2022 Babbage Industrial Innovation Policy Awards Launched

Awards of up to $10K, $5K and $3K available | submission deadline 14 July 2022

Entry Form

The need for effective policies towards industrial innovation has been thrown into sharp relief by recent international events. Increasingly complex relationships between technology, innovation and industrial competitiveness have been further complicated by the emergence of a global pandemic. Such challenges are likely to require new policies at local, national and regional levels.

Traditionally, economics has provided the main conceptual frameworks for policymakers, but it is increasingly apparent that other disciplines including engineering, technology management and political science, provide essential perspectives and insights. Expertise and analysis from these and other disciplines need to be integrated with economic frameworks if robust and implementable policies are to be developed.

The aim of this competition is to encourage practice oriented academic and ‘professional’ contributions to industrial innovation policy analysis and design.

The competition

The competition seeks to elicit new, multi-disciplinary insights, analysis or synthesis to enhance the design, development, deployment and evaluation of industrial innovation policies. Topics might include, but are not limited to:

• How might public and private bodies be configured to support the development of robust industrial innovation policies in different contexts?
• What Frameworks and Processes might support the systematic formulation of industrial innovation policies?
• How might the necessary evidence, including Futures studies, be captured, presented and analysed to inform Industrial Innovation policymaking?
• What additional characteristics of industrial policies may be necessary to respond to the acceleration of global technological and contextual developments?
• How might disciplinary expertise and insights, particularly in economics, technology and management be integrated in industrial innovation policymaking?

The competition is open to all and the judges will welcome submissions from early career as well as more established scholars and practitioners.

Criteria

The judges will favour submissions of approximately 3000 words, which:

• Address clearly identified industrial innovation policy challenges
• Draw upon several disciplines highlighting novel theoretical and/or practical insights
• Articulate how the insights might be operationalised in practical policymaking
• Provide illustrative examples from practice where appropriate

Submission and assessment

Entry Form  Sign up for updates about the awards

The deadline for submissions is midnight on Thursday 14 July 2022 and a shortlist of leading  submissions will be announced at the end of August. Assessment will be by a panel drawn from the Babbage International Policy Forum* which includes leading international academics from economics, engineering, management and political science. Award winners will be invited to a future Babbage event in Cambridge. Travel expenses will be paid for.

More details of the Babbage Forum and our activities.