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Developing business ideas for drone technologies
Developing business ideas for drone technologies

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2.1 Maximising flexibility

Regulations are often thought of as prohibiting or limiting activities of the public, such as limiting where drones can be flown in and around urban or residential areas. However, public policy (e.g. laws, legislation and regulations) – is also often a way governments can support the growth and development of a sector. In the case of drone-related policies, policymakers need to achieve a balance between supportive policies, which can drive innovation, and sanctioning (or restrictive) policies, which are used to ensure public safety and good governance.

One way policymakers do this is through ‘smart’ or ‘responsive regulation’ which starts from the premise that public policy should encourage industries to self-regulate, especially in innovative and rapidly growing sectors, such as in technology, or in cases where regional differences might exist, such as in the EU (Ayres & Braithwaite, 1992).

Policy therefore ‘responds’ to the needs of the regulatory environment with gradually restrictive or supportive laws and rules. Policy analysts refer to this type of responsive approach as ‘pyramids’ of supports and sanctions (Bluff, 2018). Figure 7 shows how the supportive pyramid moves to more supportive approaches (e.g. from ‘nurturing continuous improvement’ through praise, recognition and finally reward), whereas the sanctioning pyramid moves from supporting the capacity for the industry or sector to manage risk, then to issuing notices, to enforcement and finally to issuing penalties.

Two pyramids. One showing Pyramid of Supports, the other showing Pyramid of Sanctions
Figure 7 Pyramids of supportive and sanctioning policies (Adapted from Bluff, 2018, p. 52)

Given the direction of recent EASA directives, which appear to support flexibility in order to encourage innovation, there seems to be a tendency toward a responsive regulatory approach in governing civil drones, although there is still much under negotiation. For example, European states appear to be working toward harmonising and standardising drone-related policies across European states. Moreover, whereas strict aviation policies applied to drones often limited innovation in preference for public safety, there seems to be a growing acceptance that policies can be developed in these kinds of stepped, pyramid ways to encourage innovation, such as in finding ways to accommodate beyond visual line of sight (BVLoS) flights for small package deliveries.

In the next section you will hear from two of the ICAERUS partners about the policies that they think are the most impactful to their case and the wider ecosystem. However, first attempt Activity 3.

Activity 3

Timing: Allow approximately 10 minutes.

Read the scenarios below, and determine whether each is a supportive or sanctioning approach.

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