Challenging Science and Innovation Policy
Utrecht, 1-3 June 2022. Hosted by Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University
We would like to invite you to submit papers for the 2022 Eu-SPRI conference: “Challenging Science and Innovation Policy”. The annual Eu-SPRI conference is the leading event in science, technology and innovation policy in Europe, with a broad attendance of scientists as well as policymakers. The key objectives of the conference are to provide a forum for scholars in the areas of research and innovation policy analysis, to exchange ideas, and to present findings across disciplinary boundaries.
This year’s conference theme – Challenging Science and Innovation Policy– will explore future directions for studies of policies for research and innovation with a special emphasis on the topics of Digitisation, Open Science and Futuring. The conference will be hosted in Utrecht, the Netherlands. We expect more than 200 participants.
Research on STI has changed considerably in recent years. It has diversified in terms of topics and applications and deepened with respect to theories and methods. These developments reflect the ongoing development of new technologies, how novel ideas are put to use in the economy and society, how innovation is mobilised for addressing societal challenges, and how policies and institutions affect the growth and direction of innovations. In each of these interrelated areas we are witnessing accelerating changes, frictions and puzzles that pose future challenges for STI policy research in terms of new views, analyses, policy designs and co-operation partners.
Topics to be addressed by the papers at the conference cover a broad spectrum of research questions, but with a specific emphasis on future challenges for STI policy research.
Papers may be submitted to one of the following special sessions, organised by scholars in the field:
- The role of science for policy: new requirements and new challenges
- Forward-looking activities (FLA) for STI policies
- Covid-19 recovery, sustainability transitions and innovation policy
- Ethics and politics of science, technology and innovation policy
- Governance of digital ecosystems
- The future of science: exploring the relationship between digitalisation and scientific practices
- Responsible research and innovation as a toolkit: indicators, application and context
- Steering research for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- Diversity and inclusion in transition research and policies
- Connections between transforming STI policy and geopolitics, positive and negative security, and global justice
- Making international scientific consortia work: science policy for preventing or mitigating internal tensions
- Accounting for justice in transformative innovation policy
- The geographies of challenge-led and mission-oriented innovation policies
- Transformative social innovation in sustainability and health
- The role of standards and regulation in fostering innovation
- Joint OECD-JRC session on policy intelligence for system-level innovation for sustainability and societal transformation
- The space sector in transformation: new challenges for policy and governance at the nexus of space, commercialisation and sustainable development
- Transformative innovation policy and the institutionalisation of responsible research and innovation
For an elaboration of the session topics visit Call for Papers on the Eu-SPRI2022 conference website. Furthermore, the conference’s open track encourages papers on the following themes:
19. Digital technologies, platforms and business model innovations
20. Open science and the changing governance of science
21. Research infrastructures: open data, big data, and new research avenues for STI studies
22. Futuring and Foresight
23. STI policy for societal challenges: policy design, implementation and evaluation
24. The impact of STI policy: new indicators and approaches
25. Social innovation: enabling factors and existing practices
26. Globalisation and the geography of knowledge and innovation
Submission of paper proposals
Eu-SPRI2022 provides the following formats to stimulate scholarly debate:
- Paper presentation sessions: Acceptance to a paper presentation session is based on an extended abstract (min. 1,000 words, max. 2,000 words) of a well-developed paper with a description of a study that you would like to present at the conference. Extended abstracts should specify a clear research question, relevance, theoretical framework, data and methodological approaches, (expected) results, conclusions and policy issues. In order to allow appointed discussants to prepare feedback in advance, full papers will need to be submitted two weeks before the conference.
- Speed talk sessions: Speed talks briefly introduce new research ideas, data and analytical insights to provide a basis for collective discussion or to discuss ideas at an early stage. Submission of a short abstract (min. 500 words, max. 750 words) is required for speed talk sessions.
All submissions will be reviewed anonymously by the scientific committee and the session organisers, based on quality and fit to the Eu-SPRI research agenda, the conference and session theme. The Committee reserves the right to re-assign a paper to other session tracks and/or formats than as indicated during submission. Participants can only present one paper at the conference.
All proposals should be made through EasyChair.org.
Important dates:
- Opening of Paper Submissions: 1 January 2022
- Closing of Paper Submissions: 15 February 2022
- Announcement of selected papers and posters: 15 March 2022
- Registration open: 15 March 2022
- Conference: 1-3 June 2022
Local organising committee at Utrecht University:
Gaston Heimeriks, Koen Beumer, Wouter Boon, Iris Wanzenböck, Matthijs Janssen and Jarno Hoekman
Scientific committee: to be announced.
Conference website: euspri2022.nl
Secretariat: euspri2022@uu.nl