Innovation in Government: The New Normal

Vinnova, The Swedish Innovation Agency, has been working with several initiatives the past few years in a programme for building innovation capacities in the public sector. We have had calls about innovation labs and test beds in the health care sector, test beds in digitalization in schools and clean tech test beds etc. The initiative focused in this talk concerns idea hubs in municipalities, which is physical or virtual structures and processes for stimulating employees in the municipalities based on needs of the citizens and companies, helping the employees coaching and developing ideas into innovation.
Vinnova finance 12 projects with both single municipalities and collaborative projects with 57 municipalities involved (appr. 20 % of the 291 municipalities). The projects started in late 2016 and during the autumn of 2017 we are conducting a follow up. What can we learn so far? What are hinders for innovation and what seems to be potential success factors? Do we recognize learnings from earlier innovation labs and test beds? What are the necessary preconditions for an innovative municipality? We do this initiative in close collaboration together with SALAR, The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, with who we have a special agreement on strengthening innovation capabilities in the municipalities, county councils and regions 2015-2017.