In this 50th anniversary year of the 1969 Moon landing we have an opportunity to once again think big about ways to address some of the most urgent needs of our time: clean air in congested cities; a healthy and independent life in old age; access to digital technologies that improve public services; and treatment of diseases such as cancer or obesity that continue to afflict millions of people across the globe.
In the next decade we will need to understand the relationship between these problems and the current dynamics of science, research and innovation. We all recognise, for example, that science is needed to produce medicines, but what is the role of research and innovation in producing a more caring society? We know that science is needed for the emergence of renewable energy, but what is the role of research and innovation in producing economies that are more sustainable across areas of production, distribution and consumption patterns? And how, for example, can we use innovation to build cities that are more enjoyable to live in?
The good news is that we don’t have to look very far for tangible lessons. Most of the smart products we have in our bags and pockets came from investments that were more far reaching than a simple “science-push” explanation provides. They came from the ability to connect science to solving concrete problems – that is, through “missions”.
The internet was not discovered as a planned objective, but to solve a problem that scientists had in the late 1960s: how to allow multiple computers to communicate on a single network. This led to the creation of the Arpanet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) funded by the US Department of Defense and, later, the internet that connects smart devices today.
Similarly, GPS was not developed so that we can use Google maps on our iPhones, but to solve military and intelligence problems when the US was at the height of the Cold War.
In other words, both the internet and GPS were spillovers from missions.
Today we have the opportunity to direct innovation in similar mission-led ways, which will be as bold as the moonshot programme was, but will instead be aimed at the multiple social and technological challenges we have. These will be inspired not by Cold War challenges, but by what one could call the war on poverty, the war on climate change and the urgent need to create societies that are more just and sustainable.
Today’s political leaders are not short of societal challenges that they can turn into concrete missions: climate change, ageing populations and rising inequality. I have been advocating a mission-led approach in the European Union and setting out potential missions for a plastic-free ocean, carbon-neutral cities and decreasing the burden of dementia. These are all significant challenges of our time that need bold and inspirational leadership.
Missions are set at the top without being prescriptive on what the innovation required to solve the problem must be. They then facilitate bottom-up innovation to achieve the goal. We need to use the full power of government instruments – from prize schemes to procurement – to crowd in multiple bottom-up solutions. The moonshot, for example, required innovations across different sectors to be successful, including nutrition, computing and clothing as well as spaceflight.
It will also be important not to ignore the humanities and social sciences in missions. Poets can help to make missions more inspirational. Indeed, it is David Attenborough’s Blue Planet series that has led to school children dreaming big about solving a major mission: getting plastic out of the ocean. This is an important point too in an era of populism: missions can inspire citizens by creating a common concrete goal that everyone can work towards.
The next ten years must be about rethinking government and rethinking the economy: how to do public budgeting; how to nurture new forms of capabilities inside the civil service; how to evaluate public investments; and how to nurture new forms of public-private partnerships directed at societal change. And it is through missions that we will find innovative ways to meet society’s greatest challenges, while achieving economic growth that is innovative, equitable and sustainable.
Mariana Mazzucato is a professor at University College London, where she is founder and director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
