How can ecosystems help good innovation to scale? 

This past year, SHIFT has been involved in lots of conversations about how to ensure the success of the best, most impactful innovation that’s out there. In the summer, we brought together 90 leaders from government, business, community organizations, and universities to tackle a critical question: How can we accelerate the adoption of innovation? Following the release of the new UK Industrial Strategy for public consultation, and in anticipation of the upcoming Spending Reviews, where innovation is expected to be a key driver for growth, we think the insights from our ecosystem gathering offer valuable perspectives for us all to consider.  

The urgency for effective innovation scaling has never been greater. Against a backdrop of global political uncertainty, climate crisis, and technological transformation, the UK faces specific challenges in productivity and growth. Yet within these challenges lie unprecedented opportunities. The rapid advancement of technology, particularly AI, offers new possibilities for addressing societal, environmental, and economic issues. As enablers of innovation, SHIFT see first-hand just what entrepreneurism, opportunism and passion there is out there.  We can point to incredible examples of collaboration, bold action and market-making from our own innovation ecosystem, and in turn, we see the challenges faced by impact-driven start-ups.   

In this post, we’ll explore three key aspects of scaling innovation that emerged from our discussions: 

• The role of place-based ‘Testbeds’ in innovation development 

• How Data Ecosystems drive urban solutions 

• The power of University-Business collaborations 

 

What does scaling innovation really mean? 

Before we explore these topics in more detail, it’s worth explaining why we’re exploring this topic. Scaling innovation isn’t just about helping businesses grow to create jobs – it’s about ensuring that collaborations and innovations deliver a broad definition of ‘value’ for multiple stakeholders, including people, place and planet. This value should be meaningful and inclusive – it should positively impact society, the environment and the economy.  

With innovation contributing significantly to the UK economy, we must ensure we’re scaling solutions in ways that create broad value and address today’s biggest challenges. And we must ensure that we’re really helping solutions embed themselves in the marketplace and in communities across the country.  

The path forward is of course complex, involving coordinated action across society and the economic system. Amongst the more structural solutions are: more effective government regulation that opens new markets as well as holds destructive ones to account; bold corporate leadership and accountability to drive change through supply chains; raising citizen awareness and demand for responsible products, to name a few.  

Here’s what we’re doing to enable this step-change, informed by discussion with our innovation ecosystem: 

 

Defining the role of place-based ‘Testbeds’ in scaling innovation  

The concept of the ‘Living Lab’ or ‘Smart City’ has dominated urban socio-cultural-technological conversations for a couple of decades now. In recent years, the ‘Sandbox’ and ‘Testbed’ has emerged as a hyper localised site with curated assets (physical or digital) where a specific question can be posed and answered. The key questions are “Does this solution hold potential for impact, what are the obstacles to scaling it, and can our ecosystem of assets and partners help unlock those obstacles?”. 

Here’s some of the key determinants of success for scaling innovation, where Testbeds can leverage their strengths – not just for start-ups but for larger institutions collaborating and innovating as well:  

 

1. Capital: Securing adequate funding to scale beyond pilots or proof of concept remains difficult. Meanwhile, buyers or partners often lack the budget to invest in innovative solutions, or the risk appetite is too low to invest in new solutions. 

2. Capacity: Limited resources, infrastructure, or lack of effective partnerships hinder scaling for innovators. Overcoming regulatory hurdles can be particularly tricky.

3. Customers: Access to early adopters is crucial for success and getting in front of the right audience at the right time remains a challenge – as does branding and marketing effectively.  

4. Care: Clear communication of mission-driven principles and impact is needed to build trust and gain traction. Collecting robust data, and communicating this well, is a particular need – but so is having a neutral convenor who can hold everyone to the mission at hand.  

 

Testbeds and their ecosystem of players can serve as the perfect place where these hurdles are overcome, precisely because they move beyond institutional boundaries to leverage resources, rely on the power of collective agendas and often have a neutral player acting solely in the interests of inclusive innovation. In our role as Testbed and Ecosystem convenor and catalyser, SHIFT aims to bring each of the four to table.  

 

The Role of Data Ecosystems in Addressing Urban Challenges  

Urban challenges are complex, and effective digital solutions often rely on collaborative data sharing initiatives. During our summer event, experts from various sectors in our ecosystem discussed the role of formalised, managed and curated data ecosystems in both tackling these challenges and measuring change.  

As SHIFT progresses with the development of a purpose-built data ecosystem platform, we’re taking stock of key actionable insights emerged from ecosystem discussions, highlighting the importance of a Testbed’s data assets in scaling digital solutions: 

1. Cross-sector sharing: Data must be shared and integrated across sectors – the ‘place’ component of data ecosystems should act as a unifier for organisations with shared responsibilities. 
2. Impact: The impact of digital solutions is often ‘upstream’ of a real world intervention – we need to effectively measure impacts like time savings and effective prioritisation of interventions. 
3. Partnerships:  The business value and potential for impact of a data set increases exponentially when it’s linked to other data sets – we need to break down organisational data siloes to trial new approaches to place-based collaboration. 
4. Hyperlocality: ‘City data’ has different uses at different levels of aggregation. If we want to inform and measure interventions on behalf of our communities – we need to get granular. 

Moving forward, the development of a cohesive national data strategy and fostering collaboration across sectors will be key to maximising the potential of data in urban environments. SHIFT’s digital frontiers platform will put this into practice and act as London’s digital testbed. 

 

Business-University Collaboration for Innovation 

University and business partnerships can be a crucial ingredient for scaling innovation, but they often face challenges related to a difference in organisational pace, priorities and communication. Our discussions have focused on how to make these collaborations more effective and actionable.   

The partnership between academia and industry represents one of the most powerful engines for innovation, yet it remains one of the most challenging relationships to get right. At our summer event, leaders from both universities and businesses in our ecosystem shared their experiences and insights, revealing both persistent challenges and promising solutions: 

1. Collaboration brokers as innovation catalysts: Organizations like SHIFT serve as vital intermediaries by acting as trusted translators between academic and business worlds, actively managing expectations and timelines while identifying strategic opportunities and maintaining productive long-term relationships between partners. 
2. Developing a shared language: Successful partnerships thrive on establishing clear communication protocols from the start, continuously translating research into business insights through regular workshops and creating documentation that bridges academic and commercial needs. 
3. Building long-term strategic partnerships: Rather than pursuing one-off projects, effective collaborations establish comprehensive multi-year frameworks with shared innovation roadmaps, committed resources, and regular strategic reviews to ensure mission-aligned value creation. 
4. Creating practical testing environments: The most successful partnerships leverage dedicated testing spaces that combine university-supported testbeds, living labs, and shared facilities to validate innovations in real-world conditions while maintaining academic rigor. 

 

In conclusion, the path towards scaling innovation is undoubtedly complex, requiring a coordinated effort across society and the economic system. While the challenges are significant, the potential rewards are immense. By fostering collaboration between governments, businesses, universities, and community organizations, we can unlock the full potential of innovation to address societal, environmental, and economic challenges. Through initiatives like place-based testbeds, data ecosystems, and strong university-business partnerships, we can create an environment where innovation can thrive, scale, and deliver lasting positive impact.

 

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At SHIFT, we’re exploring how we can mobilise capital for innovation, whilst brokering collaboration across our ecosystem and developing a shared language and set of missions. As we head into the new year, we’re looking to further expand on our innovation models and will share our progress with our ecosystem.  If you’re not already a member, join us here to stay updated on business innovation and explore the benefits SHIFT’s Ecosystem.