Innovation Hubs and Labs

What is an Innovation Lab?

Innovation labs are based on the idea that the competencies and mindsets needed for systematic innovation are not the same as those required for stable, daily operations and service delivery at the front line. Innovation labs seek to provide approaches, skills, models and tools beyond what most trained civil servants usually possess. This may call for the creation of dedicated ‘safe’ spaces and opportunities for collaboration on innovation across units, departments and sectors to assist the exploration phase of innovation. Labs typically involve key stakeholders, including end users such as citizens and businesses, in a process of co-creation. For governments this means crafting new solutions with people and not just for them.

With innovation labs, the hope is that the establishment of dedicated, cross-cutting organisational structures can strike a blow at vested interests, power plays, and organisational infighting. Labs do so by being permanent structures with a mission to temporarily unfreeze organisational embedded practices. (Powering Collaborative Policy Innovation: Can Innovation Labs Help? 2012.)

Innovation Hubs/Labs in the Government of Canada

• Updates and activities happening within the Government of Canada Innovation Hubs and Labs community can be found on GCcollab

Hubs and Labs Within the Government of Canada (please add your group and update outdated info)

Department	Name of Hub/Lab/Team	Contact(s)
Canada Revenue Agency	Accelerated Business Solutions Lab	tracey.snow@cra-arc.gc.ca; Andre.Patry@cra-arc.gc.ca; @AGPatry; Adrian.Senn@cra-arc.gc.ca; @adrian_m_senn
Canada School of Public Service	Design & Learning Lab	Kony.Trudel@canada.ca
Canadian Food Inspection Agency	Creative Marketplace Lab on Data, Skills and Technology	ian.dahlman@canada.ca
Canadian Food Inspection Agency	Data Analytics and Modelling (DAM) team	jae-jin.ryu@canada.ca
Canadian Food Inspection Agency	Innovation and Idea Zone (the i-Zone); the Agency's innovation hub	CFIA-innov-ACIA@canada.ca | CFIA i-Zone/ Zone-i ACIA on GCconnex & GCcollab
Canadian Heritage	PCH Innovation Lab	Robin.Kilroy@canada.ca
Développement économique Canada	Incubateur d'innovation	diego.dube@canada.ca
Elections Canada	Elections Canada Innovation team	Jessica.Schultz@elections.ca; margy.vilé@elections.ca
Environment and Climate Change Canada	Innovation and Youth Engagement Division Regulatory Innovation and Management Systems	Holly Palen; holly.palen@canada.ca @holly_palen Melissa Poon; melissa.poon@canada.ca; @mykpoon Chari Marple; chari.marple@canada.ca astrid.telasco@canada.ca danny.lepage@canada.ca
Health Canada/PHAC	i.HUB Health Canada/PHAC	hc.ihub.sc@canada.ca @ihubhcsc
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada	Blueprint 2020 @ IRCC Secretariat	Maureen.Collins@cic.gc.ca And Tracy.Godin@cic.gc.ca
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada	Operations Planning and Performance Branch Research and Development Centre (OPPB RDC) Centre de Recherche et Développement de la Direction Générale de la Planication et du Rendement des Opérations (CRD DGPRO)	Jean-Guy St-Amour, Deputy Director, Business Research and Analysis: Jean-Guy.St-Amour@cic.gc.ca o Josh Clory, Senior Research Analyst: Josh.Clory@cic.gc.ca o Emilie Norman-Fortin, Senior Research Analyst: Emilie.Norman-Fortin@cic.gc.ca o Alexandre Strong, Senior Data Analyst: Alexandre.Strong@cic.gc.ca o Mathieu Zerter, Senior Data Analyst: Mathieu.Zerter@cic.gc.ca
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada	Service Insights & Experimentation (Pier SIX)	IRCC.CEPierSIX-PilierSIXEC.IRCC@cic.gc.ca
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada	Social Innovation Division, Settlement and Integration Policy
Natural Resources Canada	OEE Social Innovation UnLab	frank.gale@canada.ca
Privy Council Office	Impact and Innovation Unit	@impact_innovEN; @impact_innovFR; canada.ca/impact-and-innovation; canada.ca/fr/centreinnovation.html
Public Services and Procurement Canada	Innovation Secretariat	TPSGC.DGAPINNOVATION-PABINNOVATION.PWGSC@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca. GCCollab: https://gccollab.ca/groups/prole/988619/eninnovating-the-pay-administrationbranchfrinnovation-u00e0-la-direction-gu00e9nu00e9rale-de-lu2019administration-de-la-paye
Public Services and Procurement Canada	Innovation Zone (Office of the Chief Transformation Officer)	TPSGC.dgsizoneinnovation-isbinnovationzone.PWGSC@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca
Treasury Board Secretariat	Canadian Digital Service	https://digital.canada.ca/ cds-snc@tbs-sct.gc.ca https://twitter.com/CDS_GC
Treasury Board Secretariat	Centre for Regulatory Innovation	cri-cir@tbs-sct.gc.ca. Gcpedia - CRI Canada.ca - CRI
Quebec Federal Council	Laboratoire d'innovation du Conseil Fédéral du Québec	simon.morin@canada.ca

Innovation Communities in the Government of Canada

• Agora employee-led Innovation Network at Shared Services Canada (SSC)
• Business Process Modernization - Government of Canada
• the former Deputy Ministers' Committee on Policy Innovation is now the Board of Management and Renewal (BoMR), a senior Deputy Minister Committee chaired by the Clerk.
• ESDC Working Group on Policy Innovation
• Open Policy@DFAIT (now Global Affairs Canada)
• GC Design|GCDesign
• GC Entrepreneurs (no longer a program)
• Grand Challenges Canada (Global Affairs Canada)
• HRSDC Innovation, Strategy and Policy
• INNOVATION policy Innovation Policy
• ISED Innovative Solutions Canada
• Intelli: The Latest on Public Sector Innovation (Canada School of Public Service)
• International Policy Collaboration Portal/Calendar
• Policy Horizons Canada - Horizons de politiques Canada Policy Horizons Canada
• Policy Ignite
• Public Service Innovation Canada (ISEDC Service Lab)
• TBS Reducing Internal Red Tape Initiative
• Social Innovation Community of Practice
• Strategic Design
• Web 2.0 Practitioners Group

Multilateral Innovation Hubs

• International Institute for Innovation 
• OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation
• UN Development Programme - Global Centre for Public Service
• United Nations Global Pulse
• UNICEF Innovation Labs
• The Innovation Policy Platform

Academia

Canadian

• Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab), OCAD University​
• 1125 @ Carleton (University)
• McMaster University - Innovation Park
• Queen's University - Innovation Hub Ingenuity Labs
• Simon Fraser University Social Innovation Lab
• University of Waterloo Social Innovation Lab
• St. Paul University Social Innovation
• Pond-Deshpande Centre Social Innovation Lab at the University of New Brunswick

International

• Harvard Innovation Lab
• Stanford University - Center for Social Innovation
• University of Oklahoma - Innovation Hub
• University of Southampton - Social Innovation Lab
• University of Virginia - Hub of Innovation
• University of the Arts London - DESIS Lab
• NESTA (UK innovation foundation)

Municipalities

• Municipal Innovation Exchange (Guelph, London, Barrie)
• City of Ottawa - Service Innovation
• Bayview Yards - Your Ottawa Innovation Hub
• Calgary Social Impact Lab

Policy Think Tanks, Research Centers, and Consultancy Innovation Hubs

• The Brookfield Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
• OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI)
• Bridgeable - Service Design and co-creation
• The Behavioural Insight Team
• Cisco IoE (Internet of Everything) Innovation Centre - Toronto
• The Finance Innovation Lab
• IDEO: A Global Design Consultancy Firm 
• GovLoop
• Google/Government Innovation Lab
• The Gov Lab (NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering)
• GovLab (Deloitte)
• I-teams
• Nesta Public Services Lab
• Public Policy Lab
• ScotiaBank Digital Factory
• Canada2020
• Mowat Centre
• The Kauffman Foundation

Accelerators & Commercialization Labs

• GreenCentre Canada - Innovation in Chemistry
• Deloitte Innovation Lab
• MaRS Discovery District
• BCI
• InnovaCorp (Nova Scotia)
• Volta (Atlantic Canada)

National Government Innovation Hubs

Australia

• APS Innovation

Denmark

• MindLab

Finland

• Sitra

South Africa

• Centre for Public Service Innovation

Spain

• Barcelona Urban Lab

Sweden

• VINNOVA

United Kingdom

• Government Digital Service (GDS)
• Open Policy

United States

• 18F Digital Services Agency
• Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Innovation Lab

Civil Society Labs

• FutureGov - Asia/Pacific
• Citizen lab
• Civic system lab
• Grand Challenges (Gates Foundation)
• GovCamp
• Impact Hub
• InnovateSF
• La 27e Region
• Laboratorio Innovazione
• Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics
• Parsons DESIS Lab
• Social Innovation Lab
• Technology-Academics-Policy (TAP) Forum
• Social Innovation Canada
• New Brunswick's Social and Public Innovation Lab // Le laboratoire de l’innovation publique et sociale du Nouveau-Brunswick
• Nova Scotia GovLAB
• Alberta CoLAB (disbanded, but useful resources)
• Common Good Solutions (Nova Scotia)
• Tamarack Institute (community Innovation)

Resources

• Update on hubs/labs prepared for June 17, 2016 Deputy Ministers' Committee on Policy Innovation meeting
• NRCan's IN·spire Innovation Hub was mapping innovation (labs, hubs, funds, teams, etc.) around the world.
• Innovation Lab Backgrounder (GCPedia) from the June 2014 Policy Bazaar
• Innovation Labs: Bridging Think Tanks and Do Tanks (Policy Horizons Canada, 2012)
• i-teams: The teams and funds making innovation happen in governments around the world (Nesta and Bloomberg Philanthropies, 2014)
• Innovation Growth Lab-evaluates the impact of  innovations in your orgnization  
• Subscribe to Nesta's Lab notes, a monthly digest from a network of labs that bring together interesting tools and news from public sector innovators around the world.
• An Introduction to Policy Innovation, IPAC 2015
• The rise of policy innovation labs: A catalog of policy innovation labs across Canada. Bryan Evans, Ryerson University: August 2018

Common Hashtags

• #psilabs