This fourth thematic report of the Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) on the Whole-of-Government Approach (WGA), carried out under the Horizon Europe Policy Support Facility with Bulgaria, Finland, Malta, Romania and Slovakia, focuses on the green transition and the implementation of industrial technology roadmaps. It builds on the MLE visit to Helsinki on 25–26 September 2023 and is closely connected to ERA Action 12 on accelerating the green and digital transition of Europe's key industrial ecosystems.
Roadmaps are increasingly developed for major socio-technical system changes and technological transitions. They are goal-oriented strategic plans with a clear timeline that identify the major players and R&D needs, and, when produced at sectoral level, they are almost always collaborative. The report examines decarbonisation strategies and roadmaps at European, national and sectoral levels, with examples from Austria, Finland and Slovenia, the evidence base and forward looks that inform them, and the role of roadmapping in system change and industrial ecosystem orchestration, as in the Finnish roadmap to a circular economy.
Governments tend to develop new strategies and roadmaps more than they manage to implement them. The report points to several ways forward: engaging key actors, sometimes even members of parliament, to create commitment and a sufficient mandate; defining a granularity of the roadmap that suits the governance system at hand; establishing inter-ministerial coordination structures with shared responsibilities for implementation and follow-up; and balancing the participation of incumbent industries with emerging actors such as start-ups, research and technology organisations and civil society organisations. A common understanding of the current situation and of alternative industrial trajectories, based on data that all actors can trust, is a precondition for agreeing on targets. An annex offers guiding questions for countries applying the WGA to industrial technology roadmaps.
Reference
European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. (2024). Roadmapping for green transition through the whole-of-government approach: Mutual Learning Exercise on the Whole-of-Government Approach, fourth thematic report (T. Könnölä, Ed.). Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2777/425998