Meeting new expectations on STI policy – theOECD’s Transformative Agenda for STI policies
Strategic Intelligence study seminar series, University of Tokyo
28 May 2024

Michael Keenan
OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation
michael.keenan@oecd.org

Outline• Brief introduction to the OECD and its activities inscience, technology and innovation• The challenges facing STI today• OECD Transformative Agenda for STI Policies• OECD Framework for Anticipatory Governance ofEmerging Technology• Future activities on Strategic Intelligence

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF OECD
ACTIVITIES ON STI POLICYThe OECD has been active in STI policy since its founding more than 60 years ago
Through the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP), the OECD seeks to enhance STI
cooperation among OECD members countries and partners, with a view to contributing to the achievement ofeconomic, social, and scientific aims, including growth and the creation of jobs, sustainable development, improved
well-being of their citizens and advancing the frontiers of knowledge.

Committee for Scientific andTechnological Policy

Working Party on
Technology andInnovation Policy

Working Party on
Bio Nano andConverging
Technologies

Global ScienceForum

Biennial work programmes
2023-242025-26

National Experts
on Scientific andTechnologicalIndicators

Innovation Policies
for Space and theOceanExamples of OECD CSTP outputs

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CHALLENGES FACING STI TODAY &THE OECD TRANSFORMATIVEAGENDA FOR STI POLICIES6STI in an age of disruptive change• Global crises mean that managing risk and uncertainty,
while promoting resilience, have moved to the fore as
rationales for STI policy intervention => growing‘securitisation’ (or ‘security turn’) in STI policy.
• Growing geopolitical tensions have also seen concepts
like ‘technology sovereignty’ and ‘open strategic
autonomy’ strongly emerge as frames for STI policy.
• This is at a time when STI policy is called upon tocontribute to sustainability transitions in a range ofareas, notably energy, food, mobility and health.
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Tackling such issues calls for ambitious measures in firms,governments and society more broadly• These measures should promote:– Mainstreaming of mental models and frameworks that embrace transformations and theirassociated values and practices;– New skills and capabilities to enact transformations;– New relationships, for example, between the public and private sectors, between different sectorsof the economy, and between advanced and less-developed economies to exchange and poolresources;– Greater experimentation and learning that support multiple pathways to transformation andacknowledge its uncertainty and complexity.

These demands have led the OECD to develop its Transformative Agenda for STI Policies

Why the Transformative Agenda for STI policies?
• STI are a critical part of the actions needed to reform economies
and societies to meet global challenges.
• However, STI itself may need to reform to fulfil this potential.
• Governments may need to revisit STI policy frameworks, visions,targets and instruments with a view to adapting them or displacing
them in favour of others that are fit-for-purpose to promote
positive transformative change.
• The CSTP has developed the Agenda for Transformative Science,
Technology and Innovation Policies to support the reappraisal andreform of STI policy.
• Many of the suggested reforms are familiar to the STI policy
community. However, they are challenging to implement
effectively. Many also remain experiments that need scaling-up.
• The Transformative Agenda provides a high-level orientation for
more specific and practical STI policy advice to follow that aims tohelp countries enact policy reforms.

Transformative Agenda
Framework for the Anticipatory
Governance of Emerging Technologies

Transformative Agenda – three main components

11Transformative goals for STI to pursue
1. Advance sustainability transitions thatmitigate and adapt to a legacy ofunsustainable development
2. Promote inclusive socioeconomic renewal
that emphasises representation, diversity andequity
3. Foster resilience and security against risks
and uncertainties posed by the growingemergence of systemic threatsSix policy orientations that are crosscutting, promotetransformation, and apply to all areas of STI policy
1. Direct STI policy to accelerate transformative change
2. Explicitly embrace shared values in STI policies that align with thetransformative goals
3. Accelerate both the emergence and diffusion of innovations for transformativechange
4. Promote the phase out of technologies and related practices that contribute to
global problems
5. Implement systemic and co-ordinated STI policy responses to global challenges
6. Instil greater agility and experimentation in STI policy, supported by a diverse
range of strategic intelligenceApplying the policy orientations to 10 STI policy areas

The Transformative Agenda
implies a shift in STI policy• Transformative change is often associated withradical reforms, but incremental changes across
many fronts can also cause a system to shiftqualitatively• Many reform measures in the Transformative
Agenda are hardly novel, and achievingtransformative goals often coincides withachieving other long-standing reforms in STIsystems• Their concerted adoption would, however,represent a major shift in orientation of much
STI policy seen over the last 25 years

Policy actions in practiceTypes of policy instrument
GovernanceDirect financial measure
Indirect financial measures
Collaboration and infrastructure
Regulation and guidanceDirectionalValues

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Whole chain
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Phase out

Co-ordinated

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Agile
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• Transformative STI policies are not specific to a narrow set of policy instruments but cover the full range ofpolicy actions• Governance instruments – including national strategies and agendas, the creation and reform of publicbodies, including those that promote cross-government co-ordination and stakeholders’ engagement, andstrategic intelligence – are especially important• But other instruments, such as those providing direct funding to STI activities and promoting collaboration,
as well as regulation and guidance, can also play significant roles

Implementing the Transformative Agenda: 3 primary layers
TransformativeAgenda for STI
Policies

Guidance on policy
actions in ten STI
policy areas

Key policy
challenge‘toolkits’

Guiding principlesand directions for STI
policy reforms thatpromote transitions

What reforms areneeded in a certain
policy area and why?
What ‘directions’should STI policy
makers follow?

Step-by-step online
policy guidance on
defining the policy
challenge, mapping
the system, andsequencing actions

Published in April 2024 tocoincide with CSTP
Ministerial

Case studies

Policy briefs

Prepared in 2024

STIP Compass

STI.Scoreboard

Publications

Policy guidance for specific STI policy areas
This largely repackages and adapts existing OECD work into a policy guidance format that offers
deeper insights on the reform measures policymakers could pursue in specific STI policy areas

Example of policy guidance: Strategic Intelligence
Strategic Intelligence“useable knowledge that supports policy
makers in understanding the relevant
aspects and scope of the impacts ofscience, technology and innovation, andtheir potential future developments”

TechnologyAssessment

Strategic Foresight

Evaluation

StatisticalIndicators

Modelling

Makiko Matsuo and Atsuo Kishimoto (2017) Analysis on Tools andApproaches in Policy Process for the Governance of Emerging
Technologies, Shakaigijyutsu Ronbunshu, Vol.14, 84-94, June 2017
松尾・岸本（2017）「新興技術ガバナンスのための政策プロセス における手法・アプローチの横断的分析」
社会技術研究論文集 Vol.14, 84-94, June 2017
http://shakai-gijutsu.org/vol14/14_84.pdf

Strategic Intelligence diagnostic and policy actions
DIAGNOSTIC• Increasing recognition that knowledge and evidence
to support decision-making, experimentation andlearning are needed for contexts that are systemic,transdisciplinary, complex and uncertain• While knowledge is distributed and diverse, it isoften siloed• Some strategic intelligence is valued more thanothers, often on account of bias and lock-in• There are disconnects between knowledge
production and use in policy settings• There is under-investment in and lack of policy
attention to strategic intelligence

Transformative Agenda policy actions on
strategic intelligence• Support novel and distributed sources ofstrategic intelligence to tackle global challenges• Develop arrangements to combine different
sorts of strategic intelligence for STI
policymaking• Cultivate skills and capabilities that promote theutilisation of strategic intelligence in STI
policymaking• Implement a strategic ‘policies for evidence’
agenda that promotes the production and useof strategic intelligence for transformativechangeImplementing the Transformative Agenda: 3 primary layers
TransformativeAgenda for STIPolicies

Guidance on policy
actions in ten STI
policy areas

Key policy
challenge‘toolkits’

Guiding principles
and directions for STI
policy reforms that
promote transitions

What reforms areneeded in a certain
policy area and why?
What ‘directions’should STI policy
makers follow?

Step-by-step online
policy guidance on
defining the policy
challenge, mapping
the system, andsequencing actions

Prepared in 2024

Piloted in 2024-25

Published in April 2024 tocoincide with CSTP
Ministerial

Case studies

Policy briefs

STIP Compass

STI.Scoreboard

Publications

Toolkits sequence of guidance steps

Articulate key policy challenges in thelocal context

Problemdefinition

Map the main actors andfactors that influence thecurrent landscape

Visionformulation

What would success look like in tackling thekey policy challenge and (at a high-level) how
could this be achieved?

Situational
analysis

Considering insights from theprevious steps to develop theprimary actions required to realise
the future vision

Enablers &challenges

Identify and understand critical linkages,
synergies and trade-offs between actors andshaping factors

List ofactions

Develop a framework ofindicators and other knowledge
resourcesAction
sequencing

Monitor &evaluate

Trace transition pathways from the present tothe futureToolkits use interactive, prefilled canvasses with links to data

TIPC Resource Lab

Playbook in support of the OECD Declaration
on Public Sector Innovation

Support to operationalising and implementing theTransformative Agenda• Several CSTP projects proposed for 2025-26 takedeeper dives on different aspects of the Agenda.
Several will develop toolkits.
• A peer learning support facility will also beestablished to focus on specific challenges ofcommon interest in implementing aspects of theAgenda – including on strategic intelligence• A new generation of country reviews and tailoredsupport to country’s STI policy reform efforts• More broadly, the CSTP will use the Agenda as oneof its main points of reference in formulating its
future strategy and programme

Designed by Freepik

FRAMEWORK FOR ANTICIPATORY
GOVERNANCE OF EMERGINGTECHNOLOGYFramework for anticipatory governance of emerging
technology•

Promotes anticipatory governance of technologies•

Includes several key actions on strategic intelligence, e.g.
nurture ecosystems of intelligence; and build capacities
through international cooperation and best practice exchange26

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Global Forum on Technology• The OECD launched the GFTech in 2023 toprovide a venue for regular in-depth dialogue
to foresee and get ahead of long-term
opportunities and risks presented bytechnology• It covers three technology areas: Immersivetechnologies; Quantum technologies; andSynthetic Biology• Its activities include:••

Fostering strategic evidence-based
dialogue and international cooperationExploring nascent approaches to policy
challenges and opportunities posed byemerging technologies

GFTech is unpacking synthetic biology
futures with an expert focus group• 68 participants (expect to continue to grow): Natural scientists
and engineers; Social scientists; Gov actors; Non-profitorganisations; Firms; Societal interface organisations• 32 countries (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and Latin
America)Japanese Members of Focus GroupAkihiko Kondo, Kobe University
Makiko Matsuo, University of Tokyo
Takeo Miyake, Waseda University
Wataru Mizunashi, NEDOExperts drawn from organisations
from 32 nations29

FUTURE WORK ON STRATEGICINTELLIGENCE TO SUPPORT THE
TRANSFORMATIVE AGENDA ANDTECHNOLOGY GOVERNANCE
FRAMEWORKFuture project on strategic intelligence• Scan and exchange with others on strategic intelligence tools andpractices• Facilitate (do) strategic intelligence work on selected technologies,
including future-oriented technology analysis and the development ofindicators• Support capacity building and dig deep into strategic intelligence andthe policy interface• Support mutual learning on new institutions for strategic intelligence– For instance, many governments are experimenting with dedicatedstrategic intelligence units (e.g. Sweden, Czech Republic, Portugal,Korea, Chile, etc.) and some are developing training courses for public
servants and policymakers in using strategic intelligence tools (e.g. TheNetherlands)• Link this work to both the Transformative Agenda and Technology
Governance Framework

Thank you!
Strategic Intelligence study seminar series, University of Tokyo
28 May 2024

Michael Keenan
OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation
michael.keenan@oecd.org