Mission forward: Shaping the future through mission-oriented policy

At the 2026 Mission Forward Conference, the OECD will bring the global mission community together again to share best practices and common challenges. The programme of the conference reflects the evolution of missions, focusing on mission implementation and how to evaluate the success of MOIPs. As a result, the conference programme will focus on four areas, each reflecting current political trends (a growing focus on competitiveness and productivity) and the stages that an increasing number of missions are now reaching (scaling-up, learning, and even phasing-out): 

1. Missions for social well-being and competitiveness – missions are increasingly asked to deliver concrete economic impacts in terms of productivity, competitiveness and jobs – what are the economic and societal impacts of missions? How to design missions that serve competitiveness while still addressing the greatest societal challenges of our time? 
2. Scaling missions – as many missions are reaching the crucial stage of supporting the deployment of new solutions, how can the impact of missions be scaled up effectively? What governance arrangements are needed to ensure scaling is effective and sustainable?
3. Evaluating missions’ impacts – as the pressure to deliver societal and economic impacts increases in a context of tight public resources, how to measure the added value of missions? What is the current stage of knowledge and experience on mission evaluation? 
4. Leveraging the mission way of working in other domains – what lessons can be extrapolated beyond individual missions and applied across different policy levels and domains? Missions often generate spillovers (e.g., governance practices, and collaborative processes) whose influence can extend well beyond the mission arena itself. A key question is how these learnings can be consolidated, diffused, and sustained.

Over the two days of the conference, participants will engage in a mix of interactive discussions, plenary sessions, breakout sessions, and peer exchanges. The programme will include the following types of sessions: 

• Plenary sessions, where high-level mission experts will share strategic perspectives and help consolidate key learnings across the conference themes.
• Key issues’ breakout sessions, where participants will be divided into groups and take part in moderated discussions on key issues. 
• EU Mission-specific breakout sessions, where participants involved with the EU Missions will be divided into groups and take part in moderated discussions on topics that cut across the five missions. 
• Parallel sessions on mission governance models, where non-EU participants will discuss the strengths and weakness of different mission governance models (i.e., center of government missions, ARPA/DARPA accelerator missions, ecosystem missions, and organisational missions)
• Parallel sessions on mission sectors, where participants will be brought together by mission area (e.g. health, circular economy, agriculture) to explore shared challenges and opportunities.  
• Poster sessions and exhibition space, showcasing key topics, best practices, and successful cases from across mission-oriented policies around the world. 
• Other interactive activities and spaces to promote exchange 
  • between mission managers (including bilaterals)
  • between mission managers and mission academics 

09:00-09:30 Welcome Coffee

09:30-10:30 Opening Plenary: Setting the Scene

• Collective framing and scene setting
• Introduction to the conference themes

10:30-11:15 Panel Discussion with Mission Policymakers

• Perspectives from mission policymakers from around the world
• Discussion of key opportunities and challenges for mission-oriented innovation

11:15-11:30 Coffee Break

11:30-13:00 Parallel Sessions

• EU Mission-specific Breakouts (EU Missions only)
  • Governance
  • Citizen and stakeholder engagement
  • Pooling of efforts and resources
  • Knowledge creation, innovation and scaling up
• Mission Governance Models
  • Centre-of-government missions
  • ARPA/DARPA accelerator missions
  • Ecosystem missions
  • Organisational missions

13:00-14:30 Lunch Break

14:30-16:00 Key Issue Breakouts

• Missions and competitiveness
• Scaling missions

16:00-16:30 Coffee Break

16:30-17:45 Poster Session 1

• Poster presentations (first half of initiatives)

17:45-18:00 Closing Remarks Day 1

• Key insights and emerging priorities from Day 1
• Reconvergence and synthesis

18:00-19:30 Cocktail Reception

09:00-09:30 Welcome Coffee

09:30-10:30 Panel Discussion with Mission Policymakers

• Panel discussion on the conference themes
• Perspectives from mission policymakers from around the world

10:30-12:00 Key Issue Breakouts

• Evaluating missions' impacts
• Learning from missions

12:00-13:30 Lunch Break

13:30-15:00 Parallel Sessions: Sector-Specific Mission Challenges and Opportunities

• Agriculture
• Circular economy
• City missions
• Climate mitigation and adaptation
• Digital technologies
• Health
• University missions

15:00-15:30 Coffee Break

15:30-17:00 Poster Session 2

• Poster presentations (second half of initiatives)

17:00-17:30 Closing Session Day 2

• Key insights from the conference