Innovation policies have a tradition of targeting entrepreneurship, but more recently, some investigated their ability to foster responsible innovation. These approaches are emerging, and are likely to spread. However, as the literature emphasizes startups’ sustainability impact assessment issues, challenges might arise. I conducted a longitudinal exploratory study on the field, using the original case of i-Lab, a public grant for startups which added environmental and societal criteria in its evaluation. It provided an in-depth understanding of implementation and sustainability impact assessment challenges created by an innovation policy targeting responsible innovation for technological startups. I demonstrated the importance of the anticipation phase, which can be better prepared to extend acceptability and to guide entrepreneurs, thus overcoming their lack of knowledge on sustainability.
