GRF · Innovation Nexus
Discipline and institutional issues
Innovation governance is the study and practice of how societies steer the development, testing and adoption of new technologies and new ways of working. It draws on innovation economics, science and technology studies, public administration, law and evaluation. Its central institutional issues are who carries the risk of experimentation, how learning is captured and shared, and how public purpose is kept in view when commercial incentives dominate. This page sets out the field and why it matters.
- STEM methods
- 3
- Canonical methods this field applies
- Topics
- 8
- Subject pages in the field
- Counterparts
- 7
- Platforms in shared fields across the network
- Report series
- 1
- Reports series it contributes to
The rate of change outpaces the institutions that govern it.
Technologies such as artificial intelligence, gene editing, robotics and quantum computing reach markets faster than legislatures and regulators can adapt. Public bodies are expected both to use innovation to improve services and to protect citizens from its harms, often without the skills or mandate to do either well. When governance lags, harms spread before they are understood; when it overreaches, useful innovation stalls or moves elsewhere.
Innovation is also unevenly distributed. Capability concentrates in particular regions, firms and countries, and the benefits and costs of technological change fall unequally across society. These are governance questions, not only market outcomes.
People and hazards in China.
Population density, night lights and flood water over China, from NASA GIBS. Each layer carries its own date.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
People and hazards, for this page
Keyboard, with the map focused
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Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
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Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
People and hazards, framed on China.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.
Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONET · U.S. Geological Survey · NOAA GOES-East ABI GeoColorSources and licences
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
- VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
- Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
- Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
- Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Live: U.S. Geological Survey Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Live: NOAA GOES-East ABI GeoColor (CIRA). We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- Optional layers (5 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.
Layers and dates
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
- Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
- Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
- Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
- True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
The questions the discipline works on.
- 01
Purpose and accountability
How public purpose, safeguards and accountability are built into innovation. See responsible innovation and public interest innovation.
- 02
Systems and diffusion
How ecosystems, regions and transfer mechanisms spread capability. See innovation ecosystems, regional innovation systems and technology transfer.
- 03
Learning under uncertainty
How pilots, sandboxes and evaluation produce evidence. See experimental governance.
- 04
Distribution and frontier
Who gains and who bears risk, and how frontier technologies cross sectors. See innovation and society and frontier technology governance.
Field overview.
The screen a team would use to follow this subject: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
How innovation governance touches other fields.
Innovation governance depends on the science of the technologies themselves, studied at The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) on platforms such as Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems and Labs, and on how capital flows, studied at Global Risks Alliance (GRA) on Private Equity Nexus. Within Global Risks Forum (GRF), it connects to Policy Nexus and AI and Digital Governance. Responsibility for decisions is mapped on decision-rights context.
What analysis rests on.
The discipline uses policy, institutional and decision science, systems engineering for complex programmes and artificial intelligence both as a subject and as an analytical tool. Methods and their limits are set out on methods and uncertainty.
Pages in Discipline and institutional issues.
Questions and answers.
Is innovation governance the same as regulation?
Why does a risk forum work on innovation?
Which methods does the field rely on?
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