Developed countries spend significant portion of their GDPs on the inputs to innovation ecosystems such as research, education, and infrastructure, among others. For developing countries struggling with many other priorities, such level of investment may not be possible in the short to medium term
Innovation policies rely on a range of factors beyond simply investment into inputs to succeed. According to the 2015 Global Innovation report from WIPO, many countries have inefficient innovation policies yielding low returns on investments made in their innovation ecosystem. A holistic approach to understanding the problems and drafting evidence base policies is needed to ensure that these investments are made efficiently and lead to robust innovation ecosystems.
By using ICTs and other tools to work directly with stakeholders in innovation ecosystems and international experts in innovation policy, it is possible to experiment with grassroots policy approaches leading to more robust ecosystems, and effective investments in innovation. The development of strong innovation ecosystems is a key component of national development, as innovation, especially in ICTs, is a driver of economic competitiveness and growth in modern economies.
With the innovation as a core development goal, and ICT as key enabler of it, this session will discuss following points:
• Role and mechanism of ICT as a core driver to innovation driven economies
• Explore grassroots approaches to evidence base ICT centric innovation policy
• Role of key stakeholders in making innovation policy work
Format: presentation followed by panel discussion