Question of the Month: What is the biggest challenge your AOI/ID/STP faces in influencing innovation policy?

This month, we asked IASP members: 

What is the biggest challenge your AOI/ID/STP faces in influencing innovation policy?  

The question explores an important aspect of the role that innovation spaces can play beyond supporting companies, research and entrepreneurship: contributing to the policy environment in which innovation ecosystems operate. 

The results suggest that, for many respondents, the main difficulty is not a lack of interest in innovation policy, rather, having sufficient opportunities to participate in shaping it. 

Among the respondents, 46% identified limited opportunities to participate in policymaking as their biggest challenge, making it the most widely selected response by a significant margin. This was followed by low political interest in innovation and limited coordination with other stakeholders, each selected by 23% of respondents. 

The prominence of limited opportunities to participate in policymaking suggests that AOIs, IDs and STPs may see themselves as having valuable perspectives to contribute, while not always having the channels or mechanisms to bring those perspectives into policy discussions.  

At the same time, the results point to the importance of relationships and coordination. Nearly a quarter of respondents identified limited coordination with other stakeholders as their biggest challenge, while a similar proportion pointed to low political interest in innovation. Together, these responses suggest that influencing policy is not only about having access to decision-makers, but also about creating stronger connections between the different actors involved in developing and implementing innovation policy.