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Innovation policy: not just a jumbo shrimp

Nature volume 454, pages 940–941 (2008)Cite this article

Policies that predict and direct innovative research might seem to be a practical impossibility, says David H. Guston, but social sciences point to a solution.

Innovation policy could be seen as an oxymoron. Like an 'open secret', or 'jumbo shrimp' — which the late comedian George Carlin compared to 'military intelligence' — the words just don't go together. Innovation policy evokes a tension. How does one predict and direct something that is by nature unpredictable and, by necessity, often undirected?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. David H. Guston directs the Center for Nanotechnology in Society, co-directs the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes and is Professor of Political Science at Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287, Arizona, USA. david.guston@asu.edu ,

    David H. Guston

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  1. David H. Guston
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To comment on this article and others in our innovation series, visit http://tinyurl.com/5uolx2 . See Editorial, page 918 .

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Guston, D. Innovation policy: not just a jumbo shrimp. Nature 454, 940–941 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454940a

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