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Regulatory experimental spaces for the reflective and adaptive governance of innovations

Transdisciplinary research
Energy & Climate

Regulatory experiments have several attractive features. Firstly, experiments that are limited in time and space offer the regulator an opportunity to test the interactions between different regulatory options and innovations before introducing them economy-wide. As such, innovations can also be introduced into governance itself more easily. Secondly, regulatory experiments can serve as a means to open up governance processes for participative elements by promoting interactions between civil society, innovative actors and the regulator.

During the research project, national and international case studies are examined in order to identify procedures for testing and evaluating regulatory options in fields with high technological or social innovation dynamics.

More precisely, the project answers the following questions:

Which lessons can be drawn from (inter-)national regulatory experiments in order to assist policy makers to formalize such governance structures for future innovation processes?
Which fields of innovations are suited for regulatory experiments?
How should scientifically sound and practically applicable guidelines for regulatory experiments look like?