#PSILabs: Global Innovation at a Glance Name your niche, find your learning partners, and showcase the movement  Building off an inspiration set in motion by DESIS' global labs constellation map, the team at MaRS has conducted this quick and dirty scan to allow existing labs to better identify and understand their unique niche in the global labs movement and facilitate learning among relevant international partners. Additionally, we hope this piece can aid you in helping your allies and onlookers be able to quickly and easily see the breadth depth and vibrancy of labs around the world. This is an initial draft version that will continue to be built upon as we receive updated/corrected information from the labs who are already listed and from those who we do not yet have information for. Please email your content to James Arron at jarron@marsdd.com. We can't wait to hear from you!        

 

 

       

 

 

 

   

 

The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) www.tacsi.org.au Location: Adelaide, Australia Year Founded: 2009 Size: Approx 13 core staff; plus 9 staff specific to Family by Family Contact: Lead: Carolyn Curtis +61 8 7325 4994 info@tacsi.org.au @OzInnovation

Applies user-centered co-creation approach, building off the principles embedded in Family by Family program: “thriving”, “outcomes”,” co-design”, “peer to peer”, “scale” Focuses on creating and managing comprehensive programs for vulnerable populations. Also delivers public workshops on integrating co-design into policy and service delivery Key projects:

● Family by Family: the flagship program of TACSI that creates networks of families as a prevention to state intervention in child protection; 90% of families that participate reach their goals, and every $1 invested saves the community $7 by keeping kids out of state care.

● Weavers: finding, training, and supporting volunteer caregivers to support families with navigating and accessing services and resources

● Carereflect: facilitating networks of care workers to reflect, introspect and share to improve practice and services

● The Great Living Co: an emerging project trying to infuse a start-up culture into supporting elderly people’s late stages quality of life and mental wellness

● An emerging project focused on changing the ways in which schools, teachers, care workers, and government decision makers talk about and work with aboriginal families

Produces in-depth evaluation reports of projects and annual activities available online Seed funding was provided by South Australian government; now working across the country

REOS Partners reospartners.com Location: Founded in South Africa, grown to 9 countries Year founded: 2007 Size: Large (over 50 staff) Contact: @reospartners Phone and email contact is specific to regional offices

Convenes and guides multi-stakeholder processes and partnerships; primarily commissioned by external stakeholders on project-by-project basis; in some cases may independently initiate projects Work is highly tailored to individual clients. Sample offerings: change labs, learning journeys, scenario exercises, participatory research, facilitated workshops, and training courses. Also highly involved in pre-work of setting up labs Has grown rapidly, started by 9 people based in 3 countries; now in 9 countries with 55 associates. Previously part of Generon Consulting. Produces and hosts significant collection of resources and publications, via the Reos Institute, including renowned books the Social Labs Revolution and Power and Love. Collection available at http://reospartners.com/publications

 

UN Global Pulse Labs www.unglobalpulse.org Location: Founded in New York, now operating in Jakarta and Kampala Year Founded: 2009 Size: Approx 5-10 staff for each of the 3 offices (22 total) Contact: @UNGlobalPulse Phone and email contact is specific to regional offices

Specifically focused on using big data to support developmental goals for vulnerable populations (especially in crisis situations); looks to understand cultural context for adoption and use of digital technologies through probing, research and practice. Supports other UN Agencies and public sector partners who provide sector-specific knowledge Began in New York in 2009; expanded to Jakarta, Indonesia (2012) and Kampala, Uganda (2013) Work is guided by an annual research agenda. Current fields of focus: food security, humanitarian logistics, economic well-being, gender discrimination and health. Particularly interested in the opportunities and challenges of scaling up/out across different cultures and shifting away from one-size-fits-all development approaches. See their blog post on the finch problem at http://europeandcis.undp.org/blog/2014/02/06/innovation-for-development-scaling-up-or-evolving/ Maintains active blog at http://www.unglobalpulse.org/blog

In With Forward inwithforward.com Location: Founded in The Netherlands (also operating in Canada and Australia) Year founded: 2013 Size: 4 core staff; 3 apprentices on Burnaby project Contact: Lead: Sarah Schulman +31 631 060 349 (Netherlands office) hello@inwithforward.com @inwithforward

Works with vulnerable populations in highly localized environments; starting with people in homes and neighbourhoods. Ethnography and storytelling acts as key component of approach. Also focuses on supporting staff in existing institutional contexts through a unique mentorship model and capacity building programs. States intention to move away from traditional consultancy model, eg: moving away from billing by the day or hour towards long-term projects; focused on selling end products rather than processes; IWF provides upfront start-up investment and then sells the results to agencies Describes “purpose” in 5 point manifesto focused on “flourishing”, “formal and informal supports”, “from one intervention to many”, “ends trump means”, “from plans to prototypes” Unique approach to communications: website is highly playful, humble and informal. Radically open about failures and learnings. Founded by team of four, including Sarah Schulman, co-creator of TACSI’s Family by Family program

Cross-ministerial innovation unit; consisting of 5 ministries and 1 municipality, whose work all impacts the daily lives of citizens (eg. entrepreneurship, digital self-service, education

 

Mindlab www.mind-lab.dk Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Year founded: 2002 Size: Approx 15 staff; budget of approx. 1 million per year Contact: Lead: Christian Bason +45 9133 7187 info@mind-lab.dk @MindLabDK

and employment). Focuses on helping government decision makers view their efforts from citizen (“user centered”) perspectives. Choice of projects is determined by a MindLab board consisting of staff from partner ministries Shifted strategy in 2007 from capacity building via workshops and trainings to focus on coordinating active involvement of citizens and civil servants in creating new social solutions. Also began involving professional researchers to enhance methodological foundation of work. Uses seven stage innovation “process model” 1. Scoping and project design: 2. Learning about the users: 3. Analysis: 4. Idea and concept: 5. Test of new concepts: 6. Communication of results: 7. Measuring Publishes annual results report (eg. http://www.mind-lab.dk/assets/856/_RSRAPPORT_ENG_013.pdf) Medium-sized: about 15 employees. Interesting staffing structure involved succonding staff from partner ministries In-depth description of the Mindlab approach written by MaRS’ Alyson Hewitt: http://sigeneration.ca/documents/MindLabReportMarch2012.pdf

IDEO.org Located: San Francisco Year Founded: 2011 Size: 15 staff named on website Contact info@ideo.org +1 (650) 289-3400

Provides human centered design expertise on poverty related projects in six key areas (Health, Gender, Water and Sanitation, agriculture, finance, and community); clients come from across sectors; focus on measureable outcomes and public access to results and approaches Also initiates new projects, eg. “Amplify” initiative seeks to transform international aid through collaborative human centered design around 10 key challenges Also supports 7 fellowships per year to support next generation of public-focused design thinkers

 

@IDEOorg Created through seed funding of IDEO (a private company); now a separate not-for-profit organization funded through donations and grants

GovLab http://thegovlab.org/ Located: New York Year Founded: 2012 Size: 25 faculty members listed Contact Lead: Stefaan Verhulst sverhulst@nyu.edu @thegovlab

Uses an action-oriented research approach that convenes leaders of institutions and communities with researchers. Built on the hypothesis that when institutions open themselves up to diverse participation and collaborative problem solving, decisions will be more effective and legitimate. Core themes: Smarter governance, Open data governance, Shared governance Key projects:

- iCann: finding expertise in open governance - ExpertNet: disclosing and sharing expertise - GovLabAcademy: sharing what works - NextGen: focused on engagement of future leaders

Also offers an online academy providing courses and mentorship in open governance Supported by NYU Wagner, Knight Foundation, MIT Media Lab, and MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on Opening Governance Maintains highly active blog focused on open governance

Kennisland (Knowledgeland) www.kennisland.nl/en Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands Year founded: 1999 Size: 19 staff named on website Contact: Lead: Chris Sigaloff +31 205756720 info@kennisland.nl @kennisland

Described as an “independent think tank with a public mission” focused on supporting the Netherlands shift to a knowledge based economy and “smart society” Key activity is designing interventions, working on projects both commissioned externally and independently initiated. Regularly partners on projects with the European Union and many of its agencies. Particularly focused on six main fields: Education, Government, Heritage, Copyright, Creative Economy, Culture. Seventeen different projects listed on website. Many projects have become independent, ongoing initiatives, eg:

● Creative Commons Netherlands: working with the Waag Society, the Institute for Information Law (IViR) and Creative Commons International to develop, promote and provide information about the Creative Commons licenses in the Netherlands. Knowledgeland acts as “Public Project Lead” and has coordinated pilot projects with the Dutch broadcasting company and music rights legsilator for this project

● Kafca Brigade: a program to conduct “performance reviews” and propose solutions in situations where citizens or entrepreneurs have been caught up in excessive government bureaucracy. Created in connection with Jorritdejong.nl and Zenc and became independent in 2010 after 6 years.

● Innovation impulse for Higher Education program: Supporting the Dutch Ministry of

 

Education, Culture and Science to spur innovation in education through five separate bottom-up experiments, supported by online information sharing and events, and methodological research

● Communia: An inquiry into copywright and the public domain in the digital era, financed by the European Commission, and supported by Waag Society, the Institution for Information Law and the Netherlands Institution for Sound and Vision, and Nexa Research Centre for Internet and Society. Led to 14 policy recommendations and a Public Domain Manifesto, and the.formation of an ongoing association that Kennisland remains active in

Has 5 point manifesto that urges Danish political parties to make social innovation part of their political agendas Structured as a foundation but does not receive structural or base funding

Laboratorio para la Ciudad http://labplc.mx Location: Mexico City Year Founded: 2013 Size: Approx 20 staff Contact: Lead: Gabriella Gomez-Mont LABORATORIO@LABPLC.MX @LABPLC

Established within the municipal authority for Mexico City (via Agency of Urban Management) through support of newly elected Mayor, Miguel Ángel Mancera Work is focused on infusing civic innovation and urban creativity into five municipal ministries: environment, health, economic development, tourism, and transportation. Particularly focused on addressing challenges of megacity development, of harnessing youth talent, and of mobilizing creative sector to help spur public innovation. Was born out of a TEDx event in Mexico city, inspired in part by the work of Boston New Urban Mechanics (Nigel Jacobs). First project was “Code for Mexico City” in partnership with Code for America. Over forty “experiments” completed since. Has attracted significant mainstream media attention, eg. http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2013/11/10/a-new-lab-to-reinvent-mexico-city/

La27E www.la27eregion.fr Located: France (multi-regional) Year Founded: 2008 Size: 6 staff named on website Contact Lead: Stéphane Vincent

Focuses on capacity building and skill development of regional administrators in service design, research, sociology, and ethnography through action research experiments. Created as a response to New Public Management Reforms Three main programmes:

- 1) Territories Residencies: brings multidisciplinary teams together for a few weeks to re-envision a public space or institution

- 2) "The Transformer” multidisciplinary teams of "residents" work for ten weeks over a two year period with regional administrators around a particular public sector challenge

- 3) Reactor: a consortium of players eager to accelerate the development of these

 

+33 (0) 1 83 62 98 27 svincent@la27eregion.fr @ La27eregion

novel approaches and a multi-year program to implement concrete actions (creation of training, a community of practitioners, joint experiments, publication of books and cases, etc.).

Has supported 15 action research experiments, involving administrators from 9 regions (PACA, Pays de la Loire, Burgundy and Champagne-Ardenne). Key partners: EU Technical Assistance Fund, Next Generation Internet Foundation, Regional Associations of France, Caisse des Dépôts Paris has 26 regions; the name of “la27e” is conceived as an additional realm which is independent and experimental, beyond the usual boundaries. Active in knowledge generation and translation; maintains active Slideshare account; involved in translating many English social innovation documents into French

DESIS Lab www.newschool.edu/desis/ Location: New York Year founded: 2009 Size: 3 principal faculty; 12 affiliated faculty Contact Lead: Eduardo Staszowski staszowe@newschool.edu 212.229.5600 @desisparsons

As part of the Parson’s New School for Design, Desis was created as a research laboratory focused on improving service design and delivery. Foundations of the work lie in understanding and resolving information asymtries, valuing tacit knowledge, and heterarchies and horizontal collaboration. Also acts as an educational leader as convener of the DESIS network; a coalition of 30 labs based in universities around the world which focus on using design for sustainability and social innovation through organizing academic events, supporting curriculum development and comparative research projects, promoting visibility of social innovation practices. Also part of the New School’s broader Social Innovation Initiative program that links various academic units focused on social innovation. 3 core programs: 1) PUBLIC & COLLABORATIVE: enhancing NYC public services through co-production with citizens. Note: DESIS has also produced a publication by the same name exploring stories from around the world in public innovation, available for free at http://www.desis-clusters.org/ 2) AMPLIFY: helping find, improve, and spread the ways citizens create their own response to societal challenges 3) DESIS REPOSITORY: a collection of resources about service design and delivery, from practitioners and academic perspectives Supported through Rockerfeller Foundations’ Cultural Innovation Fund. Note: Desis stands for “Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability”.

 

Created the Public Innovation Labs Constellation graphic map that helped inspire and guide this scan

NESTA Public Service Lab www.nesta.org.uk Location: UK (Offices in London, England and Dundee, Scotland) Year Founded: 1997, became independent in 2012 Size: Full NESTA Organization has 150+ staff; lab staffing and budget unknown Contact: Lead: Phillip Colligan @nesta_uk information@nesta.org.uk 020 7438 2500

Large-scale practice (over 25 staff) integrated into the broader work of NESTA, with a particular focus on funding public policy innovations and interventions. Works closely with government but remains independent and autonomous. Helps coordinate the multi-million dollar Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund. Captures and shares many learnings about the opportunities and challenges of funding innovation (eg. making funding selection, working through iteration, adding value to unsuccessful applicants, etc). See blog post with key learnings and insights at http://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/how-run-lab-making-better-funding-decisions Also highly involved in mapping out existing activities in core fields (eg. ageing, jobs, and parks) Additionally coordinates thematically focused programmes around innovative issue areas, such as the future of parks, supported through both research, knowledge sharing and complementary funding supports. See http://www.nesta.org.uk/project/rethinking-parks

MaRS Solutions Lab marsdd.com Location: Toronto, Canada Year Founded: 2013 Size: 6 staff Contact: Lead: Joeri Van Den Steenhoven 416-673-8100 solutions-lab@marsdd.com @solutions_lab

As a key component of the broader MaRS ecosystem, the Solutions Lab strives to convene diverse partners (foundations, corporations, academia, non-profit organization, governments) to unravel complex problems from a citizen-centric perspective. The current focus revolves around four key issue areas: health, work, food, government. Through a co-creation approach the lab works with users and stakeholders to develop, prototype and scale new solutions; through a lens of systems change. Funded primarily through endowment of Dr. John Evans; other key partners include: Government of Ontario, J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Social Capital Partners, Metcalf Foundation, Social Innovation Generation, Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience. Maintains unique relationship to government; closely connected to key government agencies but working at arms-length. Invites in other key partners on a project by project basis. The Solutions Lab has also completed an in-depth review of existing labs, publicly available at http://www.marsdd.com/app/uploads/2012/02/MaRSReport-Labs-designing-the-future_2012.pdf

 

Insights: Public innovation labs differ widely in terms of their relationships to formal institutions of governance.

● Four labs exist formally within government (UN Global Pulse, Mindlab, LA27E, Laborotorio para la ciudad) ● Three labs are closely associated with government agencies but remain separate and independent (Australian

Centre, NESTA, MaRS Solutions Lab) ● Six are entirely separate and independent of formal government involvement (Reos, In with forward, IDEO.org,

GovLab, Kennisland, Desis Lab). Two of these are based in universities (GovLab and DesisLab) The vast majority of labs had less than twenty five staff, with the exception of Reos Partners and NESTA. Four labs had less than ten staff listed; In with Forward, LA 27E, Desis Lab, MaRS Solutions Lab. The remaining seven labs had 10-25 staff. Very few labs studied are single-issue focused (UN Global Pulse Centre). The majority apply their with expertise in process design and facilitation to specializations within a few key issue areas. A few labs are entirely process-oriented and did not define any specific issue areas (LA27E, Reos). The majority of labs were based in the Global North; Laboratorio de la Ciudad was the only lab founded in and based primarily in the Global South. A variety of other labs are based in the Northern Hemisphere but do some level of work in the South, eg. Reos Partners, UN Global Pulse Labs, Ideo.org. Only one lab had made their budget easily accessible through their website (Mindlab) The vast majority of labs are recent creations. Only three labs were created before 2007 (NESTA, Kennisland, Mindlab)