UCL IIPP launches new applied learning programme for Peru’s National Innovation Agency

IIPP has launched a new applied learning programme on public sector innovation challenges which has been designed and tailored to support ProInnovate, the National Program for Technological Development and Innovation in Perú.

The programme, led by Prof. Rainer Kattel, with contributions from IIPP Faculty – including Prof. Mariana Mazzucato, Prof. Carlota Perez and Prof. Dan Hill – aim to developing a new public challenge-driven instrument to spark innovation in the Peruvian ecosystem. It will equip the civil servants working at ProInnovate and other key stakeholders, with new lenses through which to understand modern innovation policies, in particular moving away from market failure fixing instruments towards the adoption of market shaping portfolios focused on solving specific socio-economic challenges. In addition, IIPP will support ProInnovate in designing and launching a new challenge-driven instrument.

This comes at a crucial time as governments and innovation agencies globally need to respond to a changing innovation ecosystem which requires new capabilities, policies and practices. Acknowledging that innovation goes beyond the traditional narrow definition of technological development, and instead includes social innovation as a key component of it, means looking at innovation systems as broader ecosystems of actors interacting in complex ways and at different levels. This has also created new questions about the role of the public sector in fostering innovation in a way that creates value and benefits society as a whole. Challenge-driven innovation programmes are emerging as a tool to direct innovation towards addressing socio-technological challenges.

ProInnovate’s new challenge-driven instrument will focus on connecting leading practitioners in the Peruvian public sector with cutting-edge technical solutions coming out of the start-up universe to fashion, shape, and test how technology can be leveraged to help solve entrenched problems.

Prof. Rainer Kattel, with support from colleagues from IIPP, kicked-off the applied learning programme in early September with a three-day design sprint in Lima, Perú, with over 40 participants from ProInnovate and other key stakeholders such as the Peru’s Ministry and Institute of Production, the Ministry of Finance, the Cabinet Office and the Scientific Research Agency. The design sprint, which was a mix of lectures and working sessions, concluded with the co-creation of low-fidelity prototypes developed by the participants. The programme will continue over the next two months with a series of online lectures and working sessions to support the development of the final prototype of the new challenge-driven instrument, which will be launched by ProInnovate in 2024. 

IIPP Deputy Director, Prof. Rainer Kattel said: 

Many governments are rethinking the way they are designing and implementing innovation policies and it is great to see countries like Peru at the forefront of this movement. Innovation policies should help governments tackle fundamental socio-economic challenges but this also requires rethinking how public agencies work. It is a great pleasure and privilege to experiment with Proinnovate and other agencies in Peru in how to design a new generation of innovation policies and co-develop a blueprint for new capabilities needed to deliver such policies. 

Executive Director of ProInnóvate, Alejandro Afuso said: 

Whilst public challenges of a social, environmental, or administrative nature are increasingly frequent, we want, through this instrument and the partnership with IIPP, to create the conditions that allow the execution of collaborative innovation projects in a structured and optimal manner. Our goal with the programme is to strengthen the appropriate dynamic capabilities to design an innovation instrument oriented towards public entities. With the help of the IIPP, I believe we can achieve the objective of the instruments, that is to develop technological solutions aimed at addressing public challenges, using an open innovation model and a challenge-driven methodology.

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