Systems Innovation
The biggest challenges we face involve more than innovation in products and services. They involve changing entire systems of production, consumption, behaviour and regulation. This discussion paper sets out some of the challenges innovators face when they set out to change entire systems, both public and private.
Over the past few years there has been growing interest in systemic innovation.
We are defining this as an interconnected set of innovations, where each influences the other, with innovation both in the parts of the system and in the ways in which they interconnect.
Yet rather than simply theorising, we want to make this practical. We want to explore the potential of systemic innovation to help tackle some of the key challenges the UK currently faces, from supporting an ageing population to tackling unemployment.
This paper is intended to generate discussion. We want to engage with the wide and diverse range of experts already working this space to help sharpen up thinking about systemic innovation and influence practical work to advance it.