Turning a vision into an action that will result in a desirable output and outcome is a daunting task. The key is to have a strong strategic policy. A policy design process involves a thorough study of an issue to be addressed and an understanding of stakeholders in order to reach a suitable and actionable policy for all parties involved. In fact, a policy-making process can be viewed as a continuous process, consisting of the following phases in a cycle: i) agenda setting, ii) policy formulation, iii) policy legitimization, iv) policy implementation, v) monitoring & evaluation and vi) policy maintenance, succession or termination.
Armed with expertise and experience in formulating, deploying and monitoring policies involving a large number of stakeholders with different mandates and diverse interests, NXPO initiated Thailand Higher Education and Innovation Policy Accelerator (THIPA), an innovation policy platform aimed at accelerating the policy-making process in an organization in order to respond to changes and uncertainties in a timely manner. The platform is set up to assist other organizations to design appropriate policies that can drive innovation in government, academia, businesses, and society, using the best available tools for both analysis and action.
THIPA intends to work on inter-agency projects that involve higher education, science, research and innovation policy and have a scale-up potential to make a big impact on society. Proposals are subject to a readiness assessment prior to proceeding.
Understanding that collaborators require different levels of assistance, THIPA offers three collaborative programs to work with its collaborators:
- Cultivate the policy: for a collaborator who has an idea but needs help to convert the idea into a policy. The program introduces the collaborator to policy design process through a comprehensive workshop and provides tools so that they can use to develop a policy under the guidance of the NXPO team. An evaluation will be made at the end of the program.
- Connect the dot: for a collaborator who already has a policy but needs help with the refinement. The program offers services and assistance in policy assessment, effective communication strategy, presentation of policy to stakeholders and policy launching plan.
- Bold the impact: for scaling up a successful policy to the national level. This program offers services and assistance in policy scale-up assessment, stakeholder and sandbox establishment, scale-up strategy design and change-agent creation for different parts of the country.
