Regulatory agencies as innovation enablers: a conceptualization

Jaime Bonnin Roca

doi:10.1093/scipol/scae049

Regulatory agencies as innovation enablers: a conceptualization

Jaime Bonnin Roca (Corresponding author)

Innovation Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Regulatory agencies are usually tasked with a dual mission of assessing the benefits and risks posed by products reaching the market, and ensuring the competitiveness of the industries they oversee. Although literature usually presents regulators as agents hampering innovation, that is not always the case. The purpose of this paper is to discuss, under which conditions, and why, regulatory agencies may enable innovation. I propose a conceptual framework to connect the literatures on regulatory processes and innovation processes. Based on this framework, I analyse three connections between the innovation and regulatory processes, which create opportunities for agencies’ innovation intermediation. I provide real-life examples of three different mechanisms through which such intermediation may take place, and propose four modes of intermediation which are characteristic of regulatory agencies.

Original language	English
Article number	scae049
Pages (from-to)	1051-1061
Number of pages	11
Journal	Science and Public Policy
Volume	51
Issue number	6
Early online date	13 Aug 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scae049
Publication status	Published - Dec 2024

Funding

For instance, the US FDA has launched more than fifteen public\u2013private partnerships under the umbrella of the so-called Critical Path Initiative (). In Europe, the European Commission has similarly funded the Innovative Medicines Initiative, where officials from the European Medicines Agency actively participate in each of the consortiums, and where small business are supported by EU funding (). In aviation, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has also funded consortia to promote innovation. For instance, in the late 1990s, the FAA funded the Advanced General Aviation Transportation Experiment, a consortium to promote the use of emerging digital technologies in small aircraft, and adapt pilot training (). Technological development was complemented with an extensive redesign of safety regulations for small aircraft, which were not appropriate to assess the safety of digital technologies (). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has funded initiatives such as the Consortium for Site Characterization Technology, to develop technologies to assess and remediate contaminated areas (); or the Project XL, to validate novel approaches to reduce the cost of environmental protection ().

Funders	Funder number
European Commission
European Medicines Agency

Keywords

innovation
intermediaries
regulation
safety
technology transfer

Access to Document

10.1093/scipol/scae049

Cite this

@article{1b0c80c284544eada89ed5a892b8de54,

title = "Regulatory agencies as innovation enablers: a conceptualization",

abstract = " Regulatory agencies are usually tasked with a dual mission of assessing the benefits and risks posed by products reaching the market, and ensuring the competitiveness of the industries they oversee. Although literature usually presents regulators as agents hampering innovation, that is not always the case. The purpose of this paper is to discuss, under which conditions, and why, regulatory agencies may enable innovation. I propose a conceptual framework to connect the literatures on regulatory processes and innovation processes. Based on this framework, I analyse three connections between the innovation and regulatory processes, which create opportunities for agencies{\textquoteright} innovation intermediation. I provide real-life examples of three different mechanisms through which such intermediation may take place, and propose four modes of intermediation which are characteristic of regulatory agencies.",

keywords = "innovation, intermediaries, regulation, safety, technology transfer",

author = "{Bonnin Roca}, Jaime",

year = "2024",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1093/scipol/scae049",

language = "English",

volume = "51",

pages = "1051--1061",

journal = "Science and Public Policy",

issn = "0302-3427",

publisher = "Oxford University Press",

number = "6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Regulatory agencies as innovation enablers

T2 - a conceptualization

AU - Bonnin Roca, Jaime

PY - 2024/12

Y1 - 2024/12

N2 - Regulatory agencies are usually tasked with a dual mission of assessing the benefits and risks posed by products reaching the market, and ensuring the competitiveness of the industries they oversee. Although literature usually presents regulators as agents hampering innovation, that is not always the case. The purpose of this paper is to discuss, under which conditions, and why, regulatory agencies may enable innovation. I propose a conceptual framework to connect the literatures on regulatory processes and innovation processes. Based on this framework, I analyse three connections between the innovation and regulatory processes, which create opportunities for agencies’ innovation intermediation. I provide real-life examples of three different mechanisms through which such intermediation may take place, and propose four modes of intermediation which are characteristic of regulatory agencies.

AB - Regulatory agencies are usually tasked with a dual mission of assessing the benefits and risks posed by products reaching the market, and ensuring the competitiveness of the industries they oversee. Although literature usually presents regulators as agents hampering innovation, that is not always the case. The purpose of this paper is to discuss, under which conditions, and why, regulatory agencies may enable innovation. I propose a conceptual framework to connect the literatures on regulatory processes and innovation processes. Based on this framework, I analyse three connections between the innovation and regulatory processes, which create opportunities for agencies’ innovation intermediation. I provide real-life examples of three different mechanisms through which such intermediation may take place, and propose four modes of intermediation which are characteristic of regulatory agencies.

KW - innovation

KW - intermediaries

KW - regulation

KW - safety

KW - technology transfer

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85212140383&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/scipol/scae049

DO - 10.1093/scipol/scae049

M3 - Article

SN - 0302-3427

VL - 51

SP - 1051

EP - 1061

JO - Science and Public Policy

JF - Science and Public Policy

IS - 6

M1 - scae049

ER -

Regulatory agencies as innovation enablers: a conceptualization

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this