Governing missions in the European Union.
Date: 2019-07-05
Institutions: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Subjects: EU research policy, Framework Programme for Research and Development, financial instrument, innovation, organisation of research, report, research and development, research expenditure (EU)

GOVERNING MISSIONS

Governing Missions 
in the European Union

by Mariana MAZZUCATO

Independent 
Expert 
Report

Research and 
Innovation 

GOVERNING MISSIONS  
Governing Missions in the European Union

European Commission
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Directorate A – Policy & Programming Centre
Unit A4 – Missions & Partnerships

Contact   Enrico Pellizzari; Renzo Tomellini
E-mail   enrico.pellizzari@ec.europa.eu; renzo.tomellini@ec.europa.eu
              RTD-PUBLICATIONS@ec.europa.eu

European Commission
B-1049 Brussels 

Manuscript completed in June 2019

This document has been prepared for the European Commission however it reflects the views only of the authors, and 
the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

More information on the European Union is available on the internet (http://europa.eu).

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2019

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION

GOVERNING MISSIONS

Governing Missions 
in the European Union

by Mariana MAZZUCATO

2019

Directorate-General for Research and Innovation

2

PREFACE
by Professor 
Mariana MAZZUCATO

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The European Union has the opportunity 
to  use  mission-oriented  research  and 
innovation  (R&I)  to  drive  investment-
led  growth  across  the  region,  bring 
European  citizens  closer  to  policy-
making  and  invest  in  those  areas  that 
matter to people’s lives: from cleaner air 
to healthier, longer lives.

2019  is  the  50th  anniversary  of  the 
first moon landing, which has captured 
the public imagination with the famous 
images of man’s first steps on the moon. 
We tend to forget that this feat required 
many  different  sectors  to  collaborate 
and innovate together, and government 
fuel  bottom-up 
instruments 
experimentation  on  a  vast  scale.  Their 
pooled resources and talents – and the 
capturing  of  the  public  imagination  — 
led to innovations that far outlived the 
mission itself. Process matters!

to 

This report asks what changes mission-
oriented  R&I  requires  in  how  we  ‘do 
capitalism’  in  both  the  public  and 
private  spheres  so  that  our  tools  and 
instruments  are  as  ambitious  as  the 
missions  themselves.  Fundamentally, 
missions  require  putting  innovation 
and  outcomes  at  the  centre  of  how 
we  think  about  economic  growth.  This 

Governing Missions in the European Unionto  tackle  the  greatest  challenges  of 
our  time.  And  if  we  allow  it  to  change 
how  we  ‘do’  on  the  ground,  it  will 
become  the  key  source  of  our  future 
competitiveness. The opportunity is too 
great to miss. I hope the report helps us 
take the implementation process behind 
missions  as  seriously  as  achieving  the 
missions themselves.

requires  new  thinking  in  (1)  the  tools 
of government — from procurement to 
prize schemes — to drive goal oriented 
experimentation; (2) the ways that public 
financing  can  crowd-in  and  galvanize 
other forms of investment; and (3) ways 
to harness social movements and citizen 
participation  in  a  creative,  open  and 
empowering  process  of  challenge-led 
innovation. The report looks at all three 
of  these  dimensions  —  public  sector 
capabilities; financing mechanisms; and 
citizen engagement. 

The  net  result  must  be  stimulating 
innovation,  crowding-in  investment 
across  different  actors  and  catalysing 
new  economy-wide  cross-sectoral 
development,  while  mobilizing  citizen 
participation  and  creativity  across 
Europe. Indeed, citizen movements have 
always been central to achieving social 
change  —  including  labour  movements 
which  brought  us  one  of  the  greatest 
social  innovations  of  our  time:  the 
weekend! Today there is a growing green 
movement  —  including  the  youngest 
school  children  —  bringing  the  climate 
emergency  right  to  the  top  of  public 
priorities.  We  must  harness  this  drive 
for change across different parts of our 
population  to  allow  R&I  across  Europe 

4

INTRODUCTION

Innovation  is  a  key  driver  of  long-term 
growth. It can fuel productivity growth, 
and  transformation  of  production, 
distribution  and  consumption  across 
entire  economies.  But  where  does 
innovation come from and what is it for? 

Innovation  has  historically  been  an 
outcome of ambition in both the public 
and  private  sector,  and  increasingly  is 
involving third sector institutions. It has 
also benefitted from social movements 
putting pressure on systems to change. 
Some  of  the  greatest  innovations  of 
our  time  have  come  from  the  need 
to  solve  problems.  The  internet  was 
initially  designed  to  solve  the  problem 
of  satellites  communicating;  GPS  to 
determine  the  location  of  military 
equipment.  Europe  has  the  opportunity 
to  set  its  sight  on  a  challenge  and  use 
that  as  a  way  to  drive  our  R&I  agenda 
and  to  involve  as  many  actors  as 
possible across the economy. But rather 
than  focusing  on  purely  technological 
problems,  we  can  focus  innovation 
efforts  to  solve  societal  challenges 
that  involve  technological  change, 
institutional and behavioural change and 
regulatory change. 

The  European  Commission  has  played 
an  important  policy  innovator  role  for 
decades and has been challenge-oriented 
around the goals of smart, inclusive and 
sustainable growth. The report “Mission-
Oriented  Research  &  Innovation  in  the 
European Union”1 (from now on Missions 
Report),  published  in  2018,  identified 
mission-oriented  policy  as  the  key 
instrument to reframe Europe’s approach 
to tackling grand societal challenges — to 
make them more practical and systemic 
so that R&I investments can help attain 
specific,  targeted  and  concrete  goals. 
Five criteria were identified for selecting 
missions. They should: 

 • Be  bold,  inspirational,  with  wide 

societal relevance;

 • Have  a  clear  direction:  targeted, 

measurable, and time-bound;

 • Be  ambitious  but  realistic  research 

and innovation actions;

 • Be cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral, 

and cross-actor innovation;

 • Drive multiple, bottom-up solutions.

1  Mazzucato,  M.  (2018),  Missions:  Mission-Oriented  Research  &  Innovation  in  the  European  Union.  European  Commission.  Available  online  at 

https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/mazzucato_report_2018.pdf

Governing Missions in the European Union5

This report, Governing Missions, looks 
at  the  ‘how’:  how  to  implement  and 
govern  a  mission-oriented  process  so 
that it unleashes the full creativity and 
ambition potential of R&I policy-making; 
and how it crowds-in investments from 
across Europe in the process. The focus 
is on 3 key questions: 

 • How  to  engage  citizens  in  co-
designing, co-creating, co-implementing 
and co-assessing missions?

 • What  are 

the  public  sector 
capabilities and instruments needed 
to foster a dynamic innovation eco-
system,  including  the  ability  of  civil 
servants to welcome experimentation 
and help governments work outside 
silos?

 • How  can  mission-oriented  finance 
and funding leverage and crowd-in 
other  forms  of  finance,  galvanising 
innovation  across  actors  (public, 
private  and  third  sector),  different 
manufacturing  and  service  sectors, 
and  across  national  and  trans-
national levels?

6

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT 

Mission-oriented innovation cannot be top-
down.  It  must  inspire  and  harness  the  full 
creativity of citizens to tackle problems as 
urgent  as  climate  change,  rising  inequality 
or  the  challenge  to  establish  more  caring 
societies. In order to inspire society at large, 
missions need to have widespread legitimacy 
and  acceptance.  This  means,  among  other 
things, that mission setting must find its way 
to the centre of the political priority-making 
process and involve citizens in a serious way. 

In  this  context,  it  is  critical  to  develop  a 
sound  and  transparent  process  to  select 
missions,  frame  them,  and  to  assess 
missions along the way so that they have 
the right checks and balances. This requires 
a strong level of public trust.

Furthermore, missions require a shift from 
a  market-fixing  framework  to  a  market-
shaping framework, redefining the meaning 
of  public  value3.  Public  value  represents 
not  just  what  citizens  demand  today,  but 
what they may need or desire in the future. 
This  tension  between  opening  mission-
oriented  frameworks  to  citizens  whilst 
avoiding  capture  by  passing  trends  will 
be  a  challenging  aspect  of  governing  this 
framework.  How  missions  can  be  opened 
up  to  a  wide  group  of  stakeholders,  from 
individuals, and civil society organisations, 
to citizen movements or political parties, is 
critical to forming missions and to ensuring 
their  longevity.  Lessons  learned  from 
previous public consultations should be taken  
into account. 

Ensuring  public  trust  must  start  with 
acknowledgeing 
research  and 
that 
innovation are not separate to society, only 
populated by academics and policy experts. 
Such approaches have in the past generated 
opposition as well as disinterest, and with 
little impact as a result. On the contrary, 
particularly for innovation activities aimed 
at  citizens,  the  form  by  which  they  are 
taken  up  by  society  (i.e.  users,  citizens, 
consumers and others) is key2. Balancing 
top-down and bottom-up perspectives, can 
make  innovation  processes  richer,  better 
informed, and more likely to be adopted. 

As  identified  in  the  Missions  Report, 
there are three key stages where citizen 
engagement becomes crucial for missions:

 • How  to 

in  the 
involve  citizens 
definition  and  selection  of  concrete 
missions that matter to society;

 • How  citizens  participate 
implementation of missions;

in  the 

 • How  citizens  will  be  involved  in  the 
assessment  (evaluation,  review  and 
monitoring process) of missions.

2  Leadbeater, C. (2018), ‘Movements with missions make markets’, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 

2018-07). Available online at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2018/aug/movements-missions-make-markets

3  Mazzucato, M. (2018), ‘Mission Oriented Innovation Policy: Challenges and Opportunities’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 27 (5): 803–815. 

Available online at https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dty034 

Governing Missions in the European Union7

1.  CO-CREATION 
Missions  offer  an  opportunity  to  involve 
citizens in solving grand societal challenges, 
to communicate about them and to create 
wide  civic  excitement  about  research  and 
innovation.  In  order  to  achieve  this  and 
to  ensure  that  missions  reflect  societal 
expectations,  it  is  essential  to  allow  as 
many citizens as possible to engage in the 
mission-definition process at an early stage. 

Meaningfully engaging and involving people 
in  co-design  has  become  a  core  principle 
of public sector innovation, just as it is in 
innovative  private  sector  practice.  Co-
design  gives  societal  ownership  of  the 
missions’  goals  and  objectives,  ensuring 
that  the  missions  have  longevity  beyond 
the  period  in  post  of  individual  ministers 
or  governments.  There  are  many  positive 
examples  of  this  occurring  in  the  past, 
notably  in  the  ideas  generation  and 
consultation that led to the framing of the 
UN  Sustainable  Development  Goals4  (see 
box 1). The European Commission is putting 
the principle of co-design in practice through 

the establishment of Mission Boards, which 
will include end-user represenatives and will 
be tasked to directly consult citizens on the 
formulation of concrete mission proposals.

Likewise,  policy-makers  need  to  be  open 
to  the  frank  debates  and  contestation 
that  such  interaction  with  citizens  may 
entail.  For  instance,  political  concern 
about sustainable growth embodied in the 
Energiewende mission in Germany, which 
is  aimed  at  carbon  reduction  across  the 
whole  economy,  has  been  informed  by 
the decades-long civic green movement5. 
Similarly,  the  feminist  movement  played 
a  very  important  role  in  ensuring  the 
development  of  birth  control  pills,  and 
without  the  anti-Aids  movement  (e.g. 
ActUp)  we  may  not  have  had  the  same 
development  of  HIV  drugs.  Furthermore, 
citizen  engagement  activities  must 
recognise the diverse European population 
innovation 
when  planning  EU-wide 
activities by making efforts to garner the 
views of underrepresented groups, be that 
by age, class, race or other characteristics. 

4  Available online at https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
5  European Commission (2018), ‘Mission-oriented R&I policies: Case Study Report Energiewende (DE)’. Available online at http://europa.eu/!md89DM

1.

THE DISCUSSION OF THE POST-2015 SUSTAINABLE 
DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

Many voices have informed this debate, and there have been valuable inputs from a wide 
range of stakeholders. People around the world aired their views through unprecedented 
consultation and outreach efforts of organised civil society groups, as well as through the 
global conversation led by the United Nations Development Group on “A Million Voices: 
The World We Want”, “Delivering the Post-2015 Agenda: Opportunities at the National and 
Local Levels”, and the “MY World” survey.

8

This  openness  towards  citizens  cannot  be 
left to the goodwill of politicians, but needs 
to be institutionalised and embedded over 
the long term. The use of novel online citizen 
consultation  tools  potentially  allows  the 
collection of large, broad citizen-based input 
and responses, at low cost and in a flexible 
manner.  Various  governments  in  Europe 
and  beyond  are  keen  to  engage  in  policy 
experiments, relying on large scale citizen 
input next to expert knowledge. Furthermore, 
in  addition  to  online  consultations,  policy 
makers  should  also  rely  on  the  solid  bulk 
of  evidence  coming  from  publicly  funded 
research and innovation projects (see box 2) 
on co-creation and citizen engagement. 

Recommendation 1: Formal consultations 
as well as direct interaction with citizen 
movements,  civic  society,  workers, 
and  under-represented  groups  are 
required  to  ensure  meaningful  citizen 

engagement  in  the  development  of 
concrete mission proposals.

A  significant  challenge  presented  by 
the  active  involvement  of  any  type  of 
stakeholder  group,  including  citizens  or 
civil  society  organisations,  is  avoiding  the 
capture  of  missions  by  vested  interests, 
and  recognising  the  differences  between 
long  term  civic  needs,  and  passing  trends 
and  phases.  For  this  reason,  citizens  and/
or  their  associations  should  work  closely 
alongside  policymakers,  researchers,  and 
businesses/industry. This will enable multiple 
perspectives to be focused on the issues at 
hand,  avoid  mission  capture  by  any  one 
group, and ensure a wider systemic change.

Recommendation  2:  Public  consultations 
that  feed  into  the  definition  of  mission 
proposals need to be designed in such a 
way to avoid capture by vested interests.

6  Available online at https://www.ecsite.eu/activities-and-services/projects/voices
7  Available online at http://www.cimulact.eu/

2.

FACE-TO-FACE PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS CONDUCTED 
BY VOICES 6 AND CIMULACT 7

The EU funded projects VOICES and CIMULACT had as a main objective to engage citizens and 
stakeholders in the co-creation of European research agendas based on real, validated and shared 
visions, needs and demands. These projects developed and experimented methods for citizen 
participation on long-term foresight, as well as built capacities in already existing methods.

The experiments explored a variety of methods in order to test and inspire the research 
community  with  a  broad  range  of  options  for  citizen  and  multi-actor  engagement  in 
research and innovation priority setting. Furthermore, the diversity of methods also allowed 
targeting different societal groups, enriching the feedback and validation of the research 
programme scenarios from a wide range of societal perspectives.

Governing Missions in the European Union9

3.

FP7 INSTRUMENTS FOR CO-IMPLEMENTATION 

The EU Seventh Framework Programme for R&I (FP7) had a specific instrument called 
‘Research  for  the  Benefit  of  Specific  Groups  -  Civil  Society  Organisations’,  foresaw 
‘Mobilisation and Mutual Learning (MML) Action Plans’ and created clusters of projects 
on  ‘Transition  Initiatives  for  Sustainable,  Low-Carbon  Societies’  and  on  ‘Citizens’ 
Observatories’. These clusters of EU funded projects developed novel technologies and 
applications, trying to exploit the capabilities offered by portable devices (smartphones, 
tablets) and the collective intelligence available through social media streams (such as 
Facebook or Twitter), to enable an effective participation by citizens in environmental 
stewardship. These actions were still at their experimental stage within the FP7 and could 
be used as a good basis for reflection on how to push co-creation further when it comes 
to governing the missions.

2.  CO-IMPLEMENTATION
While it is highly unlikely that citizens can 
and should be involved in every research 
and innovation process, significant space 
should  be  given  for  citizen  science  and 
user-led innovation processes in each and 
every mission. Citizen scientists and social 
innovators  are  a  rising  phenomenon, 
tackling  scientific  and 
innovation 
challenges that cut across disciplines. In 
some  cases,  they  provide  research  data 
and  solutions  that  could  not  feasibly 
be  created  by  the  closed  science  and 
innovation system (see box 3). 

The format within which co-implementation 
takes  place  in  missions  depends  on  the 
context of the mission. For instance, there 
could  be  dedicated  bottom-up  citizen 
science and innovation initiatives in some 
mission areas. These could take the form 
of accelerators, providing support to small-
scale  initiatives  through  suitable  grants, 

and stimulated by prizes and other types of 
rewards and incentives. In other missions 
it is possible that co-implementation takes 
place within projects gathering established 
science  and  innovation  actors,  thereby 
bringing  citizen  scientists  and  innovators 
much  more  closely  into  contact  with 
the  traditional  research  and  innovation 
system – building mutual knowledge and 
understanding in the process.

Recommendation 3: Citizen scientists and 
innovators can have clear added value 
and complement the implementation of 
missions. Their participation should be 
actively encouraged.

3.  CO-ASSESSMENT
The  final  stage  of  involvement  is 
engaging  citizens  and  civil  society 
organisations  in  the  monitoring  and 
assessment of the progress of missions, 
and ultimately their results. Monitoring 

Governing Missions in the European Union10

should  be  as  open  and  accessible  as 
possible  for  people  to  be  engaged. 
Indeed, this is one reason why missions 
should be as clearly stated as possible, 
so broad sections of the population can 
be engaged in and excited by a mission 
and be involved in tracking progress.

Citizen engagement should not be limited 
to  traditional  community-participation 
activities, such as people self-organising 
to  clean  plastics  from  beaches,  for 
example. As enabling technologies develop 
and  become  more  universally  present  in 
society, the participation of individuals can 
be  more  widespread  through  monitoring 
everything  from  butterfly  populations, 
incidents of violence, or air quality. Using 
wide-spread  technological  devices,  such 
as  smart  phones,  for  such  monitoring 
activities  can  create  mass  mobilisation 
and  civil  engagement,  providing  further 
pressure for action at the political level.

Co-assessment  should  also  take  the 
form of well-placed citizen or civil society 
organisations’ representation in evaluating 
proposals,  reviewing  the  progress  of 
projects,  evaluating  the  progress  of 
portfolios of projects, and participating in 
advisory structures. This ensures that the 
mission’s outcomes are aligned with the 
needs, values and expectations of society. 
This,  again,  should  take  place  alongside 
established  researchers,  businesses/
industry  and  policy  experts  with  the 
assurance  that  all  stakeholders  uphold 
impartiality in their proceedings. 

Furthermore, to ensure citizen’s trust in the 
tracking of progress, public organisations 
implement  a  mission-oriented 
that 

research  and  innovation  policy  should 
commit to being transparent and applying 
an  open  data  policy,  by  subscribing  to 
the  FAIR  principle  (Findable;  Accessible; 
Interoperable; Reusable).

Recommendation  4:  Missions  should 
enable the use of citizens’ experiences 
and  observations  to  monitor  progress 
towards mission objectives.

4.  CITIZEN-ORIENTED 

COMMUNICATION & DISSEMINATION
Missions  will  be  selected  and  driven 
forward  at  the  political  level,  but  their 
relevance  and  importance  have  to  be 
communicated  effectively  to  the  citizen. 
Without  this,  co-design,  co-creation  and 
co-implementation for missions may fail in 
the same way previous technocratic efforts 
have.  Missions  by  their  very  definition 
must be inspirational and engage citizens 
in science and innovation – and how these 
can  deliver  solutions  for  the  challenges 
they face in their daily lives. This aspect 
can  be  leveraged  in  communication  to 
communities around the importance and 
relevance of innovation policy. 

Through  effective 
communication 
citizens  can  become  active  participants 
in  missions.  In  addition  to  providing 
innovative  techniques  for  civil  society 
to  contribute  to  these  missions  directly, 
we  must  also  reflect  on  the  ways  that 
new  technologies  make  wide-scale 
engagement and consultation with citizens 
possible  in  a  manner  not  previously 
available  to  policy-makers.  Through 
live  engagement  via  social  media,  the 
internet, and smartphones, policymakers 
can develop new ways for citizens to both 

Governing Missions in the European Union11

consult and feedback on policies. This may 
hold the key to scaling the successes of 
small-scale  public  consultation  to  wider 
national and EU-wide needs. Moreover, a 
proper dissemination and communication 
strategy  for  missions  should  include 
educational/science-society  literacy  in 
order to foster a tangible mind shift.

Recommendation  5:  Citizen-oriented 
communication  &  dissemination 
activities should be ensured throughout 
the  entire  life  cycle  of  missions,  in 
order  for  citizens  around  Europe  to 
understand the value of R&I actions and 
the tangible impact on their lives.

Governing Missions in the European Union12

PUBLIC SECTOR CAPABILITIES 

Missions  require  public  actors  to  think 
outside  of  “market  failure”  frameworks, 
and  more  towards  co-creating  and  co-
shaping of markets.

Missions 
require  a  new  vocabulary. 
Rather  than  levelling  the  playing  field 
they require tilting it. This does not mean 
tilting it towards one company, one sector 
or  one  technology,  but  tilting  it  towards 
a  direction.  This 
requires  ambitious 
investments  that  crowd-in  and  mobilise 
private investment as well as the creation 
of synergies across the different domains 
of  government  activity:  from  regulatory 
changes, to procurement policy, to reforms 
in  education  and  labour  markets.  This 
mission  setting,  guiding  and  crowding-in 
process requires rethinking ways in which 
public  organisations  design,  implement 
and evaluate (innovation) policies. 

Fundamentally, mission-oriented approaches 
require the ambition to transform landscapes 
rather  than  just  fixing  problems  in  existing 
ones.  To  do  so,  public  sector  organisations 
face a number of inherent barriers. Without 
addressing these in a systematic matter, the 
potential for mission success is limited. 

1.  BREAKING SILOS AND 

bodies  to  devise  bold  and  ambitious 
governance  structures  that  enable  cross-
sectoral and cross-institutional coordination. 

Missions aimed at creating and shaping 
markets  are  by  definition  cross-sectoral 
and  should  span  across  multiple  public 
organisations  (ministries,  departments, 
national  and  local  level  governance). 
For  example,  any  mission  around  clean 
growth  will  need  to  work  across  the 
departments  of  energy, 
transport, 
and  health.  They  require  coordination 
between  various  policy  fields,  synergies 
and breaking ‘silos’. But it is exactly the 
lack  of  such  coordination  capabilities 
that  has  become  perhaps  the  most 
difficult  issue  in  modern  day  innovation 
policy-making.  The  reasons  for  this  can 
be found in what is called the ‘complexity 
paradox’  of  modern  public  policy:  the 
more  complex  policy  issues  are,  the 
more  compartmentalised  policy-making 
becomes,  increasingly  fragmented  into 
different 
departments 
and  initiatives.  On  top  of  that,  complex 
organisational  structures,  with 
rigid 
formal  processes,  can  limit  the  flow 
of  information,  reduce  openness  and 
constrain creativity8.

government 

COORDINATING FOR MISSIONS

The  key  to  success  of  missions,  next  to 
legitimacy and trust in the mission-setting 
process,  are  the  capabilities  within  public 

Breaking  silos  means  taking  innovation-
led  growth  outside  of  the  narrow  field 
of  research  and  innovation  and  putting 
it  at  the  centre  of  economic  growth 

8 

 Kattel, R. and Mazzucato, M. (2018), Mission-oriented innovation policy and dynamic capabilities in the public sector. UCL Institute for Innovation 
and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2018-05). Available online at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/wp2018-05

Governing Missions in the European Union13

In some instances, this might mean hiring 
visionary people with a business, scientific 
or  other  background 
in  an  advisory  
capacity  for  a  limited  time  period,  to 
assist  the  governance  structure  in  the 
definition and design of the missions. This 
approach  is  used  in  the  Horizon  Europe 
research  and 
framework 
programme through the establishment of 
mission boards for each of the European 
R&I missions.

innovation 

When  looking  at  how  missions  should 
be  implemented,  there  are  lessons  to 
be 
that 
learned  from  organisations 
have  tackled  ambitious  mission-oriented 
projects and have implemented structures 
which are flexible, adaptable and able to 
foster  bottom-up  solutions.  This  can  be 
fostered  through  portfolio  management 
so that a specific mission will be targeted, 
but  broad  enough  to  include  multiple 
solutions  which  require  different  types 
of  projects  to  be  supported:  picking  the 
willing,  not  pre-determining  winners. 
Putting  all  eggs  in  one  basket  should  
be avoided.

Organisational  flexibility  is  particularly 
important in allowing a mission-oriented 
organisation to respond quickly to different 
conditions  and  to  the  development  of 
novel technologies. This flexibility can be 
enabled by a governance structure which 
can grant the organisation independence 
from  more  bureaucratic  branches  of 
government,  and  giving  implementing 
agencies 
to 
public  servants.  Such  agencies  are  most 
effective  if  they  are  allowed  autonomy 
in  pay  and  remuneration  structures,  to 
allow  them  to  recruit  for  a  limited  term 

responsibilities 

reporting 

strategies.  Optimal 
impact  would  be 
achieved by setting up a mission strategy 
and  coordination  under 
the  direct 
responsibility  of  the  highest  offices  of 
the  executive  power.  It  creates  a  more 
horizontal  relationship  between  those 
directing economic growth in the finance 
ministry,  and  those  in  the  departments 
that  reflect  the  content  of  that  growth 
(sustainable  growth,  inclusive  growth, 
etc). In particular, public investments are 
often  evaluated  by  ministries  of  finance 
in  terms  of  cost-benefit  and  net  present 
value.  These  static  measures  tend  to 
inadequately capture the market creation 
potential  of  ambitious  public  policies, 
and  in  particular  the  dynamic  spill-overs 
between different sectors.

Recommendation 6: The implementation 
of  missions  will  benefit  from  breaking 
down  silos  by  coordinating  actions 
between  departments,  with  a  clear 
division 
and 
ownership. To achieve maximum impact 
it is key that this is coordinated by the 
highest offices of the executive power. 

responsibilities 

of 

2.  LEADERSHIP AND AGILE WORKING 

MODALITIES

Breaking  up  silos  is  often  successfully 
achieved  by  implementation  structures 
that  enjoy  a  high  degree  of  political 
support,  and  which  have  operational 
autonomy  in  order  to  make  sure  that 
political cycles would not derail missions. 
Management  of  a  mission-oriented 
system of innovation will require specific 
types of leadership, which encourage risk-
taking and adaptive explorative capacity, 
and  that  can  attract  top  talent  to  lead 
such strategies. 

Governing Missions in the European Union14

4.

MANAGEMENT OF A MISSION-ORIENTED SYSTEM OF 
INNOVATION: EXAMPLES AND BEST PRACTICES

Flexible and adaptive portfolio management can benefit from lessons provided by other 
innovation and funding agencies across the world, such as Yozma in Israel, Sitra in Finland, 
the Government Digital Service in the UK, or organisations like DARPA or ARPA-E in the USA 
(Azoulay et. al., 20189). The defining characteristics of the DARPA model are:

1.  Organisational flexibility

a.  Independence from branches of government
b.  Flat internal structure
c.  Hiring outside standard government recruitment processes
d.  Fixed term employment of directors and project managers
e.  Flexible contracting mechanisms

2.  Bottom-up program design
3.  Discretion in project choice
4.  Active project management.

top  talent  with  the  unique  range  of 
capabilities  needed  to  manage  complex 
networked missions.

By  leveraging  this  flexibility  through 
a  high-level  governance  structure, 
implementing  agencies  can  empower 
their  staff  to  pursue  a  bottom-up 
approach  to  innovation  and  embrace 
the  risk  inherent  in  this  innovation 
framework. Such a bottom-up structure 
means  that  agencies  must  connect 
sectors  that  may  not  otherwise  be 
connected,  and  can  then  harness  this 
network to pursue the mission projects 
that emerge.

Finally,  implementing  agencies  should 
be  able  to  appoint  staff  in  charge  of 
consolidating project results in line with 
a  portfolio  approach.  With  the  guidance 
provided  by  a  high-level  mission 
governance  structure,  such  agencies 
should place particular emphasis on the 
need  for  discretion  in  project  selection 
and  project  management.  This  entails 
empowering the governance of missions 
to  verify  how  to  allocate  funds  and 
resources  within  a  project  in  order  to 
secure the given objectives, and to make 
decisions  on  milestones  and  technical 
goals  throughout  the  project’s  lifetime. 
Mission projects by definition require the 

9  Azoulay, P., Fuchs, E., Goldstein, A.P. and Kearney, M. (2019), ‘Funding Breakthrough Research: Promises and Challenges of the “ARPA Model”’, 

Innovation Policy and the Economy, 19: 69-96.

Governing Missions in the European Union15

creation of new knowledge or experience, 
for 
therefore  pose  challenges 
and 
conventional  project  management  and 
evaluation frameworks. 

7: 
Recommendation 
The  mission 
governance should be empowered with a 
high-level structure including leaders from 
academia,  business  and  citizen  groups. 
These will exert leadership through advice 
on  funding  allocation,  project  selection 
and evaluation, and experimentation with 
new work modalities.

Recommendation  8:  Agile  procedures  for 
staff  exchange  between  the  different 
policy  departments,  agencies  and 
implementing bodies involved in missions 
should  be  established,  promoting 
experimentation and risk-taking.

3.  ORGANISATIONAL RISK-TAKING
The  portfolio  approach  behind  mission-
oriented  R&I  (exemplified  by  the  Darpa 

10  Mazzucato, M. (2013). The Entrepreneurial State. Anthem Press

model  in  box  4)  requires  the  public 
sector  (or:  an  entrepreneurial  state10) 
to  welcome  uncertainty,  accept  risks 
and  learn  from  trial  and  error.  This 
is  a  different  outlook  than  focussing 
only  on  de-risking,  and  paying  fees  to 
agencies  for  outsourcing  government 
functions.  While  some  outsourcing  is  to 
be  expected,  the  fact  it  has  been  done 
so  often  to  push  the  blame  to  others  if 
things  go  wrong,  means  that  the  trial 
and  error process of decision  making  is 
not  explicitly  accounted  for.  Ultimately 
this leads to a reduction of government 
capacity  and  capabilities  in  exploration 
and experimentation — capabilities that 
are so critical to innovation.

Recommendation 9: A portfolio approach 
means  that  the  public  sector  needs  to 
revisit  their  approach  to  risk-taking. 
It  should  focus  less  on  outsourcing 
government  functions  and  more  on 
learning from trial and error.

5.

VISION ZERO 

In 1997 Sweden introduced the Vision Zero policy that aimed to reduce the number of road-
accident fatalities to zero by 2020. Reducing the danger required physical changes on the 
roads and new policies to enforce traffic laws. 

There are now more roundabouts, fewer intersections, and vehicles cannot turn where 
people cross streets. More pedestrian bridges have been built, bicycles are separated from 
oncoming traffic and strict policing has reduced the number of drink-driving offences.

Since the scheme began, road deaths have almost halved: 270 people died in road accidents 
in Sweden in 2016. Twenty years earlier the figure was 541.

Governing Missions in the European Union16

4.  PUBLIC PROCUREMENT FOR  

SCALING UP

Public  procurement  is  an  instrument  that 
could help missions to create new markets.11 
The  Internet,  GPS  technology,  the  semi-
conductor  industry  and  passenger  jets  are 
perhaps  the  most  prominent  examples 
that  resulted  from  government  innovation-
oriented  procurement  bringing  along  major 
economic  and  social  impacts.  However,  in 
many countries procurement ends up getting 
used to simply award the lowest cost bidder 
and  often  has  to  deal  with  contradicting 
policy goals such as cost savings, value-for-
money,  transparency,  and  siloed  sectoral 
policy objectives such as environment, health 
or  employment.  But  this  does  not  help  to 
stimulate innovation or high quality goods. 

Therefore,  public  organisations  should 
consciously develop capabilities for public 

procurement  for  innovation.  A  mission-
oriented policy framework offers them a 
way to ‘structure’ conflicting policy goals 
by specifying the end result (e.g. accident 
free roads - see Box 5) based on criteria 
and characteristics, not the solution (e.g. 
driverless  cars),  and  allow  for  plenty  of 
space  for  experimentation.  This  helps  to 
coordinate procurement processes across 
value  chains  and  agencies.  Effective 
public  procurement  for  innovation  and 
missions  can  create  a  “pick  the  willing” 
dynamic rather than picking winners. The 
European Commission has already taken 
steps to promote public procurement as a 
tool to stimulate innovation, by publishing 
guidelines on how to best do this12.

organisations 

support 
Public 
innovations 
in 
several  ways,  which  should  all  be 

through  procurement 

can 

11  Edler,  J.  and  Georghiou,  L.  (2007),  ‘Public  procurement  and  innovation  —  Resurrecting  the  demand  side,’  Research  Policy,  36:7,  949-963. 

Available online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2007.03.003.

12  http://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/commission-advises-public-buyers-how-capitalise-innovation_en
13  RSA (2017), ‘From design thinking to systems change’

6.

THE SMALL BUSINESS RESEARCH INITIATIVE (SBRI) 
AND SYSTEMS THINKING

The SBRI is a government funding stream that stimulates entrepreneurs to put forward 
innovative solutions for societal issues. SBIR falls under the category of pre-commercial 
procurement (PCP) and is largely used across Europe.

A research project13 that looked at ways to optimise the potential of the SBRI as a catalyst 
for social innovation, found that SBRI is effective when a problem is clearly identified and 
requires technical expertise and imagination to fix. However, its longer term impact relies on 
there being a market for the eventual product: either within government and public services 
or in the consumer sphere. The role of the government and public services is to intelligently 
assess and act to improve the market opportunities for an SBRI innovation.

Governing Missions in the European Union17

7.

THE ADAPTIVE APPROACH OF THE GREEN DEAL IN 
THE NETHERLANDS 

The Green Deal approach in the Netherlands is an accessible way for companies, other 
stakeholder organisations, local and regional government and interest groups to work with 
Central Government on green growth and social issues. The aim is to remove regulatory 
barriers to help sustainable initiatives get off the ground and to accelerate this process 
where  possible.  The  Green  Deal  approach  forms  part  of  the  green  growth  policy  and 
is  a  joint  initiative  by  the  Dutch  Ministries  of  Economic  Affairs,  Infrastructure  and  the 
Environment and the Interior and Kingdom Relations.

The Green Deal approach is one element in a standard range of policy instruments. It 
is used to supplement existing instruments, such as legislation and regulation, market 
and financial incentives, and measures to stimulate innovation. The Green Deal approach 
is particularly suitable when innovations are actually put into practice, a phase during 
which projects often encounter barriers. Green Deals bring Central Government closer to 
companies, stakeholder organisations and interest groups. They give government a more 
readily identifiable presence and the other players a clear point of contact.

considered as part of a mission-oriented 
policy  framework.  Public  organisations 
can  create  new  markets  for  products 
and  systems  that  go  beyond  the  state-
of-the-art  or  they  can  create  a  demand 
“pull” by expressing its needs to industry in 
functional or performance terms. Similarly, 
they can encourage innovation by providing 
a  “lead  market”  for  new  technologies/
solutions14, or provide a testing ground for 
innovative products (see box 6).

Recommendation 10: Public procurement 
of  innovative  solutions    should  be 
promoted through demand-side stimulus 
and  investment,  to  drive  bottom-up 

innovation.  This  requires  new  dynamic 
metrics that go beyond short-term cost-
effectiveness,  and  “picking  winners”  in 
procurement decisions.

and 

research 

5.  REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS
Mission-oriented  policies  are  about 
addressing  grand  societal  challenges 
through 
innovation 
activities.  But  it  would  not  be  realistic 
to expect that societal challenges would 
be  solved  by  research  and  innovation 
activities  alone.  The  solutions  that  are 
being  developed  need  to  be  reflected 
in  the  policies  that  are  linked  to  the 
challenges. We can develop alternatives 

14  Available online at https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/JOPP-10-03-2010-B003

Governing Missions in the European Union18

to plastics, but if there is no policy in place 
to drive these alternatives to the market, 
to  stimulate  consumers  to  use  them  or 
to  enforce  the  collection  and  re-use  of 
plastics,  the  problem  of  plastics  in  our 
oceans  and  seas  will  not  be  effectively 
addressed.  In  short,  a  mission-oriented 
policy  needs  a  broad  policy  approach, 
bringing  together  all  relevant  policies, 
including research and innovation.

Strong, progressive regulations, including 
State  Aid  rules  and  industry  standards, 
innovation  and  positive 
can  drive 
behaviours  towards  achieving  mission 
objectives. Regulations or standards that 
are  not  clear  or  even  contradictory,  or 
that lock a sector into a single technology 
or  innovation  path  can  become  barriers 
to innovation and cross-sectoral problem 
solving. In the development of legislation, 
it  should  be  considered  how  innovation 
to  achieve  societal 
can  contribute 
objectives.  The  design  of  legislation 
should  ensure  that  there  is  room  for 
experimentation  of  new  solutions,  to 
be  flexible  enough  to  adapt  to  fast 
technological  developments,  allow  for 
the provision of patient strategic finance 
in  transformational  high  risk  areas,  and 
be outcome oriented (see box 7).

Recommendation  11:  Regulation  should 
be used to spur innovation (rather than 
create  barriers)  that  will  contribute  to 
realising public value objectives. 

6.  FIT-FOR-PURPOSE EVALUATION 
FRAMEWORKS AND CAPABILITIES
Missions  cannot  be  evaluated  based  on 
a  simple  cost-benefit  analysis  (CBA). 
Indeed,  if  evaluated  via  CBA  the  Apollo 

and 

Moon  landings  would  likely  never  have 
seen  the  light  of  day.  The  justification 
for  the  Moonshot  mission  was  political 
–  to  win  the  space  race.  But  most  of 
the  social  and  economic  benefits  of 
the  Moonshot  mission  were  the  many 
technological 
spill-
spin-offs 
overs  that  resulted  from  the  mission’s 
activities.  In  short,  the  performance  of 
investments  should 
mission-oriented 
not  be  merely  assessed  in  budget-
constrained,  static,  allocative  efficiency 
measures,  but  in  terms  of  creation  of 
public  value,  dynamic  efficiency  and 
their  ‘additionality’:  the  extent  to  which 
they have been successful at catalysing 
activity  that  otherwise  would  not  have 
happened  (see  table  1).  This  approach 
helps  capture  the  potential  for  policy 
to create spill over effects across many 
sectors  of  the  economy,  alter  the  level 
of  investment  and  broader  trajectory 
of  economic  growth.  For  example,  the 
Concorde  plane  is  not  flying  today,  so 
according  to  private  sector  criteria  it  is 
a  failure.  However,  the  cross-sectoral 
investments  and  innovations  it  led  to 
should  be  part  of  any  evaluation  that 
looks at the societal value achieved.

In order to coordinate such varied activities 
and  policies,  public  policy  appraisal 
and  evaluation  need  to  be  based  on  a 
wider  understanding  of  the  value  public 
policies can create. Avoiding government 
failures  is  clearly  not  a  good  way  to 
coordinate  a  wider  set  of  policy  actions. 
Therefore,  mission-oriented  policy  needs 
clear  feedback  mechanisms.  Evaluation 
has  to  be  adaptive  to  the  specific 
characteristics  of  the  mission,  such  as 
a  portfolio  of  projects,  take  into  account 

Governing Missions in the European Union19

the  contribution  of  non-governmental 
actors  and  capture  the  positive  side-
effects of missions  (the innovations that 
develop  through  the  mission  agenda, 
but  are  deployed  outside  of  the  direct 
mission  remit).  Dynamic  spill-overs  are 
themselves  an  intermediate  objective 
in  missions.  Furthermore,  evaluation 
tools  and  methods  should  guard  public 
sector against lock-in and tunnel vision in 

situations where, for example, unexpected 
technological development makes specific 
missions irrelevant. 

Recommendation 12: Governments should 
embrace  new  evaluation  frameworks, 
tools  and  techniques  that  go  beyond 
static cost-benefit analysis, but capture 
spill-over  effects  that  can  be  directly 
attributed to mission implementation.

TABLE 1. MARKET-SHAPING/MISSION-ORIENTED INNOVATION 

MARKET-FIXING

MARKET-SHAPING/MISSION-ORIENTED

JUSTIFICA-
TION FOR THE  
ROLE OF  
GOVERNMENT

Market or coordination failures: 
•  Public goods
•  Negative externalities
• 

Imperfect competition/information

All markets and institutions are co-
created by public, private and third 
sectors. Role of government is to ensure 
markets support public purpose

BUSINESS 
CASE  
APPRAISAL

Ex-ante CBA – allocative efficiency 
assuming static general relationships, 
prices etc. 

Dynamic efficiency focused on systemic 
change to achieve mission (including spill-
over effects)

UNDERLYING 
ASSUMPTIONS

Possible to estimate reliable future 
value using discounting/monetisation of 
externalities/risk assessment; system is 
characterised by equilibrium behaviour

Future is uncertain because of potential 
for novelty and non-marginal change; 
system is characterised by complex 
behaviour

EVALUATION

Focus on whether specific policy solves 
market failure and whether government 
failure avoided (Pareto-efficient)

Ongoing and reflexive evaluation of whe-
ther the system is moving in direction of 
mission via achievement of intermediate 
milestones. Focus on portfolio of policies 
and interventions, and their interaction

APPROACH  
TO RISK

Highly risk averse; optimism bias  
assumed

Failure is accepted and encouraged as a 
learning device

Source: Kattel, R., Mazzucato, M., Ryan-Collins, J., Sharpe, S. (2018), ‘The economics of change: Policy appraisal for missions, market shaping 
and public’, IIPP Working Paper, no. 2018-06. Available online at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/wp2018-06

Governing Missions in the European Union20

FINANCE AND FUNDING

Bank. 

(e.g.  Kreditanstalt 

Research and innovation missions should 
not  be  narrowly  viewed  as  a  financing 
instrument. If framed in ambitious ways 
they can crowd-in other forms of finance. 
But  for  this  to  happen  the  eco-system 
of  financing  between  public  and  private 
actors,  and  the  financing  framework  at 
the European level, must be understood. 
The  public  part  of  the  eco-system  will 
include  research  funding,  public  venture 
capital  funds  as  well  as  procurement 
instruments  aimed  at  SMEs 
(e.g.  
SBRI – see box 4), national and regional 
für 
public  banks 
Wiederaufbau  in  Germany,  or  the  Asian 
Development  Bank)  and  the  European 
Investment 
European 
Commission  has  launched  the  European 
Innovation Council15, introducing dedicated 
programme  managers  and  blended 
finance of grants and equity investments 
to support breakthrough innovations that 
can  contribute  to  mission  objectives.  On 
the  private  side  it  will  include  the  entire 
financing landscape from private venture 
capital, to innovation funds in investment 
banking. As the private sector tends to be 
risk-averse,  bold  mission-oriented  funds 
that  are  willing  to  invest  in  the  more 
uncertain  part  of  the  technological  and 
market  landscape  (and  areas  with  high 
capital  intensity)  can  have  a  crowding-
in  role.  Futhermore, 
important  
to  consider  how  to  share  not  only  risks 
but also the rewards.

The 

is 

it 

15  Available online at https://ec.europa.eu/research/eic/index.cfm

1.  COORDINATING INSTRUMENTS TO 
CROWD-IN FINANCE ALONG THE 
FULL INNOVATION CHAIN

To  understand  the  crowding-in  process 
that can be galvanized from missions, it 
is  key  to  understand  the  different  levels 
of risk across the entire innovation chain. 
Mission-oriented  finance  can  both  help 
coordinate the types of financing that are 
appropriate for each level of risk, and can 
also  take  on  the  ‘investor  of  first  resort’ 
role  in  the  areas  of  highest  risk  and 
capital intensity (see table 2).

Missions will bring together a wide range of 
R&I activities, from blue-sky, fundamental 
research  projects  to  market  deployment 
actions.  Each  of  these  activities  requires 
a  different  type  of  financial  support.  It 
is  important  to  have  a  wide  range  of 
funding 
instruments  available  to  suit 
different areas of this risk landscape. For 
example, grants may be more appropriate 
for  visionary,  early  stage  R&I,  while 
equity  investments  may  be  suitable  for 
technology  based  firms  looking  to  scale 
up.  On  the  other  hand,  debt  instruments 
such as long-term loans may be better for 
lower-risk, incremental activities.

Early-stage  public  funding  helps  to  create 
and  shape  new  markets  and  nurture  new 
landscapes  which  the  private  sector  can 
develop  further.  Indeed,  from  advances 
such  as  the  internet  and  microchips  to 

Governing Missions in the European Union21

TABLE 2

Guiding principles  
to address funding gaps

Demand for financing

Supply for financing

High capital intensity

Long development  
lead-times

High technology risk

High market risk

Need for mission-oriented/
targeted approach to specific 
sector/lifecycle gaps

Need for blended instruments 
and complementary 
approaches

Importance of coordination 
and advisory

Insufficient risk appetite and 
limited investor patience

Frangmented supply 
of capital

Lack of complementarity 
across sources of capital

Public instruments too 
prescriptive, inflexible

Complex ecosystems

Information asymmetries

Source: European Investment Bank

biotechnology  and  nanotechnology,  many 
major  technological  breakthroughs  —  in 
both  basic  research  and  downstream 
commercialisation  —  were  only  made 
possible  by  direct  public  investments  that 
were willing and able to take risks before the 
private sector was willing to do so. In other 
words, public funding can, if structured well, 
lead to a dynamic ‘crowding-in’ effect. 

To  achieve  market-creating  innovation, 
in  particular  in  areas  such  as  deep  tech, 
Europe  suffers  from  a  systemic  failure 
in  its  ability  to  provide  the  large-scale 
venture  capital  needed.  At  the  same 
time it is important to learn the negative 
lessons — such as those in biotechnology 
—  from  impatient  venture  capital  when 

it is too exit-driven16, 17. What is required 
in  addition  to  venture  capital  is  patient 
strategic long term venture capital18.

institutions  need 

Public 
to  support 
companies  to  identify  suitable  financial 
instruments  and  to  develop  financing 
plans that are appropriate for the stage 
of  development  a  firm  is  at.  European 
R&I  missions  should  aim  to  bring 
greater  focus  and  streamlining  of  the 
ecosystem of current innovation funding 
programmes.  They  should  make  them 
more  accessible  to  both  businesses 
and civil society, acting as a bridge with 
funds  that  can  lead  innovative  projects 
in close to market stage to market (see 
boxes 8 and 9). 

16  Pisano, G. P. (2006), Science business: The promise, the reality, and the future of biotech. Harvard Business Press.
17  Lazonick, W., & Tulum, Ö. (2011), ‘US biopharmaceutical finance and the sustainability of the biotech business model’. Research Policy, 40(9), 1170-1187.
18  Mazzucato, M. (2013), The Entrepreneurial State. Anthem Press.

Governing Missions in the European Union22

8.

BREAKTHROUGH ENERGY VENTURES EUROPE

The Breakthrough Energy Ventures Europe (BEV-E) is a cooperation between the European 
Commission and the private sector Breakthough Energy Ventures group to invest €100 
Million (€50 Million each) in patient capital in high risk, breakthrough energy technologies.

Through this fund, based on an equity funding mechanism, high risk investments are made 
in European companies developing ground-breaking clean energy technologies. The use of 
‘patient’ capital means private investors are not expecting an immediate return from their 
initial investment but rather a long-term reward.

for  missions, 

In  addition,  to  ensure  effective  financial 
the  different 
support 
financing  instruments  available  to  the 
implementation of missions should not only 
provide a seamless landscape throughout 
the innovation chain. They should also be 
coordinated  in  terms  of  their  scope.  The 
mission objectives should give direction to 
the objectives of the financing instruments, 
so  that  in  each  stage  of  the  innovation 
cycle  those  projects  aiming  to  contribute 
to a mission will have clear possibilities to 
apply for public financial support.

Recommendation 13: The establishment of 
venture capital funds (in both the private 
and public sectors) that are aligned with 
missions should be promoted. They should 
pay attention to the need for patient, not 
impatient long-term finance.

Recommendation 14: Policy instruments 
and finance should be made available 

19  Mazzucato, M. (2013), The Entrepreneurial State. Anthem Press

for 
the  delivery  of  missions 
is  
innovation 
supporting 
long-term, 
through  the  life  of  the  mission  and 
being  tailored  to  each  stage  of  the 
innovation process.

2.  ALIGNING FUNDING AT EUROPEAN, 
NATIONAL AND REGIONAL LEVEL
The  EU’s  unique  multilevel  governance 
system is well suited to mission-oriented 
policies:  member  states  and  regions 
can  experiment  within  larger  EU-wide 
missions  and  the  lessons  can  then  be 
shared across member states. Different 
institutions  will  be  better  placed  to 
provide  different  types  of  finance.  This 
reinforces  the  idea  of  the  ‘networked 
entrepreneurial  state19’  which  is  not 
comprised  of  one  ministry  or  agency, 
but  rather  by  a  set  of  decentralised 
interactions between different agencies 
across  the  entire  innovation  chain,  in 
turn interacting with private actors. 

Governing Missions in the European Union23

9.

THE EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK NOVEL 
FINANCING MECHANISMS

The  European  Investment  Bank  already  has  a  record  of  investing  in  mission-oriented 
innovation projects and has successfully implemented novel financing mechanisms with 
the European Commission (such us the InnovFin Infections Diseases Finance Facility). This 
may hold interesting perspectives for the financing of missions, both in terms of structure 
and finance products. The EIB’s ability to leverage its own public financing to attract private 
co-investment enables a significant impact to be achieved from limited public resources. 

The EIB is well placed to nurture knowledge and expertise and to coordinate stakeholders 
in the investment ecosystem, in particular national public investment banks. In the context 
of  climate  change,  this  approach  is  well  aligned  with  the  recently  published  EU  High 
Level Expert Group report on Sustainable Finance which calls for the establishment of 
‘Sustainable Infrastructure Europe’ as a new capacity building organisation sitting within 
the EIB. It will help to reduce bottlenecks to private finance by spreading best practices 
across member states on sustainable infrastructure projects. Another example is InnovFin 
Advisory, where the EIB deploys financial advisory and financial structuring expertise in 
support of innovative companies, investors and the wider European innovation ecosystem.

streams 

financing 

However,  currently  there  is  significant 
fragmentation  in  terms  of  the  available 
innovation 
and 
instruments  at  both  pan-European  and 
member  state  level.  A  company  seeking 
finance faces a complex array of different 
national  and  European  options.  With  the 
aim of amplifying the impact of missions 
innovation  cycle,  the 
throughout  the 
coordination  of  funding  streams  at  the 
European,  national  and  regional  level  is 
of the utmost importance. 

An 
interactive  process  between  EU, 
Member  State  and  sub-national  levels 
is  not  straightforward.  The  potential 

synergic effect, described as the difference 
between the total effect of the action of a 
set of cooperating objects, and the sum of 
the individual effects these objects would 
have if they operated separately, depends 
on many variables. The various levels of 
government can have different regulatory 
requiring  harmonization, 
frameworks 
time-frames  of 
the 
mismatches  on 
the  parallel  funding  programmes  that 
need  to  be  syncronised  or  even  political 
priorities  that  go  in  a  different  direction. 
Therefore,  it  is  of  strategic  importance 
in  a  mission-oriented  approach  to  align 
policy priorities across different levels of 
the  EU’s  governance  system  in  order  to 

Governing Missions in the European Union24

maximise  synergies  in  publicly  financed 
it 
programmes.  Thanks  to  synergies 
is  possible 
to  strategically  combine 
financing  from  different  European  and 
local instruments, guaranteeing territorial 
effects  at  national  and  regional  level  of 
European missions, while avoiding, at the 
same time, double funding.

Recommendation  15:  To  maximise  the 
impact of missions, the coordination of 
European, national and regional funding 
streams needs to be optimised.

3.  CROWDING-IN OTHER SOURCES  

OF FINANCE

As  budgets  are  limited,  missions  need 
to  be  designed  in  ways  that  crowd-in 
investment and inspire and mobilise other 
forms of finance. Understanding how this 
has  been  done  well  requires  learning 
from  different  experiences  with  financial 
institutions  willing  to  provide  a  strategic 
combination  between  short-,  medium- 
and long-term finance alternatives.

fertile 

innovation 
Missions  provide  a 
environment, 
bottom-up 
encouraging 
innovations. Crowdfunding and philanthropic 
funding could become key in such a context 
to ‘plug the investment gap’.

Crowdfunding  could  be  particularly 
interesting  for  missions  as  they  aim 
to  inspire  and  connect  with  citizens, 
potentially  raising  the  opportunity  for 
citizens  to  engage  financially.  Different 
state  actors,  including  national  and 

local  governments,  and  international 
taken 
development  agencies,  have 
different  approaches  to  crowdfunding 
in  partnership  with  private  actors,  with 
a  view  of  experimenting,  ‘learning  by 
doing’  and  understanding  what  works 
and  what  does  not  work20.  The  hope 
is  to  channel  more  money  through 
crowdfunding  as  part  of  their  future 
programmes. 
innovation 
However,  there  are  concerns  around 
the 
risks  associated  with  private 
citizens investing and potentially losing 
money. Governments do not want to be 
perceived  as  ‘picking  winners’  or  make 
mistakes  by  supporting  crowdfunding 
projects that could fail (see box 10). 

and 

aid 

Recommendation  16:  Missions  should 
actively  promote 
interaction  with 
EU-wide  crowdfunding  platforms  to 
finance  mission-oriented,  bottom-up 
experimentation.

take 

Philanthropic  funding  can  have  two 
functions:  not  only  providing  additional 
finance but also acting as a critical friend 
in  guiding  the  missions  themselves 
through  their  grant-making  to  ensure 
they 
into  account  wider  civil 
society  needs  and  values.  Philanthropic 
foundations  can  also  provide  funding 
for  social  movements  and  civil  society 
campaigns  that  can  play  an  important 
role in supporting bottom-up innovations. 
As  an  example,  the  Ellen  MacArthur 
Foundation’s  emphasis  on  the  circular 
economy provides a powerful framework 

20  In the UK, the government has invested £5 million through the equity platform Crowdcube, is co-investing £100 million through selected peer-
to-peer loan platforms (Funding Circle, Zopa, Ratesetter etc.) and is co-investing £1m of Aid money through selected energy access crowdfunding 
platforms (e.g. TRINE, Global Giving, KIVA etc.). Local councils are also working with local crowdfunding platforms e.g. Swindon Council (UK) has 
launched two solar bonds with Abundance Generation (a renewable energy focussed crowdfunding platform in the UK).

Governing Missions in the European Union25

10.

EUROPEAN CROWDFUNDING STAKEHOLDERS FORUM

The European Commission has set up a European Crowdfunding Stakeholders Forum to 
obtain assistance in the development of policies for crowdfunding and has presented a 
proposal for regulation of the crowdfunding market (for debt and equity) to allow platforms 
to operate across Europe (by applying for a European passport license). The proposal aims 
to harmonise the European crowdfunding market solving the issues associated with cross-
border investment and improving the protection regime for crowd investors.

for  missions  focussed  on  ecological 
sustainability which otherwise might be 
captured by particular sectoral interests. 

The  philanthropic  sector  is  diverse  and 
fragmented. 
foundations 
European 
operate  with  a  variety  of  funding 
models,  governance  structures  and 
geographical remits. Some foundations 
have set up mission-based organisations 
to tackle clear global challenges. These 
organisations  mix  state  and  private 
funding  with  in-kind  or  direct  support 
from  industry.  In  order  to  maximise 
the  opportunities  to  join  forces,  public 
organisations  implementing  a  mission-
oriented  approach  should  ensure  that 
their funding programmes are set up in 
a way which allows for cooperation with 
foundations, in an ad-hoc manner or on 
a structured partnership basis.

Recommendation  17:  Flexible  options 
should be offered to engage foundations 
in  governing  missions,  ensuring  there 
are synergies and a lack of duplication 
in research funding.

Governing Missions in the European Unionof financing in highly uncertain, high risk 
innovative  activities.  Mission-oriented 
policies can show the direction and drive 
private  investment  that  is  based  on  the 
perception of future growth opportunities.

From the need to address climate change 
to rethinking our care systems, missions 
must  be  governed  in  a  dynamic  way 
harnessing  the  full  power  of  European 
creativity. The key to this will be the ability 
of public sector organisations, across all 
member states, to embrace the process 
of experimentation and exploration that 
is  central  to  overcoming  inertia  and 
creating  systems  of  innovation  for  the 
missions  to  be  accomplished.  “Mission 
Possible” in Europe!

26

CONCLUSION

shows 

scientific 

leadership, 
Europe 
technological  excellence,  capacity 
to 
deal  with  complexity,  ambition  to  lead 
on  societal  challenges  and  has  a  wide 
range  of  financing  instruments.  Missions 
provide a solution, an opportunity and an 
approach to better connect with citizens, 
making  it  more  visible  how  science, 
research and innovation contribute to the 
challenges they are faced with on a daily 
basis.  Furthermore,  it  will  increase  the 
impact of public investments in research 
and innovation activities. 

This  opportunity  is,  at  the  same  time, 
an  exciting  and  demanding  challenge. 
Public  actors  should  move  out  from 
their  comfort  zone,  think  outside  of  the 
box  of  “market  failure”  frameworks  and  
be prepared to take the risks of co-creating 
new markets, not just fixing existing ones. 

Missions  must  be  co-created  to  inspire 
society  at  large  to  focus  on  long-
term  societal  issues.  To  be  impactful 
to  have  widespread 
missions  need 
legitimacy  and  acceptance.  This  greater 
public  engagement,  in  every  stage  of 
the  innovation  chain,  requires  to  be 
correctly  balanced  with  an  effective 
portfolio management of these missions 
with  flexible  governance  structures 
that  enable  cross-sectoral  and  cross-
institutional coordination. 

This dynamic will attract private investment 
opportunities  and  crowd-in  other  sources 

Governing Missions in the European Union27

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public 
Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL 
Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP).   IIPP is dedicated to rethinking the 
role of public policy in shaping both the rate of economic growth and its direction—
and  training  the  next  generation  of  global  leaders  to  build  partnerships  that  can 
address mission-oriented societal goals.

She  is  winner  of  the  2014  New  Statesman  SPERI  Prize  in  Political  Economy,  the 
2015 Hans-Matthöfer-Preis, the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of 
Economic  Thought  and  the  2019  All  European  Academies  Madame  de  Staël  Prize 
for Cultural Values.  She was named as one of the ‘3 most important thinkers about 
innovation’ by the New Republic, and is on The Bloomberg 50 list of ‘Ones to Watch’ 
for 2019.

Her highly-acclaimed book The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private 
sector  myths  (2013)  investigates  the  role  of  public  organisations  in  playing  the 
‘investor of first resort’ role in the history of technological change. Her 2018 book 
The Value of Everything: making and taking in the global economy (2018)  brings 
value  theory  back  to  the  centre  of  economics  in  order  to  reward  value  creation 
over  value  extraction.  It  was  a  2018  Strategy  &  Business  Book  of  the  Year  and  
was  shortlisted  for  the  2018  Financial  Times  and  McKinsey  Business  Book  of  the 
Year prize.

She  advises  policymakers  around  the  world  on  innovation-led  inclusive  growth  and 
is  currently  a  member  of  the  Scottish  Government’s  Council  of  Economic  Advisors; 
the  UN’s  Committee  for  Development  Policy  (CDP),  the  Leadership  Council  of  the 
Sustainable  Development  Solutions  Network  (SDSN),  SITRA’s  Advisory  Panel  in 
Finland, and Norway’s Research Council. She is currently a Special Advisor for the EC 
Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas. 

About the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
IIPP  is  a  department  within  University  College  London  (UCL)  —  founded  in  1826 
to  solve  grand  challenges  —and  part  of  The  Bartlett  faculty,  known  internationally 
for  its  radical  thinking  about  space,  design  and  sustainability.  IIPP  is  dedicated  to 
rethinking the role of public policy in shaping both the rate of economic growth and 
its direction—and training the next generation of global leaders to build partnerships 
that can address mission-oriented societal goals.

Governing Missions in the European Union28

Acknowledgements 
The  author  wishes  to  acknowledge  significant  input  from  colleagues  at  the  IIPP 
(in  alphabetical  order):  George  Dibb,  Rainer  Kattel,  Laurie  Macfarlane,  Martha 
McPherson and Josh Ryan-Collins. The author would also like to thank the following 
individuals  for  their  help  in  preparing  this  report:  Dan  Hill,  Rowan  Conway,  Shiva 
Dustdar,  Simon  Sharpe,  Abby  Taylor,  Irene  Mafini,  Charles  Leadbeater,  Hermann 
Hauser, Tamsin Murray-Leach, Robert Mull, Anna Randle, and Finn Williams.

Finally,  the  author  would  like  to  thank  the  team  at  the  European  Commission  for 
their support: Commissioner Carlos Moedas, Robert Schröder, Enrico Pellizzari and 
Ugo Guarnacci.

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The European Commission, through Carlos Moedas, 
Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, 
invited Professor Mariana Mazzucato to draw up strategic 
recommendations to maximise the impact of the future 
EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 
through mission-oriented policy.

This report is the result of Professor Mazzucato’s reflections 
based on her research, with inputs through a consultation 
process with internal and external stakeholders of the 
European Commission. 

Studies and reports