In the face of today’s pressing societal challenges, mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIPs) offer a strategic approach to achieve transformative goals. OECD ’s Mission Community of Practice, a network of policymakers and practitioners, is collaboratively developing capacity on frameworks that support effective missions. This article explores key themes regarding missions emerging from recent topics especially focusing on mission portfolio management.

This article was partly prepared with the assistance of ChatGPT. The tool was used to summarise event sessions and identify key points from background materials to support the writing process. All interpretations, selections, and final formulations of the text were made by the author, who is fully responsible for the content.

A mission (picture 1), in the context of public policy and innovation, is a structured, goal-driven initiative aimed at tackling complex societal challenges, such as climate change, digital transformation, or public health. Unlike traditional policies, missions focus on achieving specific, ambitious, and time-bound outcomes. They bring together a diverse group of actors—including governments, industries, academia, and civil society—who collaborate across sectors to solve issues that no single organisation could address alone (Larrue 2021; Larrue et al. 2024).

Missions operate as coordinated policy packages, designed to steer research, development, and innovation toward impactful solutions that serve the public good. They emphasize flexibility, allowing goals and strategies to adapt as new insights emerge. Through clear objectives and collective action, missions create a framework that supports innovation and promotes systemic change, moving beyond incremental improvements to foster meaningful, large-scale transformations (Larrue 2021; Larrue et al. 2024).

The approach has gained popularity because it directly targets societal issues, aligns resources and expertise, and fosters cross-sector collaboration, making it especially suitable for addressing today’s interconnected and long-term global challenges (Larrue et al. 2024).

Laurea’s thematic team on innovation management and ecosystems which I coordinate focuses on fostering ecosystemic collaboration to address complex societal challenges. Mission-oriented innovation policy aligns with this goal by providing a structured approach to orchestrate multi-actor networks and tackle wicked problems, advancing both practical and strategic capabilities in ecosystem design and governance.

OECD Mission Community of Practice Sessions

I had  the opportunity to join a series of events focused on the practices of mission-oriented approaches organised by the intergovernmental Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Mission Community of Practice (CoP). The community that forms a global network of over 250 mission practitioners and experts seeks to offer opportunities to explore the design, governance, and implementation of governmental missions which address complex societal challenges.

OECD’s Mission-oriented Innovation Policy (MOIP) Online Toolkit supports policymakers and practitioners in working with mission-oriented innovation policies. The toolkit consists of case studies and tools and contains sections on governance, stakeholder engagement, and monitoring and evaluation (OECD n.d.) The toolkit works together with the CoP in building the global capacity in working with mission-oriented innovation. I will next give an overview of the topics of the first CoP sessions.

The first session titled ”Mission – Why and When?” focused on the foundational topics of mission-oriented innovation such as selecting mission-suitable topics and how to align mission goals with societal challenges. This session offered the basic information needed to start considering mission implementation. The second session on ”Missions for Climate” explored climate-related challenges such as resource mobilization and partnership strategies. It also featured case studies on how to do it in practice.

The third event on ”Mission Practices in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)” presented inclusive frameworks to engage stakeholders and how to use local resources. ”Mission Governance” was the topic of the fourth session in which the focus was on how to use governance to aligning the activities of key mission stakeholders towards shared goals. Suitable governance structures play a pivotal role in building successful cross-sectoral collaboration and accountability.

The fifth session on ”Monitoring and Evaluation of Missions,” explored types of evaluation frameworks for showing the systemic impacts of mission-oriented innovation. One example of a tool that can be used is the OECD-developed ”mission-readiness assessment” that evaluates the maturity of a mission. The sixth session titled ”Mission Portfolio Management” explored how portfolios can be used as strategic vehicles of managing multiple missions. The key factors of success of mission portfolios include coherent resource allocation, the creation of synergies and managing risks.

The methodological topics introduced in the sessions help make missions adaptive, coordinated, and impactful over time (Larrue 2021; Larrue et al. 2024). I will next explore at length the session on mission portfolios.

Mission Portfolios for Managing Impact

The session on Mission Portfolio Management (MPM) was of specific interest to me because of my past and ongoing work on innovation portfolios as an approach for ecosystemic innovation management (Seppälä 2021). Portfolio management in MOIPs focuses on creating a coherent mission framework which helps in creating impactful synergies between multiple projects and interventions. Missions consist of a variety of projects focusing on for example technological development or policy implementation. For portfolio management to support the mission goals resources must be strategically allocated and projects should be coordinated in relation to each other. (Larrue et al. 2024.)

The portfolio approach builds synergies between the projects and help build interventions that joined together can create systems change. The management of missions using portfolios helps policymakers distribute risk across initiatives and create outcomes all along the innovation cycle. Instead of focusing on individual projects, portfolio management helps the mission take a holistic perspective with diverse pathways and many types of solutions. (Larrue et al. 2024.) The sixth CoP session on MPM organised on 12.11.2024 featured a number of interesting talks and cases on the topic featuring talks from Piret Tõnurist and Amelia Olsen-Boyd.

Piret Tõnurist, Innovation Lead at the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation, highlighted the emerging field of MPM as a crucial yet still-developing component in MOIPs. Unlike traditional project management, Tõnurist explained that MPM encompasses all actions and activities contributing to the mission’s broader objectives, making it the ”engine” that drives systemic change. Effective MPM requires a multi-pronged approach to generate synergies, manage risks, and support continuous decision-making, allowing for adaptive prioritization, testing, and learning as missions evolve. According to Tõnurist, the practice of MPM is transitioning from simply identifying and organizing activities within “ex-ante” portfolios to a proactive framework that mobilizes resources and aligns efforts to ensure mission success. She outlined three core components of effective MPM: developing the portfolio based on the mission’s theory of change, managing interlinkages within the portfolio, and monitoring the portfolio’s overall progress toward mission objectives. Tõnurist emphasized that successful MPM requires empowering portfolio managers with new tools, pragmatic processes, and an openness to experimentation and risk, reinforcing the strategic coherence of mission-oriented efforts. (Tõnurist 2024.)

Amelia Olsen-Boyd, the Executive Manager of Mission Innovation and Strategy at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, provided insights into CSIRO’s approach to MPM. She emphasized that missions, especially those addressing complex challenges like achieving net-zero emissions, require a well-structured portfolio to create systemic impact. Olsen-Boyd explained that CSIRO’s mission framework focuses on tracking and enhancing portfolio impact through four key areas: coherence, capability, risk mitigation, and consolidation. (Olsen-Boyd 2024.)

The four areas outlined by Olsen-Boyd are tied to specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that guide activities and assess progress, from influencing decision-making in the transition to net-zero (coherence) to managing partnerships and projects that drive innovation (capability). Olsen-Boyd highlighted the importance of mobilizing stakeholders and developing pathways that align with Australia’s national priorities, advocating for a ”nested” portfolio structure where interconnected activities are governed collaboratively to tackle the complexities of climate action. This approach enables scalability, adaptability, and a continuous feedback loop, essential for fostering innovation and achieving substantial societal shifts. (Olsen-Boyd 2024.)

MPM is becoming an essential tool within the CoP, enabling practitioners to align multiple initiatives for maximum impact. As mission-oriented policies grow in complexity, effective portfolio management will be crucial in ensuring that these ambitious efforts deliver lasting, systemic change .

References

• Larrue, P. 2021. The design and implementation of mission-oriented innovation policies: A new systemic policy approach to address societal challenges. OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers, No. 100. OECD Publishing: Paris. Available: https://doi.org/10.1787/3f6c76a4-en
• Larrue, P., Tõnurist, P. & Jonason, D. 2024. Monitoring and evaluation of mission-oriented innovation policies: From theory to practice. OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers, No. 2024/09. OECD Publishing: Paris. Available: https://doi.org/10.1787/5e4c3204-en.
• OECD. N.d. Mission-oriented Innovation Policy Online Toolkit. WWW-page. Available: https://stip.oecd.org/moip/
• Olsen-Boyd, A. 2024. Managing Mission-Driven Innovation Portfolios for Societal Challenges. Presentation at OECD Mission Community of Practice 12.11.2024.
• Seppälä, M. 2021. Radical uncertainty requires radical collaboration – Stepping stones towards systems transformation with innovation portfolios. Sitra Publications. Available: https://www.sitra.fi/en/publications/radical-uncertainty-requires-radical-collaboration/
• Tõnurist, P. 2024. Mission Portfolio Management: Strategies for Systemic Impact. Presentation at OECD Mission Community of Practice 12.11.2024.

The first image in this article (the feature image) is not licensed under CC BY-SA. It has been used in accordance with the terms of the Adobe Stock Education License and may not be reused or redistributed without separate permission.

This article was partly prepared with the assistance of ChatGPT. The tool was used to summarise event sessions and identify key points from background materials to support the writing process. All interpretations, selections, and final formulations of the text were made by the author, who is fully responsible for the content.