PICC (pronounced “pixie”) is a collaborative research project between the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Cambridge that examines institutions that promote the commercialization of clean energy technologies in the European Union, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
To make the transition to net-zero, business and government leaders will need to deploy existing clean energy technologies as well as develop new ones. Research on how government institutions contribute to innovation outcomes has mainly focused on R&D-focused agencies. Meanwhile, governments have created new institutions for commercializing clean energy technologies. In building these institutions, policymakers are “flying blind” — they don’t have access to systematic knowledge about whether the solutions they adopt are effective or not.
Understanding effective institutional design is an urgent and important research goal. In pursuing it, PICC aims to equip policymakers with a robust understanding of effective designs of public institutions for cleantech commercialization.