Geoff's blog

Innovation tools

Geoff Mulgan - 15.11.2011

We've been very interested in the experiences of accelerators over the last few years.  These appeared in the US in the middle of the last decade, in IT and web sectors, and some have grown enormously. They bring together a cohort of start-ups and provide them with a mix of intensive support, a physical home and investment. In some cases one or two individuals have been the driving force - as guides, mentors and shapers. 

NESTA invests in several - Springboard and Seedcamp - and there are some well-established, renowned ones in the US including Y Combinator, which has estimated the combined value of its portfolio companies at $4.7 billion.

The models are by no means fixed yet; and there are different views on what the critical success factors are. But we're interested in extending the model in two ways: doing more focused accelerators, for example on educational technology or health services; and linking them into larger companies or clients, since we know that one of the most important drivers of success is having a serious buyer.

Accelerators are one example of a new tool for innovation. At NESTA we'll be keeping an overview of new tools as they emerge, and reporting on innovations in innovation. A good example was the recent report from INFU (a collaboration of Fraunhofer and others), which covered examples such as user-led innovation, crowd-sourcing, Living Labs etc.  Here are a few not covered in the survey that interest me:

• New ways of integrating mass media, social activism and innovation. Soul City in South Africa is a great example of this, mixing soap opera, community projects and the web. Jamie Oliver's campaign around school dinners is another. It feels like this should be territory where some radically new models take off.
• Collaborative consumption and mobilising wasted assets is already breeding lots of innovation, but it has plenty of potential to do far more.  Far too much land, property, equipment and time currently goes to waste.
• Big data is also already beginning to fuel innovation - but will do so much more.  Cross correlating, matching and mining data will show otherwise invisible patterns and lead to the creation of new services.  Alongside it will be much more use of data journalism - already a growth sector in its own right, and fascinating for those of us who like facts and visualisations. 
• 'Para roles' are another category - people playing roles as teachers, nurses, police officers with less training, and more technology support. These can enhance the paid professionals, and provide services more cheaply. They have always been important but may become more so, not just in poor countries but also in rich ones struggling to pay their way.
• Imaginative ownership concepts: we're already seeing the results of recent innovations like the Community Interest Company (and its copies around the world). I also like the idea of one-click organisations, and light associations. 
• Living Labs have been around for a decade but most aren't really living.  The next evolution may be for people to opt to become laboratories, turning their own home, life or street into a testbed. This already happens for some technologies but perhaps we'll see it happen in a more orchestrated ways. The Whole System Demonstrators are a good example - their evaluation is out next month.
• Preventive investment models: everyone wants to find ways to save money and prevent problems but everyone struggles to do this well. There are plenty of pointers:  Social impact bonds and other financial incentive mechanisms show promise. But these remain unproven and I hope there'll be lots of innovation to find out which ones really work.