The Evolution of Innovation Policy: Two Promising Directions for Tackling Societal Challenges

This article explores how public innovation policies can address today's Grand Challenges -complex societal and environmental problems such as climate change and AI transformation.It presents two approaches: mission-oriented policies and local, procedural "small-wins" strategies.Missionoriented innovation policies emphasize proactive state involvement in steering large-scale transformations, as seen in ecological and AI-focused initiatives in Europe and France.These policies aim to shape markets and foster long-term technological breakthroughs.In contrast, small-wins strategies prioritize localized, iterative innovations driven by stakeholder engagement, flexibility, and experimentation.While mission-oriented policies set broad national directions, small-wins initiatives offer bottom-up, adaptive responses tailored to specific contexts.The article argues for a complementary use of both approaches to foster sustainable and inclusive innovation.