Innovation policy mix: mapping and measurement

The "policy mix" concept has gained popularity among science, technology and innovation policy communities over the past two decades in a context of growing policy complexity and need for policy evidence. Pressing societal challenges are also prompting governments to rethink policy making in order to better align public intervention across policy domains and leverage the transformative potential of system innovations. Governments faced multiple obstacles in implementing a policy mix approach in policy making and evaluation. Based on a comparative analysis of international STI policy repositories, a conceptual framework is proposed, as well as structuring principles and operational guidelines for mapping the composition of a policy mix, identifying interactions among components and translating the mapping into measurement. In that view, a range of new policy mix metrics is introduced. Finally, the discussion focuses on the need for moving towards a new data management paradigm and enlarging the measurement mix.