Transitions
Which actors, processes and policy levers can help foster transitions from unsustainable to sustainable socio-ecological or socio-technical systems?
In the face of climate change, resource scarcity and biodiversity loss, we need fundamental changes in the provision of energy, mobility, housing, water, food and healthcare. The current technologies and institutions in all these domains are unsustainable yet persistent. Combining natural and social science, Copernicus researchers analyse sustainability transitions in a multi-scalar way (local, national, and global) and emphasize the role of innovation and governance. Next to new knowledge and insights, we develop tools and instruments to support multi-stakeholder policy processes and societal debates.
Highlights
Monitoring support for upscaling eHealth innovations
Although eHealth innovations often look promising, scaling-up of these activities is a slow process, if it happens at all. How can the government help overcome current hurdles in scaling up eHealth innovations.
Innovation for rare diseases: how does the Netherlands compare to other European countries?
Rare diseases affect a small number of patients. Companies and knowledge institutes invest less time and money in innovation. Therefore, the EU and national governments have set up a number of incentives and grant schemes.
Innovation, intermediaries and societal challenges
Innovations and uncommon collaborations are important for addressing ‘grand’ societal challenges like the response to a changing climate. We explore policy opportunities and challenges for linking organisations that under normal circumstances would be unlikely to collaborate.
Human transformation of the Earth started much earlier than previously thought
Humans have been farming, burning forests and grazing livestock for thousands of years. Understanding this past land use is key to making accurate predictions of global change in the future.
Nature-based sustainability transitions
While innovating with nature and natural processes is increasingly recognised as a promising way to achieve sustainability, still little is known about the typical barriers that these innovations face, hindering the development of transition pathways.
Producer responsibility essential for the transition to a circular economy, says new report
A circular economy sits at the heart of the European Union’s Green New Deal and the push for Climate Neutrality in 2050. But when it comes to electronics, current measures are not good enough. A recent report outlines how going forward, EU policy must expand to include a new set of responsibilities for producers so they move beyond only promoting recycling to truly engaging in and facilitating a circular economy.
Transformative innovation policies: unlocking Europe's path to sustainability
Faced with the challenge to create more sustainable societies in only a short timeframe, transformative innovation policies are emerging as a key approach across Europe. But what makes policy transformative? And how can policies that aim to transform society best be implemented? A Copernicus-led European Commission JRC Science for Policy report provides answers to these questions.
Agriculture, food and degrowth: four avenues to pave the way to a sustainable food system
What would degrowth look like in the agriculture and food sectors? A new research agenda explores the questions degrowth researchers must ask to advance the transition to a sustainable and just global food system.
Campus Living Labs test new, transformative ways of thinking and doing
Achieving a sustainable and just future for all will require new and innovative ways of thinking or doing across society. But for these ideas and solutions to become the norm, we first need to test and experiment with them on a smaller scale. One way to do this is through living labs. Our researchers have studied the conditions needed to make living labs for sustainability successful, and how they can be used to bridge campus operations with academia, accelerating the transformation to a sustainable society.
How “missions” coordinate policy, research, and stakeholders to solve pressing societal challenges
More and more, innovation efforts to solve pressing societal challenges like the energy transition are focused into state-led “missions”. However, governments often lack the capacity and flexibility to prioritize and accelerate innovation. Here researchers present a new way of thinking about how missions mobilize and align stakeholders across society.
Selected experts
Flor Avelino Professor of Organisations and Sustainability
Koen Frenken Professor of Innovation Studies
Marko Hekkert Professor of Dynamics of Innovation Systems
Ellen Moors Professor of Innovation and Sustainability
Simona Negro Associate Professor Dynamics of Innovation Systems
Bernhard Truffer Professor of Geography of Transitions in Urban Infrastructures
