Innovation: managing risk, not avoiding it

These documents present the annual report of the United Kingdom Government Chief Scientific Adviser 2014 as well as the evidence and case studies supporting it. They are intended for policy-makers, legislators, and a wide range of business people, professionals, researchers and other individuals whose interests relate to the link between risk and innovation.

This report builds on recent creative thinking about innovation, benefit and risk, drawing on experience and observation. The authors of this report have brought together perspectives from a wide range of disciplines. Its aim is to help policymakers and citizens to make better-informed choices about innovation. In order to do that, it focuses on the ways in which risk can be governed most effectively and invites debate about how the principles outlined in this report should be applied to decisions taken at local, national, European and global scales.

The supporting evidence contains the views of leading experts looking at risk and uncertainty from a wide range of perspectives, including: social, psychological, industrial and financial. A series of case studies illustrate its core themes.