Douglas Robinson

Dr Douglas Robinson is a Research Associate at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).

Douglas Robinson - Senior Research Associate

Dr Douglas K. R. Robinson will be leading IIPP’s work on new forms of public and private partnerships in the space economy. His activities focus on implementing “missions” in innovation ecosystems, looking at new forms of partnerships between public, private and third sector organisations and also exploring new ways of analysing the contributions of research and innovation towards grand challenges. Douglas also participates in IIPP’s work on new forms of partnerships and market creation in the space economy.

Douglas is an expert in science, technology and innovation studies and characterising their link with socio-economic impacts. Originally trained as a physicist and space scientist, Douglas has been both researcher and consultant focussing on the emergence of breakthrough technologies and their transformation into working technologies in society.  A large part of his work is connecting academic research with real-world problems, through engagement exercises, multi-stakeholder technology assessment and the development of policy relevant intelligence. 

Alongside publishing scientific articles, Douglas also produces reports on emerging technologies and their ramifications for the economy and for society, recent reports for public agencies and international organisations include OECD, European Space Agency and NASA.

Since 1st January 2020, Douglas is Deputy Director of the Laborator for Interdiscipliary studies of Science, Innovation and Society (LISIS), Paris, France.

Research summary

Douglas’ current work with Professor Mazzucato focusses on understanding the emerging industries and markets related to the space sector and how innovation policies can be tailored to maximise positive socio-economic impacts and value-driven growth.

Part of this includes exploring the rapidly evolving industrial dynamics in the space sector and new business models, as well as how innovation ecosystems function (or not). It also involves exploring mission-oriented innovation policy driven by sustainable and fair market creation policies with a view to value-driven growth.

Selected publications

A full publication list can be found here.

  • Boon, W. P., Edler, J., & Robinson, D. K. R. (2020). Market formation in the context of transitions: A comment on the transitions agenda. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. Volume 34, March 2020, Pages 346-347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2019.11.006
  • Robinson, D.K.R (2019) Anticipating value chains and potential impacts from marine biotechnology research and innovation. Deliverable 5.2 for the Horizon 2020 project European Marine Biotechnology Research Inrastructure Cluster. May 2nd 2019
  • Robinson, D. K. R., & Mazzucato, M. (2019). The evolution of mission-oriented policies: Exploring changing market creating policies in the US and European space sector. Research Policy, 48(4), 936-948. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2018.10.005
  • Robinson, D. K. R., Lagnau, A., & Boon, W. P. (2019). Innovation pathways in additive manufacturing: Methods for tracing emerging and branching paths from rapid prototyping to alternative applications. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 146, 733-750. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.07.012
  • Joly, P. B., Matt, M., & Robinson, D. K. R. (2019). Research Impact Assessment: from ex post to real-time assessment. fteval Journal for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation, 47, 35-40. http://doi.org/10.22163/fteval.2019.326
  • Mazzucato, M. and Robinson, D. K. R. (2018) Co-creating and directing Innovation Ecosystems? NASAs changing approach to public-private partnerships in low-earth orbit. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 136, 166-177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.03.034