Policy Innovation Labs: New Frontiers for STEM Policy Innovation?

Michigan Technological University, Houghton MI

Investigators

Abstract

Policy Innovation Labs (PIL) are dedicated teams, structures, or entities focused on constructing public policies in an innovative, design oriented fashion, in particular by engaging citizens and companies working within and in collaboration with the public sector. Practitioners describe these efforts as "design thinking" or evidence-based approaches, which places the end users at the center of each stage of the policy-making process. After policy proposals are formulated, they are tested and validated through various forms of experimentation. In addition to co-creating and re-imagining policies and public programs, PILs also undertake a wide range of activities such as preparing prospective studies, organizing creativity workshops, or instilling a sense of empowerment through training and other learning activities. Nearly all US-based PILs are relatively new undertakings with a median age of two years. The PIL life cycle is dynamic. Every year, a handful of labs are created while other programs are placed into "hibernation" or cut for a number of reasons, including budget reductions, shifts in political agendas, or changes in elected leaders. However, little is known about how US-based PILs operate in federal, state, and municipal governments or in civil society. There has been little critical appraisal of this type of "design thinking" in a US context. Second, PILs may potentially play an important role in "rethinking design" and formulating innovative science-based policies. An overlooked feature of PILs is space for STEM disciplines to contribute to policy design and innovations efforts. This particularly important in emerging data science and engineering fields such as big data, algorithmic governance, artificial intelligence, or 3-D printing. This proposal seeks to understand the emergence of STEM-based policy innovation labs. These labs have the potential to improve understanding at the science-policy interface and to promote public engagement of science and evidence-based policy. Assessing US-based PILs will draw on four complementary methodological approaches. First, a review of existing academic and grey literature will be undertaken. This will inform the design of a web-based survey of US based PILs. The survey will assess the types of labs, their focus (e.g. social issues, environment & energy, local economic development, migration, digital economy, health & well-being, transportation), their lifespan, the role of STEM tools, and their geographic location, their function (e.g., design-led labs, open government/data labs, evidence-based labs, and mixed labs). Third, a hyperlink network analysis, which applies social network methods, to a vast number of hyperlinks which utilizes the links between websites. This cost-effective methodology for studying the extent of PIL networks, their network structures, linking patterns and dynamics. From the online survey and network analysis, 7-9 case study PILs will be selected from which semi-structured interviews of PIL employee and stakeholders will be conducted in order to assess factors responsible for the rise, formation, and functioning of PILs. Finally, case study analysis will assess if STEM-based universities would be feasible environment for science-policy based PILs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.