Innovation intermediaries addressing the sustainability Grand Challenge: an integrative review and typology

The transition towards sustainability, a “Grand Challenge” on the political agenda that requires multi-stakeholder cooperation (Ferraro et al., 2015; George et al. 2016), has become a central focus of mission-oriented policies (Haddad et al. 2022). In this context, sustainability challenges are increasingly addressed through coordinated innovation ecosystems that mobilize actors across sectors and disciplines. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) further reinforce this direction by establishing shared objectives for both fundamental and applied research, shaping innovation priorities at global scale (De Silva et al. 2026)