Next generation science policy and Grand Challenges

The idea of a ‘next generation’, here of science policy, is rhetorically powerful. On the one hand, it invites the reader to consider what is changing, and diagnose what these changes are about. On the other hand, it also conveys a sense of inevitability of the changes. An example from the 1990s and early 2000s of a perceived generational shift in science policy is the analysis, by Michael Gibbons et al. (1994), of a new mode of knowledge production, which they call ‘Mode 2’ and which is the successor to ‘Mode 1’: the numbering creates rhetorical force in the same way the label ‘next generation’ does.1 At its height as a science policy fashion it was a triumphant narrative (Rip 2014): Mode 2 is upon us, inevitably, and you had better not resist, or you will be left behind. Such a triumphant narrative can certainly raise attention and a sense of urgency.