Innovation Exchange
Innovation Exchange in the UK is a 3-year pilot programme primarily funded by the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office. Its work is based on the belief that the third sector is teeming with good ideas but too few of them change the world because of the lack of connection between the third sector and the bodies that could commission and fund an innovation.
To address this, Innovation Exchange brings groups of people together around great ideas in conditions supportive of conversation and engagement. It brokers connections between third sector organisations, commissioners of public services, social investors and policy-makers to try to ensure that innovative third sector ideas are supported and developed.
In its work to 31 March 2010, the Exchange is aspiring to demonstrate the effectiveness of brokerage in supporting third sector innovation. Its three main activities are:
- Festivals of Ideas - events where third sector organisations, commissioners and social investors come together to focus on finding solutions to pressing social problems.
- Next Practice Programme - a programme that brokers tailored support for 15 innovative third sector projects to help them grow.
- Innovation Exchange website - an online forum for sharing and developing ideas for social innovation.
As it tests and refines these activities, Innovation Exchange is helping great projects grow and at the same time developing tools and processes that can be adapted by other brokers to foster and sustain social innovation.
