The EU has committed to using ‘missions’ as a key tool to help improve the effectiveness of research and innovation investment. This is a new departure for the EU and it is important to have clarity over what they are intended to deliver and how these outcomes are best achieved.

The EU is currently debating new proposals for the research and innovation programme that will be implemented in 2021. This so-called ‘Horizon Europe’ programme involves €100 billion of investment and the proposals were made as part of the next EU long-term budget, the multiannual financial framework (MFF).

One key new...

The EU has set the ambitious goal of decarbonising the economy in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. This cannot be achieved without major changes in the way society operates, including in the way energy is produced and used. Decarbonisation of the energy system needs mass deployment of measures that change the amount of energy people consume and the way they consume it. Whilst the technology largely exists, we don’t know how to deploy it at the necessary scale — innovation in governance, markets and regulation is required so that deployment is more predictable and appealing to consumers.

EU member...

Missions aim to engage citizens in the research and innovation process and increase the impact that innovation will have. It is critical that climate policy delivers a required outcome and the key step of decarbonising the energy system requires motivated and engaged consumers. There is a clear overlap between the aims of the mission process and the needs of climate and energy policy. One or more of the innovation missions should focus on this topic.

Accelerating the decarbonisation of the energy system provides an excellent opportunity to use missions as a vehicle to address a global policy challenge. Indeed, one...

Delivering the required mission outcomes will be challenging and success will not be possible without an appropriate governance structure to drive the process. The key tasks will be:

Ensure public money is spent efficiently and effectively

Create a multi-step learning process that informs policy decisions needed to deliver the mass roll-out of low carbons measures in buildings

Ensure democratic accountability through the engagement of local politicians, consumer groups, other public interest bodies, and even directly with individual citizens.

Good delivery governance is also required to provide politicians with the confidence to invest in this mission area.

The European Commission has...

There is a great practical and political opportunity to leverage the mission-based innovation process and drive forward energy system decarbonisation. Critically, this must put citizens at the heart of the process and make deployment of low carbon measures in buildings more predictable and appealing to consumers. However, we will not be able to grab this opportunity unless a new learning governance structure is established that is able to think creatively about the energy market and regulatory framework and propose ambitious reforms consistent with achieving climate and energy goals.

There are strong synergies between the political objectives of the mission process...