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Governments use national strategies, roadmaps, and plans to outline their vision, goals and activities around specific technologies.?

Strategies can set long-term government visions and priorities for technology development, focusing, for example, on artificial intelligence, synthetic biology or quantum technologies. Roadmaps outline the specific actions and initiatives that will be taken under a defined timeline to achieve policy goals, whereas plans describe actions and resources to be allocated for particular policies in more detail.?

These governance tools guide public investment around key technologies, aiming to maximise their benefits while anticipating and addressing potential risks, thereby creating an ecosystem conducive to responsible innovation. Strategies, agendas and plans are often developed in consultation with stakeholders from the private sector, academia, and civil society to align technological advancements with societal and economic needs.

Public funding can help emerging technology ecosystems through grants for research and development, public procurement, and infrastructure funding, among other forms of financial support. Grants can support risky investments in new technologies and promote collaboration between academic and industry actors. Procurement programs enable public entities to commission R&D, which can improve public services and foster technological progress. Funding for research infrastructures equips innovators with essential tools, accelerating scientific discoveries and industry-specific advancements. Collectively, such mechanisms strengthen technology ecosystems and shape the development and commercialisation of innovations.

Governments also provide non-financial support for technology ecosystems. Technology extension and business advisory services help firms adopt and apply new technologies to innovate and improve their business processes. Collaborative platforms can facilitate interactions among academic and industry actors, fostering the transfer and commercialisation of technology. Additionally, robust intellectual property frameworks encourage innovation by protecting inventors' rights while promoting investment in technologies. Through these and other kinds of non-monetary support, governments can also boost the diffusion of emerging technologies.

Governments can guide technology development with regulatory and ethical frameworks that prioritise human-centric values. This involves embedding responsibility and accountability across innovation phases, fostering international collaborations, emphasising safety, and promoting inclusivity.?

Regulations and guidelines, like GDPR and bioethics legislation, can help ensure ethical technology use. Regulatory oversight and ethical advice bodies enforce standards, offer ethical guidance, and assess technology's societal impacts. By overseeing compliance and encouraging public discourse, these tools can help steer the responsible development of technologies, in alignment with societal needs and values.

The rapid pace of technological change, coupled with a pressing need for solutions to address grand societal challenges, heightens policymakers' difficulty in developing policies at speed, in situations of high uncertainty and even around potentially controversial technology fields.?

Strategic intelligence arms governments with tools like policy evaluations, technology assessments, and foresight exercises to navigate the complexities of technological advancement. By understanding technical advancements and forecasting future trends, these methods ensure that policy decisions are evidence-based in assessing and anticipating the societal and economic impacts of emerging technologies. Involving a broad spectrum of stakeholders, from the academic community to civil society, further enriches policy decisions, ensuring they are responsive to diverse needs and priorities.