Roskilde University Sunrise Conference:

'Transforming Governance, Enhancing Innovation' 

Rising demands, fiscal constraints and a growing number of wicked problems have generated an increasing demand for innovation of public policy, public services and public regulation. Public innovation is rapidly moving to the top of the agenda at all levels of government. It is increasingly recognized as the intelligent alternative to across the board budget cuts and as a promising way of improving services, user satisfaction and the motivation of public employees.

At the same time, there is a growing frustration with traditional forms of bureaucratic governance as well as with the recent New Public Management reforms that both tend to stifle rather than enhance public innovation. Hence in order to turn public innovation into a permanent, pervasive and systematic activity in the public sector we need to transform the current system of public governance. We need to reform public organisations and the predominant accountability and value-for-money systems, drill holes in the silos, mobilise an engage private actors, create new collaborative arenas, and develop new forms of innovation management. In short, we need to transform governance in order to enhance public innovation.

The Roskilde University Sunrise Conference aims to explore the link between governance and innovation by bringing together academic scholars, experienced practitioners and interested students. The three groups will work in parallel streams to craft innovative solutions to public policy problems, ponder the need for administrative reforms and explore how transformations of governance can enhance public innovation. However, the three groups will also engage in fruitful dialogue with each other culminating in the formulation of the Roskilde Public Innovation Declaration that we hope will set the agenda for innovation-enhancing governance reforms in the years to come.

Keynote speakers

Professor Robert Agranoff, University of Indiana

Professor Jean Hartley, University of Warwick

Professor Donald P. Moynihan, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Professor Mirko Noordegraaf, Utrecht University

Professor Stephen Osborne, University of Edinburgh

Professor B. Guy Peters, University of Pittsburg

Professor Eva Sørensen, Roskilde University

Professor Jacob Torfing, Roskilde University

More to be announced...

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