Science and technology in the service of the State: Understanding mission-oriented research systems in a changing world

Mission-oriented science and technology - that is Government funded science and technology in direct support of the goals or missions of the state - has a long history and accounts for a great deal of public spending on S&T. Each mission area (e.g. in defence, health or agriculture policy) has its own distinctive system of actors and organizations. However, mission-oriented research has tended to be overlooked by academic analysts of science and technology policy. Yet these systems are significant features of both the wider research and innovation systems and of public policy systems, and are thought to be facing profound challenges stemming from changes in public policy missions (including the emergence of significant global challenges), from financial and political pressures on the organization of government activities, from shifts in the way scientific knowledge is produced and the global distribution of scientific expertise, and from the globalization of technology and innovation. And in the current context of budgetary declines and fiscal austerity, there may be particular tensions between the need to meet short term pressures and needs, deal with longer-term problems and at the same time ensure that the right balance of knowledge and expertise is maintained to meet future, as yet unknown, challenges.
Our research aims to better understand how these mission-oriented research systems work and how they are changing in response to these challenges. In doing so, we will contribute to academic understanding of mission-oriented science and technology policy and the growing academic debate on the future of mission-oriented science and technology policy. But we also aim to inform policy and practice in the field of mission-oriented science and technology policy, and improve the level of debate amongst stakeholders in the UK and beyond.
Specifically, through our research we aim to:
1. Characterise and so better understand the different kinds of mission-oriented research systems and their distinguishing features;
2. Understand in detail selected mission-oriented research systems and how they have evolved in recent years;
3. Examine how actors in and stakeholders of those systems perceive the challenges and opportunities facing them, allowing us to identify challenges that may be common to all mission-oriented systems and challenges that are unique to specific systems;
4. Assess how the selected mission-oriented research systems are responding to the challenges;
5. Identify the opportunities for and threats to mission-oriented research systems, distinguishing between any generic implications for mission-oriented science and technology systems as a whole and any specific implications for defence and security-related mission-oriented research systems.

We will seek to inform policy and practice in the field of mission-oriented science and technology policy. Beneficiaries of the research will include policy makers and decision makers in central government departments (MOD, DEFRA, BIS and more widely); those responsible for commissioning policy-oriented research (DSTL Programme Office; DEFRA; and DEFRA agencies), those responsible for managing research programmes (in DSTL, DEFRA and DEFRA agencies); research performing organisations within government (DSTL; DEFRA research agencies and others); and outside government (universities, large firms like BAE Systems, small firms and private research organisations); and other stakeholders (e.g. the Royal Society, Institute of Physics).

The research outputs will benefit defence/national security by helping UK defence and security to better harness possible science and technology opportunities through the more agile and flexible creation and adoption of new science and technological knowledge not least from non-traditional sources. The research will do so by promoting a better understanding of the organisations, institutions and relationships that constitute MORS, the dynamics affecting those systems and the opportunities and threats to UK defence and security posed by their responses.

The research will help UK government address the recommendations of the Blackett Review by contributing to policy makers' understanding of the current system and the opportunities and barriers to the engagement of "non-traditional" sources of expertise, not least universities.

The research will also provide an opportunity for learning across government through our cross-case comparison of policy and practice in MOD and DEFRA.

All actors will benefit from a systematic understanding as to the way missions are actually translated into structures and budgets for research and the knowledge and use of knowledge, and how existing systems are responding to new challenges and opportunities. Importantly, by bringing together stakeholders around our concepts and findings, we will not only "inform" them, but create a stakeholder discourse that will contribute to a mutual understanding and joint learning between those stakeholders.