MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Graduate School of Social Sciences

Science and Technology Policy Studies

Şirin Elçi (sirin[at]metu.edu.tr)

Course Title: Innovation Policy and Governance: Trends and Challenges

Description: With the improved understanding of innovation and innovation systems and with the increase in the challenges that needs to be addressed by innovation policies, new concepts and approaches in policy-making and implementation are being developed and implemented both in developed and developing countries. Also, internationally accepted methods and tools used in policy and program design, implementation and evaluation are important for the stakeholders of the Turkish innovation system. Therefore, this course focuses on recent trends, new approaches and main challenges in innovation policy and programme cycle and aims to develop capabilities of the students on this new understanding and tools and methods.

Topics to be considered include the new concepts on innovation and innovation policy (such as inclusive innovation, third generation innovation policy, public innovation, etc.) innovation governance, policy-making cycle, evidence-based policy-making, key methods used for the design of policies and policy measures as well as for evaluation of policies and measures. The course further focuses on specific examples from a wide range of countries. Finally the course will touch upon the theory and practice of evaluation, a major step in S&T and innovation policy cycle.

Outline:

Week 1- Introduction and overview

Week 2- An overview of public intervention and policy-making cycle

Week 3- An overview of public intervention and policy-making cycle

Week 4- Governance of innovation

Week 5- Governance of innovation

Week 6- Recent trends in innovation policy and policy measures

Week 7- Innovation policy mix

Week 8- Tools and methods in policy and program design

Week 9- Tools and methods in policy and program design

Week 10- Introduction to the details of monitoring and evaluation

Week 15- Evaluation of innovation policies and programs

Week 11- Evaluation design: concept and practical exercise

Week 12- Evaluation design: concept and practical exercise

Week 13- Evaluation methods and tools

Week 15- Use of evaluation results

Week 16- Future trends in innovation policy

Reference Material:

The main publications on the subject include but not limited to the following:

OECD (2010) The OECD Innovation Strategy: Getting a Head Start on Tomorrow

OECD (2005) Governance of Innovation Systems

OECD (2005) The Oslo Manual

European Commission (2006) Smart Innovation: A Practical Guide to Evaluating Innovation Programmes

European Commission (2005) Innovation and Public Procurement. Review of Issues at Stake

European Commission (2002) Innovation Tomorrow

OECD Reviews of Innovation Policy

DUIS (2008) Innovation Nation