounds. In 2027 the course runs for the sixth year in a row. Since it began, more than 100 participants from 12 organisations have taken it.

What you get

• Six course days on site in Gothenburg and one online, spread across the spring of 2027, with time to try out new ideas in your own organisation between sessions.
• Supervision of your own project linked to your organisation, which you present at the end of the course.
• Concrete tools: backcasting, analysis of sociotechnical systems, policy instrument portfolios, and frameworks for evaluating transformative measures.
• A network of colleagues from agencies, ministries and regions, and a space to coordinate efforts across organisational boundaries.
• Close dialogue with researchers in innovation and sustainable transition, grounded in the latest research.
• Time commitment: 6 days on site, one day online, and around 30 hours of reading plus your own project work.

Learning outcomes

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 their innovation and transition policy tools in relation to the roles and tools of other actors in a regional, national and global context;
• further develop different innovation policy tools and adapt them to transformative goals; and
• initiate, carry out and evaluate programmes, strategic plans and various kinds of tools to support a transformative agenda.

Organisation

The course builds on (a) established theories and methods for developing knowledge and understanding of what a transformative innovation policy involves, (b) participants’ own experience and practice, to anchor the learning in a current context, (c) participants’ reflections on their own roles and organisations, with a focus on the scope for developing, testing and evaluating new ways of seeing and working, and (d) a personal project assignment, a case study of a specific transition or transition problem, which participants are responsible for working on over the course.

Project assignment

Working from a transformative perspective, design, propose or evaluate a programme, a strategic plan, a tool or a process linked to your own organisation: past, current or future. Ideally there should be a felt development need, learning point or challenge tied to the assignment, rooted in the participant’s or the organisation’s own work. The project assignment is based on your own work. It does not need to be well defined from the start; it develops over the course in consultation with the course leaders and other participants. The project assignment is reported back at the end of the course.

Course leaders

ANNA BERGEK, Chalmers, Professor of Innovation Systems and Technology Policy
HANS HELLSMARK, Chalmers, Associate Professor of Innovation and Sustainable Transition
JOHN HOLMBERG, Chalmers, Professor of Physical Resource Theory
JOHAN HOLMÉN, Chalmers and University West, Senior Lecturer, Sustainable Transition and Learning
BJÖRN SANDÉN, Chalmers, Professor of Innovation and Sustainability

Time, place and format

The course runs throughout the spring of 2027. In addition to the sessions below, you should allow around 30 hours for reading material ahead of the sessions and following up afterwards. On top of this comes the time you put into your own project and into adapting what you learn into your own practice.

February, 3–4: Introduction and navigating transition processes (Gothenburg)

Aim: To introduce the course and the participants, followed by a review of theories, frameworks and methods for navigating transition, with the chance to relate these to practical experience and perspectives. Main content: In this session we go through the basics of, and differences between, various ways of navigating sustainable transition based on the latest research. We then focus on how to work with backcasting expeditions as an overarching tool for tackling complex sustainability challenges and transformation. Leadership and learning are central ideas that we also explore further in this part.

March, 10–11: Analysing transition and innovation dynamics (Gothenburg)

Aim: To become familiar 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 often used to analyse, justify or argue against policy measures. Main content: In this session we look at how systems thinking relates to other scientific approaches; how basic system dynamics can be used to understand different views on which policy instruments can be considered effective and desirable; what a sociotechnical 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 popular models that describe and explain transition; how a portfolio of policy instruments can be used to shape the direction of development; and the importance of reflecting on the dual roles of observer and actor.

April, 14–15: Evaluating measures with a transformative ambition (Gothenburg)

Aim: To clarify different perspectives on evaluation, focusing on what sets the evaluation of “transformative” measures apart from the evaluation of more traditional innovation policy measures, and to identify the main challenges for such evaluations and discuss what the research has to say so far about how to handle them. Main content: In this session we cover the different purposes of evaluation and different approaches to evaluating innovation policy measures. We also present different perspectives on evaluating transformative measures found in the academic literature. Most of the session is given over to discussing the various challenges in evaluating transformative measures and the proposals the research has arrived at so far for addressing them, including how to study (and measure) the outcomes of measures and assess their significance for the transition processes they aim to stimulate.

May, 21: Course conclusion (Online)

Aim: Participants present their various cases and describe how they have been able to develop them over the course, their status, and the next steps towards putting a more transition-oriented innovation policy into practice.

Information and registration

The course is part-financed by Region Västra Götaland, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency. A fee of 14500 SEK (excl. VAT) is invoiced for participants from other organisations.
Accommodation and meals outside scheduled hours are additional.
The registration deadline is 1 December 2026.

For enquiries and registration:

johan.holmen@chalmers.se