Mission‑Oriented Innovation Policies for Net Zero

Annex G. List of Net zero mission case studies

This report’s analyses were mainly based on 17 net zero mission case studies. This annex presents an overview of each mission and the MOIP initiatives to which they belong.

Table G.1. List of Net zero mission case studies

	Basic information
CSIRO Team Australia Missions (Australia)
CSIROH2-AU	The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Missions programme initiative was launched in 2020 as a way to focus collective responses to key national challenges, identified through trend modelling and forecasting, that would allow Australia to better coordinate research and translation activities across the national innovation system, anticipate industry trends, be alert to where future issues could arise, position Australia to leverage opportunities to create new industries and jobs, capitalise on existing global advantages, and foster major science and technology breakthroughs. The missions are developed/ co-created in partnership with industry, research organisations, government and communities and aim to accelerate post COVID 19 recovery, create new jobs, stimulate the economy, and build long-term resilience. While the missions are initiated by CSIRO, a leading research organisation in Australia, to increase the strategic integration of its various centers, they also aim to bring together towards common goals all the relevant actors within and outside CSIRO, in line with policy priorities. Each mission defines its own agenda based on interactions between the different partners. The activities expand beyond research. The Towards Net Zero Mission looks to build the innovation system coherence, capability and directionality to allow Australia’s hard to abate sectors to reduce emissions by 50% by 2035 and in doing so generate environmental, societal and regional benefits. The mission focuses on three core activities: firstly roadmapping and system orientation to guide investment action and drive coordinated action; secondly institutional strengthening to build capacity for coherence and inclusivity and to bring knowledge of the current and future technology landscape into funding and policy decision making; and thirdly building coalitions to build demonstrator systems. At an overarching level the Mission is co-creating with system actors a net zero transition monitoring, evaluation and learning framework to enhance system reflexivity. Because the Mission is convened in CSIRO it is able to send strong signals back into the foundational science parts of the organisation (and into the wider innovation system) on the research direction saliency and on future capability needs that are being surfaced through mission core activities. Having built national transition roadmaps for the low emissions steel, sustainable aviation fuel and agriculture sectors the mission is now scoping demonstrator systems such as a green steel hub, working with finance to develop $100M concessional loan products for net zero farm financing, and designing SAF feedstock demonstrator systems. The Mission is supported by an estimated $AUD88m in CSIRO investment and $310m in investment from national innovation system partners, including government, industry and the research sector. The Hydrogen Industry Mission is supported by $100 million in investment from from CSIRO, with contributions of $110 million from industry partners and the Australian Government. The mission is helping to build Australia’s clean hydrogen industry by scaling demand and driving down hydrogen costs to deliver a secure and resilient energy system and support our transition to a low emissions future. Additionally, it also intends to create more than 8000 jobs and generate $11 billion a year in GDP and help to position Australia to lead the world in exporting hydrogen by 2030. Among the supported activities are a Hydrogen Knowledge Centre, a national resource for industry, government, and the research community which highlights Australia's hydrogen projects and provides modelling tools and educational resources. In partnership with National Energy Resources Australia, there is also the Hydrogen Technology Cluster Australia, to accelerate the hydrogen supply chain development by enabling connection, collaboration, and alignment of action; HyCapability, a hydrogen capability finder to connect Australian hydrogen businesses with a domestic and global market; and HyResource, a repository of core information around projects, policies and key organisations involved in the research, development and deployment of clean hydrogen as a low-emissions energy source.
Austrian Transition Missions (Austria)
NM-COT	Mission Climate-neutral City By creating innovation spaces, the mission "Climate-neutral city" supports Austrian cities in accelerating the necessary transformation for a climate-neutral future. 10 large pionieer cities (>50.000 inhabitants) and 50-70 small pionieer cities (10.000-50.000 inhabitants) will be go large steps towards climate neutrality by 2030. Austria has an ambitious goal: the country is to become climate-neutral by 2040 - this requires fundamental changes in framework conditions, economy and society. Cities play a central role here. The Austrian Ministry for Climate Action will conclude partnership contracts with the 10 large pionieer cities. As part of the "Climate-neutral city" mission, pioneer cities show exemplarily how strategies and measures must be targeted to implement climate neutrality in cities and municipalities. The mission also fosters learning environments for cities and promotes the development of innovative solutions, which can also be used and further developed by other cities and municipalities. The focus is on the demonstration of climate-neutral districts and holistic solutions for the energy and mobility transition as well as the circular economy for the realization of a future climate-neutral city. The Mission was established in 2021. The Austrian Ministry for Climate Action allocates 2023-2026 (RTI PAKT PERIOD) 20 Million Euro per year towards the mission for climate neutral city. Mission Energy transition In terms of a mission-oriented innovation policy, the energy transition is anchored in the Austrian Ministry for Climate Action as an RTI focus. The interdisciplinary approach includes all RTI topics (space applications, mobility system, production, digital technologies) and provides an impact-oriented mix of instruments for implementation. The follow three impact pathways are set: Successful energy transition in Austria The energy transition requires major changes in the energy system, but also all around and within the economic system. We therefore need interdisciplinary and intersectoral developments of technology-based solutions to transform the Austrian energy and economic system towards climate neutrality. The RTI missions and innovation goals formulated in the implementation plan for the energy research initiative in the national energy and climate plan (NEKP) serve as guidelines. Successful Austrian players in global value creation cycles With the FTI focus on energy transition, the innovative power and competence of Austrian actors for contributions to the energy transition is being expanded and their contributions integrated into international value chains. Future competence in the RTI system In addition, the development of strategic competence for future developments in the field of energy innovation in research, business and administration is being promoted. We are thus making a significant contribution to Europe's technological sovereignty. The Mission was established in 2021. The Austrian Ministry for Climate Action allocates 2024-2026 (RTI PAKT PERIOD) 30 Million Euro per year towards the mission Energy Transition. Mission Mobility Transition The Austrian Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK) supports the transformation towards a sustainable, climate-neutral and inclusive mobility and transport system. The cross-cutting topic of mobility affects a wide range of areas of life and politics, such as spatial planning, health, infrastructure, propulsion technologies, behavioural sciences and logistics. To mobilize actors from such diverse fields for mission-oriented innovation policies, the search for solutions to concrete problems in concrete spatial or systemic contexts must be in the foreground. The mobility transition not only ensures quality of life and supply in changing economic and ecological conditions, it also increases competitiveness, employment and international demand for Austrian innovations. The strategic framework for this is provided by the Research, Technology and Innovation (RTI) Mobility Strategy with impact-based measures such as the targeted allocation of RTI funding, forging alliances and implementation partnerships, the facilitation of exploration spaces as well as, European and international positioning. This results in the necessary technological, social and organizational innovations in the field of urban and regional mobility, digitization and technology development for a sustainable transformation of the mobility system. The Mission was established in 2021. The Austrian Ministry for Climate Action allocates 2024-2026 (RTI PAKT PERIOD) 30 Million Euro per year towards the mission Mobility Transition. Mission Circular Economy With the mission "Austria on the way to a sustainable and circular society", the Austrian Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK) is pursuing the goal of anchoring the circular economy across all disciplines. This approach incorporates all RTI topics and provides an impact-oriented mix of instruments for implementing circular economy. Circular economy requires system changes around and within the economic system. In the past, innovations often took place in 'silos' and were optimized for a specific aspect of the product or material. While these innovations brought improvements in one area, they often weakened value creation in other, usually downstream stages of the value chain. For this reason, there is a need for systemic innovations that create value for both the actor(s) and the system as a whole. The fundamental transformation of the economic system to a circular economy can only succeed through systemic and holistic research and development. This requires developing radically new solutions and successfully establishing them on the market. The future circular use of resources will consist of interconnected subsystems, which requires the interaction of a multitude of technologies, innovations and actors. The Mission was established in 2021. The Austrian Ministry for Climate Action allocates 2024-2026 (RTI PAKT PERIOD) 30 Million Euro per year towards the mission Circular Economy.
National Research Council Challenge (Canada)
MCF-CA	The Materials for Clean Fuels Challenge Program is part of the Collaborative Science, Technology and Innovation Program (CSTIP) of the National Research Council Canada (NRC). Announced in 2019, CSTIP supports innovation across ‘superclusters’ (areas of intense business activity made up of companies, academic institutions and not-for-profit organisations that boost innovation and growth in a particular industry) and mission-oriented Challenges targeting beneficial disruptive technologies. The Challenges aim to generate partnerships among private and public sectors, academic and other research organisations in Canada and abroad to advance transformative, high-risk, high-reward research that address Canadian priorities. It brings together researchers and facilities from across the NRC's 14 research centres, with academic and industrial partners, and are coordinated through program-specific management boards, executives, with support from relevant external Advisory Boards. The Program has CAD 150 million, with CAD 30 million per year ongoing to fund NRC researchers and their innovative partners from higher education institutions and businesses on multi-party R&D programmes. An additional CAD 15 million in funding will address R&D needs in the fight against COVID-19. Under the jurisdiction of a Program Team and the guidance of an Advisory Committee comprised of ‘clean technology’ professionals, the Materials for Clean Fuels Challenge program aims to develop transformative technologies for the sustainable transition of Canada's energy and chemical industries to a low-carbon economy through materials innovation. Canada’s commitment to the Paris Agreement includes a national target of reducing 716 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions per year to reach its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The mission focuses on developing and demonstrating climate change mitigation technologies related to transportation and energy generation for use in industry and the transport sector. The program has three areas, related to carbon dioxide conversion into renewable fuels and chemical feed stocks such as syngas and ethylene; industrial-scale hydrogen conversion, to support new technologies that can produce hydrogen for industrial use; AI-accelerated materials discovery incorporating diverse areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and high-throughput experimentation to accelerate the discovery of new catalyst materials. It is supported by new infrastructure development by the NRC, specifically a new national facility to accelerate materials discovery and dedicated computing facilities and in operando catalyst equipment.
Innomission (Denmark)
GM-CCSU	The political decision to launch four ‘green missions’ was made in 2020 as part of the Green Research Strategy. They focus on capture and storage or use of CO₂, green fuels for transport and industry (Power-to-X, etc.), climate and environment friendly agriculture and food production, and circular economy. Through these missions, Denmark aims to invest in mission-driven green research and innovation partnerships that can contribute to two overarching goals: 1. 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in Denmark by 2030 and net zero emissions in 2050 and to strengthen the environment and nature; 2. increased competitiveness for Danish business and industry. Since then, the Danish government has set even more ambitious goals: Net-zero by 2045 and net-negative (110%) in 2050. The Missions focus on the thematic areas of high priority, ascertained through an assessment of where new solutions are needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to best exploit opportunities for Danish research and business. Each mission operate in two steps: 1. a call for ‘Innomission-roadmaps’ where all relevant actors are invited to develop a sociotechnical back-track roadmap from 2050, which describes challenges and shortcomings within the mission, positions of strength and potential and outlines key activities and relevant work stream themes for future partnerships; 2. Following a selection of the roadmaps proposed in step 1, a call for partnerships to implement the roadmaps. The INNOmission partnerships started in the middle of 2022. The Mission for Carbon Capture and Storage and Utilisation aims to develop and demonstrate sustainable solutions and value chains to benefit socio-economic development and the environment. In line with a broader goal to reduce Denmark's greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent by 2030, this mission, in 2030-40, harness the potential to capture, store, or use the order of 4-9 mill. t. from Danish CO₂ emissions, make CO₂ capture cheaper, to better support the development of cost-effective, safe and environmentally responsible infrastructure for the transport and storage of CO₂, and leverage Danish research environments to build a base where Danish businesses are able to store CO₂ from other countries and position themselves well to exploit this growing market. The mission seeks on the following potential future applications, such as the capture CO₂ from point sources or the atmosphere; application of CO₂ to climate-neutral products; storage of CO₂; materials for transport and industry; intelligent solutions for integration of RE in relation to CCUS; cost-effective renewable energy technologies for CCUS. Activities to generate these possible future applications is devised through the advent of a roadmap, whereby diverse partners come together to collaborate and mutually agree on a course of action. It is a way of coordinating missions that balances directionality (as distinct from historical bottom-up approaches to innovation) with collaboration.
Horizon Europe Missions (European Union)
EU-CNSC	The European Union’s Horizon Europe’s Missions make EUR 1.9 billion available for the period 2021-23 to implement five missions on the following themes: adaptation to climate change including societal transformation, cancer, climate-neutral and smart cities, healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters, and soil health and food. This mission-oriented turn came about through the design of the latest Framework Programme Horizon Europe, shifting away from individual calls and moving toward large-scale research and innovation missions which encompass an entire portfolio of activities. These missions have been chosen because they require a systemic, cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral and cross-policy approach to research and innovation. With a budget of EUR 360 million for the period of 2021-2023, the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission has the objective of delivering at least 100 European climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 and ensuring that these cities also act as experimentation and innovation hubs for others to follow, to enable all European cities to become climate-neutral by 2050. Each EU Mission has its own respective Mission Board, comprising up to 15 experts coming from diverse fields like innovation, business, science, farming, civil society, communications and media. The Board is responsible for advising the Commission on the design and implementation of the Mission. In accordance with the Implementation Plan seven Specific Objectives have been identified: to develop and support a ‘demand-driven’ and city-focused process to aid preparation of Climate City Contracts; support Research and Innovation pilots and demonstrators within the Mission Platform to scale-up and replicate solutions developed in past R&I programmes; develop synergies and complementarities and facilitate mutual support with existing Commission initiatives; provide access to city administrations and their local businesses to EU-wide skills and expertise and help cities connect in international networks; help cities develop the administrative, financial; and policy capacity through innovative governance; establish a system of measuring and monitoring the progress towards climate neutrality for cities; increase the level of assistance from national, regional and local authorities as well as from NPBs, municipal banks and private sector investment, through regulatory, funding and financing levers to help cities implement the mission.
Flagship Programs (Finland)
FP-FI	Launched in 2018, the Finland’s Flagship Program initiative aims to create solutions to societal challenges, develop new business opportunities, and contribute to sustainable growth. The Programs have a long-term plan for eight years, developed in collaboration with business, industry and society. Programs are comprised of a series of calls to implement the plan. The budget for 10 Flagships from the first and second calls have a budget of EUR 500 million (funded by the host organisations including seven universities, five research institutes, Helsinki Hospital and the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service). This budget was supplemented in 2020 with an extra EUR 25 million to fund new Flagships. The Atmosphere and Climate Competence Center (ACCC) Flagship constituted by the University of Helsinki, Tampere University, University of Eastern Finland and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. It addresses climate change and deteriorating air quality. Its objectives are to provide state-of-the-art scientific knowledge on these two themes, establish a platform (ACCC Service Portal) to collect big data from comprehensive observations and multi-scale models to be delivered to various stakeholders, co-create science-based solutions for guiding the world toward climate neutrality, and establish international and interactive atmospheric research-business innovation ecosystem in Finland. It coordinates its work via two Research Programs (focused on quantifying and activating the potential of land-based climate change mitigation and quantifying the air quality climate interactions), one Impact Program (that connects and tests the economic and social impact of the research results generated through the research programs) and 13 Impact Tasks that will maximise the interaction between the research communities, businesses, policy, and societal sectors.
Growth Engines (Finland)
GE-FI	Launched in 2018, Finland’s Growth Engines initiative aims to disrupt global markets and create new growth sectors by supporting the development and maintenance of innovation ecosystems. These ecosystems aim to generate over 1-billion-euro new business, exports and investments in Finland through the activation of growth-oriented businesses from different industries, research organisations, public actors and end customers, attracting innovation activities of foreign companies to Finland, and inaugurating new Public-Private Partnerships. Growth Engines are typically funded in two-year periods, for a maximum of ten years. The GreenE2 Growth Engine looks to develop a new broad-based innovation ecosystem to serve as the foundation for substantial new business in the field of Power-to-X, for the utilization of hydrogen and carbon dioxide and the reform of value chains regarding green electrification using hydrogen. Foreseen applications include green hydrogen in the hydrogen production industries and green technologies and e-products such as new forms of chemicals and fuels. It is coordinated by a funded platform company, CLIC Innovation, which is a public partnership that orchestrates large companies, research organisations, public institutions, small and medium-sized enterprises with Business Finland’s support to focus on areas such as RDI projects, influencing the regulatory landscape, identifying areas for current and future education needs, development of international cooperation, new markets, and market shaping. The mission uses various policy instruments to aid implementation, including those which support social innovation, such as the ‘Citizen Science Initiative’, which enables the general public to contribute to problem definition, data collection and analysis in climate science and the ‘Climate University’, a network of 11 universities in Finland coordinated by University of Helsinki, developing climate change and sustainability education in higher education to educate people to bring climate change awareness and sustainability into their working lives.
France 2030 Stratégies Nationales d’Accélération (France)
StratAc1-FR	Acceleration strategies (Ass) are a new instrument of the so-called ‘directed logic’ of the Investments for the Future programme (PIA) – launched by the French government in 2010 and now integrated in the French recovery plan (France 2030). One of the key objectives of Ass is to provide support to specific technology areas via integrated support across all stages of the innovation chain, from exploratory research to market deployment. Each strategy has its own structure of governance, with a dedicated interministerial coordinator. The carbon-free hydrogen AS has set targets for 2030, including the installation of a carbon-free hydrogen production capacity of 6.5 GW by electrolysis, the saving of more than 6 Mt of CO₂ and the creation of 50,000 to 150,000 direct and indirect jobs in France. The task of the coordinator is to lead the interministerial coordination and monitoring of all the actions implemented using a rather broad collectively developed roadmap as guideline. The Carbon free Hydrogen AS has a budget of EUR 3.4 billion during the period 2020-2023, and EUR 7 billion are planned until 2030. The Strategy covers all aspects related to the establishment of a hydrogen value chain from research to production, pipelines and markets. The Acceleration Strategy also aims to develop key technologies and components through pilot projects for different types of usages and markets.
StratAc2-FR	The Industry Decarbonisation Acceleration strategy (AS) is one of the more than 20 Ass launched by the French government (see above the carbon-free hydrogen AS). Based on a strategy co-developed with the different actors (various public authorities, research, industry, etc.), the AS aims to ensure the emergence of a competitive French offer of industrial decarbonisation solutions. The AS, for instance, supports breakthrough and incremental innovation; initiates large-scale demonstration of decarbonisation solutions; the industrialisation of equipment in France and their distribution on the market; promotes low carbon industry products public procurement and eliminate regulatory obstacles to decarbonisation; creates and strengthens the training offer relevant to the challenges of industry decarbonisation
Research Ireland’s Challenge Programmes (Ireland)
SFIIP-IR	Research Ireland launched the Challenge Programmes, a Challenge Funding Programme in 2018 to support the development of novel, potentially disruptive, technologies to address significant societal challenges and to amplify the country’s innovation capabilities to create sustainable, equitable and innovation-led growth. The Programme’s challenge-based funding approach allows it to be wholly focused on solutions, providing the necessary scale to advance solutions to societal and economic challenges including Irish and European national missions, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and specific technological and cross cutting challenges. The initial streams of funding focused on challenges related to zero emissions, AI for societal good, plastics, food and the SDGs. The Zero Emissions Challenge had a budget of €5.7M and supported the advent of disruptive solutions that accelerate progress towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland by 2050. The mission is implemented through a stage-gated competitive challenge to identify and develop a field ready prototype. The challenge process is comprised of a concept phases, wherein teams develop the feasibility and viability case for their concept, a seed phase wherein five the top concepts are funded to undertake further stakeholder engagement and collaborative co-development towards a field-ready prototype, then finally a prize, where the winning team will finalise and implement their plan for solution deployment with a view to demonstrating the solution within two years. The implementation of the mission prioritises the generation of many multiple, possible solutions to a problem in a bottom-up way and puts a heavy emphasis on the social dimension of the mission, encouraging interaction between mission teams and their respective stakeholders and beneficiaries. The winner of this particular challenge prize was ‘Farm Zero C’, a climate-neutral farm (to be demonstrated in Shinagh Farm in Cork) to achieve net-zero emissions by 2027 with the plan being to extend the strategy to a further 5000 farms within five years. In partnership with dairy producer Carbery Group, Farm Zero C will test using renewable energy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, planting different types of grasses and clovers on pastures and supporting hedgerows to boost biodiversity and soil health, changing livestock feed can affect how much methane gas they produce, and how a mobile app will help wider deployment by integrating farm and satellite data, habitat mapping and natural capital accounting, to provide users with information on the carbon footprint of their activities and to develop strategies to reduce these. More recently, and building on earlier approaches, Research Ireland has implemented a large-scale initiative -The National Challenge Fund – which is a €65M research fund that provides ambitious researchers with the chance to make a difference by developing solutions to key challenges in the areas of Green Transition and Digital Transformation. The National Challenge Fund was established under the Irish Government’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP)funded by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. The fund comprises eight individual challenges and will fund more than 95 research teams with initial awards of up to €250k for 18 months, with teams competing for eight prize awards of up to €2M. Green Transition challenges include 2050 Challenge, Energy Innovation Challenge, Healthy Environment for All Challenge, Sustainable Communities Challenge and Future Food Systems. Digital Transformation challenges include the Future Digital Challenge, Digital for Resilience Challenge and the OurTech Challenge.
Moonshot Research and Development Program (Japan)
MRDP-J	The Moonshot Research and Development of Program supports high risk, high impact R&D projects. It has three Target Areas which relate to: harnessing diversity through techno-social transformation to create an innovative and sustainable society, recovery for global environment and growth of civilisation, exploring frontiers with science and technology. In turn, these are supported by visions and goals. It is overseen by the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, covering the whole program except for Moonshots related to health which are supervised by the Headquarters for Healthcare Policy. Both headquarters are supported by the Strategy Council which comprises industry leaders, relevant ministries, academics and the executive members of the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation. As of 2018, the program has a five year fund of Yen 100 billion to which a further 15 billion was added in 2019. The mission on the Realisation of Sustainable Resource Circulation to Recover the Global Environment by 2050 aims to develop solutions to global warming and environmental pollution problem through the realisation of sustainable resource circulation for the global environment. It is overseen by the Moonshot Programme, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation which implements challenging R&D to accomplish Moonshot Goal 4 and realises the R&D concept formulated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The mission’s targets include having prototypes/ pilots for circulation technology for GHG and technology in which environmental harmful substances are converted into valuable or harmless materials. By 2040, to have several small markets for the resources circulation technology and global commercial plans and products for circulation technology. In terms of the portfolio management for the implementation, the Program Director constructs a program portfolio by combining multiple projects in consideration of their level of ambition, feasibility, and potential for impact, and also manages and supports the overall program. In the portfolio, there exists four types of projects together which are aimed to achieve the final goal. This allows the program to select projects according to their level of progress, moving progressive to ‘spin out’ one research result to the next stage, at a time.
Mission-driven Top Sectors and Innovation Policy (The Netherlands)
MDTPS-NE	Introduced in 2011, the Dutch Top Sectors Policy covers research, higher education and innovation through a new form of public-private collaboration. It is structured around nine sectoral areas integral to the Dutch economy: agriculture, horticulture, logistics, high tech systems and materials, life sciences and health, chemicals, creative industry, energy, water. It sets ambitious goals to challenge entrepreneurs and scientists to develop pioneering solutions and contribute to the competitiveness of the Netherlands. A Steering Committee takes carriage of the overall horizontal and vertical coordination and monitoring of the whole Top Sector policy, with each Top Sector managed by its own respective Top Team and Advisory Board, supported by their relevant Consortium for Knowledge and Innovation Boards, which develop and implement their strategic agenda. In 2018, it was reformed to become the Mission-driven Top Sectors and Innovation Policy structured along several societal challenges and 25 missions to which the Top Sectors must jointly contribute. The Carbon free Built Environment by 2050 mission seeks to reduce dependence on natural gas and increase development and uptake of sustainable resources in local energy consumption. It targets achieving a CO2 free built environment in 2050, requiring a 3.4 Mton CO 2 reduction in 2030, disconnecting 30,000-50,000 existing houses per year from the natural gas infrastructure by 2021, and 200,000 existing houses per year before 2030; making 1.5 million houses and 15% of utility buildings and societal real estate natural gas free by 2030, as well as making at least 20% of local energy consumption (incl. EV) within the built environment from sustainable energy production. As with other Top Sector missions, it has a Top Team and Advisory Board and, notably, the Ministry of Interior (BZK) is actively engaging with the Mission Team since this ministry has committed itself to the goals such as making large amounts of natural gas-free and sustainable houses already within a few years. To implement this mission, a new policy instrument named ‘Mission-oriented research, development and innovation (MOOI)’. Was developed. It requires the multidisciplinary consortia of at least three organisations (including small and medium-sized enterprises and stakeholders concerned with/affected by the usage of the solution) to submit plans proposing integrated solutions rather than individual technologies for tackling the mission. Through integrating the policy mix in this area, the mission aims to develop technologies that can transform the construction sector.
Pilot E (Norway)
PE-NO	Launched in 2016, the Pilot E initiative brings together Norwegian research and innovation support agencies (the Research Council, Innovation Norway, and Enova). This new form of cooperation and coordination aims to fast track the development, testing, and deployment of new solutions that are able to produce tangible results in a given timeframe, while still allowing for the exploration of different options to contribute to emission reductions both in Norway and internationally, address challenges of national relevance through different ‘calls for proposal’. A Steering Board gathers representatives of the three agencies and the Pilot-E programme working group to decide on the overall plan for the scheme, the theme, and content of the calls. OECD has grouped a number of individual Pilot E calls under the title of ‘Green Shipping’ due to their thematic similarity, thereby effectively terming them a mission. This mission seeks to reduce emissions from domestic shipping by promoting the development of low- and zero-emission solutions for all vessel categories, for example by making a third of car ferries use electric propulsion systems, in a way that will positively contribute to the target of reducing Norway’s emissions by 80–95 % compared with 1990. Cumulatively, the calls that comprise this mission Integrate their relevant innovation and value chains to create solutions for the maritime transport sector.
Challenge Driven Innovation Initiative (Sweden)
CDII-SW	Sweden’s Challenge Driven Innovation, initially launched in 2011, supports research and innovation in areas relevant to four key societal challenges. The focus was initially on four key challenges: the future of healthcare, sustainable attractive cities, information society 3.0, and competitive production. The initiative was born out of the Lund Declaration, stating that European research policy and STI activities should move toward addressing societal challenges (and away from rigid thematic approaches) better engage global, public and private stakeholders, and (as a process) be ‘owned’ by the European Union, but involving the alignment of national initiatives. The Challenge Driven Innovation program was a way for Sweden to decrease fragmentation in operational focus and resourcing and better embrace user/ demand driven innovation initiatives, while also developing solutions that are internationally marketable, drive foreign investment, and ultimately contribute to green and socially sustainable growth. Research and innovation projects were funded through a stage-gated implementation approach, Step 1 – Initiation, focusing on developing the idea, Step 2 – Collaboration between actors, testing the innovative solutions and Step 3 – Implementation, focusing on implementing the results in a larger scale. When the UNs adopted the sustainability development goals in 2015 the focus for Challenge Driven Innovation was broadened to include all 17 sustainability development goals of Agenda 2030. As part of the initiative’s focus on competitive production, the Innovation Platform for Textile Sorting (Siptex) established a fully automated industrial scale textile sorting facility to produce quality assured recycling products for fibre-to-fibre recycling. Automated sorting is currently the missing link between collection of textiles and high-quality textile recycling, and Siptex aimed to bridge that gap. The Siptex facility works by using near-infrared (NIR) and visual spectroscopy (VIS) to sort textile waste by fibre type and colour. The Siptex project had six impact goals. These are increased circularity in the textile value chain, contribution to availability of raw materials for textile production, established capacities for automated textile sorting in Europe, functioning markets for recyclable textiles, established ‘eco system’ of actors along the textile value chain, and implemented policies for more circular textile flows and strategies for safe use of recycled textile fibres. Through the establishment and operation of the SipTex facility, testing and evaluation of automated sorting of textile waste on an industrial scale was made possible. Knowledge and new insights were gained about opportunities and challenges linked to automated textile sorting. This contributed to the creation of a product range of Siptex sorted textiles of specific fiber content that was developed based on market demand. Knowledge was also gained about the importance of well-functioning textile collection and manual sorting to enable subsequent automatic sorting. The last batch of Step 3 projects in the program Challenge Driven Innovation were funded in the end of 2023 and they will finish in 2026.
Strategic Innovation Programmes (Sweden)
SIPS-SW	The Swedish Strategic Innovation Programs (SIPs) bring together various actors aim to create conditions for sustainable solutions to global societal challenges and international competitiveness. Functionally, SIPs are the implementation of various Strategic Innovation Agendas (SIAs). The SIA initiative ran from 2012 to 2016 and brought together various actors and partners to co-develop common visions and innovation agendas to guide the sustainable growth of emerging cross-sectoral areas. This strategic orientation foregrounded the need to meet societal challenges, create growth, and strengthen Sweden's competitiveness in these areas. To meet these high-level goals, SIPs bring leading actors from business, academia, and the public sector define areas where they see a need for a Swedish pool of forces and provide joint efforts. The initiative gives companies, public activities, as well as universities, colleges and institutes an increased opportunity to collaborate in the implementation of various initiatives. This type of program has allowed Sweden to increase stakeholder networks as well as the participation of unique actors, enhance system level knowledge, and better concentrate and mobilise actors. Starting in 2017, the Viable Cities SIP aims to achieve climate-neutral cities by 2030, with a good life for all within planetary boundaries. With a budget of approximately SEK 1 billion to invest in research and innovation over 12 years, nine cities and their partners were selected to act as pioneers in accelerating climate transition in cities. These cities will act as holistic system demonstrators to enable transformative systems change to climate-neutral and sustainable cities using infrastructure that supports new forms of governance and management, citizen engagement, forms of coordination in financing climate investments in cities, policy development and decision-making processes, knowledge support and digital tools, and ways to develop, implement, spread and scale-up new solutions with a focus on impact. Implementation is phased, with a focus on internationalisation to strengthen innovation power and growth opportunities, entrepreneurship to strengthening innovation ecosystems, a ‘liquid roadmap’ to examine the future direction of the program, and building a learning community. Then, there is the focus on building demonstrators, creating a lab to explore how to create better mission infrastructure and governance, and national cooperation and local mobilisation and financing models. Ultimately, the mission seeks to engender sociotechnological and socio-ecological systems of cities in line with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement.
Vinnova’s pilot missions (Sweden)
VPM-SW	Arising out of commitments to make Sweden the first fossil-free welfare countries of the world, achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and participate in EU missions programs, Sweden’s Pilot Missions uses a mission-oriented innovation process strongly influenced by design thinking across two core themes: Healthy Sustainable Mobility and Healthy Sustainable Food. The objective of the initiative is to drive systems change in key strategic areas, identify and exploit economic development opportunities, and achieve clear societal outcomes. The Healthy and Sustainable Food mission was launched in 2020, bringing together Swedish municipalities, school staff, suppliers, food producers and students work together to improve the quality and experience in the system around the school meal (a lever in the broader food system). The development and implementation of the pilot missions is undertaken through a sequence of activities, as a modified form of a classic design approach. Each stage is co-designed with system actors, from public, private and civic sectors, supported by academic and design expertise, and with increasing citizen participation as the process progresses. All of these actors work together simultaneously where possible, and thus the process forms new networks for action along the way. A joint collaboration was formalised, led by the Swedish food agency and included seven other national agencies. Within the mission of “Every child in Sweden eats healthy, sustainable and tasty school food” a portfolio of interventions was formed. For example, innovation management course for the leadership team of the participating organisations, collaboration platform for frontrunning schools, smart policy development projects, and prototypes with potential of system change. The prototype design included stages such as theme selection and framing, prototype development, and the development of system demonstrators. An open invitation was designed for municipalities to join the mission. Four municipalities were selected (Munkedal, Hofors, Vallentuna and Karlstad) and they functioned as development environments to create the sustainable school meal system of the future to test prototypes. The experience from the work can then be used to give all municipalities in Sweden the opportunity, with school meals as a tool, to approach the global sustainability goals and the goals in other sustainability and food strategies.
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (United Kingdom)
ISCF-UK	The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund is a long-term plan to raise productivity and earning power in the UK by harnessing the opportunities of technological change. With a total budget of £4.7 billion over four years, and arising out of the 2017 UK Industrial Strategy, it has four grand challenges focusing on clean growth, ageing society, future of mobility, and artificial intelligence and data economy. Challenges have concomitant missions. The challenge of clean growth has a mission on Industrial Decarbonisation which looks to establish the world’s first net zero carbon industrial cluster by 2040 (and at least one low-carbon cluster by 2030). The mission focuses on decarbonising six of the most heavily industrialised regions to reduce the carbon footprint of heavy and energy intensive industries in the UK (such as iron and steel, cement, refining and chemicals) and create competitive alternatives that will drive clean growth. The mission has the targets of reducing emissions in 1 cluster to net zero by 2040 (and, in the interim, in four industrial clusters by 2030, that will effectively capture 20-30 MtCO2 across the economy, including 6 MtCO2 of industrial emissions, per year by this interim date). It also seeks to ensure that multiple industrial facilities will already have reduced their emissions, by the greatest possible extent, position UK clusters as top areas for global inward investment and driving demand for low carbon products and technologies by harnessing the power of markets, the public sector, universities and local communities, support up to 54 000 jobs in 2030 in industry, and start to mobilise additional public and private investment of at least £14 billion in industry. The implementation of the mission involved diverse activities across three work streams: deployment (developing engineering studies to decarbonise an industrial cluster, with plans considered through a competitive round), cluster plans (successful studies progress to cluster plans that intend to act as a roadmap for the region in question), and the creation of an industrial decarbonisation research and innovation centre (the advent of a virtual multidisciplinary research and innovation centre, which will function as the national focal point and international gateway for UK industrial decarbonisation research and innovation).
Energy Earthshot Initiative (United States)
EE-US	Energy Earthshots1 seeks to accelerate breakthroughs of more abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions within the decade to reach 2050 net-zero carbon goals and create the jobs of the new clean energy economy. As an initiative, it drives integrated program development across the U.S. Department of Energy's science and applied energy offices and ARPA-E and corrals the RD&D community to lead science and technology innovation to rapidly advance solutions. As the first mission of this initiative, the Hydrogen Earth Shot (Hydrogen ShotTM) launched in 2021, aims to accelerate innovations, reduce cost, and spur demand of clean hydrogen. Specifically, it targets reducing the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1 per 1 kilogram in 1 decade ("1 1 1") and the budget contributing to this initiative across DOE in 2022 was approximately USD $250 million. In addition, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in the U.S., provided a total of $200 million per year through 5 years (a total of $1 billion), specifically for research, development, manufacturing, and demonstration related to electrolyzers, which would also contribute to Hydrogen Shot. Through coordination across basic science and applied research, development, and demonstration, the mission aims to develop and demonstrate technologies that can help lower the cost of hydrogen, reduce carbon emissions and local air pollution, create good-paying jobs, and provide benefits to disadvantaged communities. These and other hydrogen activities are coordinated within the U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen Program by the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. HFTO conducts research, development, and demonstration activities in hydrogen production, delivery, infrastructure, storage, fuel cells, and multiple end-uses across transportation, industrial, and stationary power applications. The program also includes activities in technology validation, manufacturing, analysis, systems development and integration, safety, codes and standards, education, and workforce development. While HFTO focuses on hydrogen production via renewable energy pathways, other offices within the Department of Energy include focus areas on fossil energy with carbon capture and nuclear energy, coordinated through the Hydrogen Program.2

Endnotes

Notes

← 1.  www.energy.gov/energy-earthshots-initiative.

← 2.  www.hydrogen.energy.gov/docs/hydrogenprogramlibraries/pdfs/hydrogen-program-plan-2020.pdf.