Making innovation serve the common good

Technological and societal innovation can contribute to greater sustainability, economic prosperity, equality and wellbeing. But innovation can also cause societal, financial and environmental damage, lead to (new) inequalities, impinge on privacy and other freedoms, and create opportunities for fraud. Understanding what impact innovation has and how it can best be regulated is therefore key to helping unlock the potential of innovation and making it work for the good of society.

In the Regulation of Innovation research theme, teams of economists, lawyers and governance scholars work together to find out how we can make innovation serve the common good. Which innovations live up to their expectations and which do not? What are the consequences of innovation for the quality of products, services and, ultimately, society? And how can we regulate innovation in order to achieve the greatest benefits for society?

Research domains

Within the research theme, these questions are studied in three different domains:

Resilient Societies

Regulation of Innovation is one of the subsidiary themes of Resilient Societies. Within this overarching theme, the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance combines its forces in multidisciplinary research that contributes to resolving issues in society. Resilient societies are better able to respond flexibly to such themes as migration, climate change, new technologies or geopolitical shifts.

The programme's research is conducted along three main issues or subsidiary themes. Next to Regulation of Innovation these are: