While until recently it might have been enough to support a few tech research projects or boost the numbers of startups, now innovation policy is often expected to help tackle challenges as broad as climate change, an ageing society, or inequality. 

The public sector needs to ensure it has - or has access to - the capabilities needed for innovation policy in the future. But we rarely discuss the experience, skills and approaches of the civil servants involved in innovation, and how public agencies can plan effectively to ensure they have the skills needed for the innovation policy challenges of future decades.

There is clear demand for more systematic thinking about the issues and the future challenges that innovation policy-makers will face. Societies and economies are becoming increasingly complex. The data revolution is already transforming the economy and society. Managing the rise of the robot workforce and this transition will present one of the large challenges of our time and there's no getting away from the fact that there will be both winners and losers. 

Policy-makers across local government, agencies and national ministries are already looking to solve these emerging challenges by turning to innovation – take how we look to the potential of technology to address the health and care needs of our ageing societies.

But who are the individuals and teams who will design and deliver innovation policies? And, crucially, what are the skills they currently have and what capabilities will they need to develop and respond effectively to these future challenges? 

We know that they will not only have to deftly navigate politics and budget constraints, but they will also need the right capabilities to get into the messy, day-to-day reality of making innovation policy where evidence can be limited and collaboration difficult. Now is the time to think about planning the innovation policy workforce – to understand and shape the job descriptions of these future innovation leaders. 

Nesta's research has already established that certain capabilities will become increasingly important for innovation policy in the future, such as skills in evaluation, evidence, data, visualisation, and foresight. We also know that innovation policy-making will need to become increasingly collaborative: across parts of government, with universities, with the private sector, with citizens, and internationally. Unfortunately, we also know that people with these technical and collaborative skills are relatively thin on the ground today. To take just one example, think about how few data analysts the UK is creating versus the reality of what is needed – demand is outpacing supply. 

Good data work is the crucial underpinning for understanding what works in innovation policy. And yet, too little of our current practice in innovation is backed by strong evidence, so we know we need to embed experimentation into the culture of our organisations today. Unfortunately, all too often a fear of failure - and a lack of know-how and skills - serves to hinder experimentation in policy-making today. This needs to change in the future. 

Nesta has also been conducting research into institutions and systems designed to spur innovation, experimentation and growth, as well as how those capabilities might be embedded within local government. But there is still much more we urgently need to uncover. For example: what are the profiles of policymakers with responsibility for innovation; their qualifications, training, and professional experience? Can the kinds of skills like experimentation and data analysis be developed in-house or will the public sector need to partner externally to access that capability? And what kinds of institutions and networks will they need to support them?

Exploring who the innovation policymaker of the future will be, and how we can develop them, will be a key topic for exploration at the Innovation Growth Lab conference. By raising this issue at the event we hope to kick-start the much needed debate on how the public sector can secure the innovation capabilities it will need to effectively tackle the challenges of the 21st century.   

Alex Glennie is principal researcher at Nesta and Benjamin Reid is head of international innovation 

The Innovation Growth Lab conference will run on 13 and 14 June