Building and Managing Public Innovation — A Journey through DARPA’s High-Risk, High-Reward Legacy
Listen to Josh Entsminger PhD in Conversation with Sarah Doyle, Rainer Kattel and Jack Stilgoe, discussing his PhD and his research regarding DARPA's organisational structure and approach to funding.
Building and Managing Public Innovation — A Journey through DARPA’s High-Risk, High-Reward Legacy
29 Jul 2025, 17:30 – 19:00
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About this talk:
What does it take to study one of the world’s most influential—and enigmatic—public innovation agencies? In this PhD in Conversation, Josh Entsminger shares the story behind his doctoral research on the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an institution that has shaped global science and technology since 1958 but remains surprisingly underexplored in its internal workings.
Drawing on his thesis Building and Managing Public High-Risk, High-Reward Agencies: Essays on DARPA, 1958–2020, Josh reflects on the challenges and revelations of researching an institution known for its radical ambition, and what this can teach us about how governments fund, structure, and sustain innovation for the public good.
Meet the panel:
- Josh Entsminger, PhD Candidate at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
- Sarah Doyle, Policy Fellow at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
- Rainer Kattel, Co-Director at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
- Jack Stilgoe, Professor of Science and Technology Policy at UCL Dept of Science & Technology Studies
Faculty of Maths & Physical Sciences (STEaPP)
About PhD in Conversations:
PhD in Conversation provides a space for emerging researchers to share the core ideas of their doctoral work alongside the personal journey that shaped it. Each session brings together original research, lived experience, and an open conversation with expert panellists and the audience—bridging scholarship with public-purpose innovation.
Josh is a PhD student in innovation and public policy, supervised by Professor Mariana Mazzucato and Professor Rainer Kattel. In addition to doctoral work, he currently serves as a fellow at the Center for Policy and Competitiveness at Ecole Des Ponts Business School, and fellow at IE School of Global and Public Affairs’ Public Tech Lab. He was a research contributor on two World Economic Forum reports delivered at Davos in 2018 and 2020.
Sarah is a Policy Fellow at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). Previously, Sarah has been Head of Policy and Chief of Staff to Professor Mazzucato. Before joining IIPP, Sarah was the Director of Policy + Research at the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she led the development of a research agenda aimed at helping to build an inclusive innovation-driven economy in Canada.
Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance
UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)Rainer Kattel is Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). He has studied at the University of Tartu, Estonia, and the University of Marburg, Germany, in philosophy, political philosophy, classics and public administration.He led Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance for 10 years, building it into one of the leading innovation and governance schools in the region.
Dr Jack Stilgoe is a professor in science and technology studies at University College London, where he researches the governance of emerging technologies. He is part of the UKRI Responsible AI leadership team (www.rai.ac.uk). He was principal investigator of the ESRC Driverless Futures project (2019-2022). He worked with EPSRC and ESRC to develop a framework for responsible innovation that is now being used by the Research Councils.
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