Scaling Innovations

Scaling innovation is widely recognised as the most challenging stage in the innovation life cycle. Scaling promising innovations in the public sector is even more challenging than in the private sector due to factors such as a risk-averse organisational culture, resource constraints, and potentially heave administrative burdens and bureaucracies.

Despite these challenges, there are many innovative projects and programmes being developed across the UN System that have the potential to make a significant impact. To realise their full potential, it is crucial to identify the most promising innovations and help them progress from a proof of concept to a successful pilot and eventually to a fully-scaled project. 

This Group aims to bring together UN colleagues and interested observers to jointly explore the challenges innovators face when scaling their initiatives and discuss emerging good practices for systematically supporting innovations to scale. It aims to

• Provide opportunities for UN colleagues to share experiences, knowledge and expertise in innovation scaling:
• Accelerate the adoption of good practices; 
• Bring new views and applications from outside the UN into the realm of the community;
• Facilitate an honest exchange of challenges among practitioners by forming a close-knit group of technical experts; and
• Serve as a moderated forum which encourages member participation, spurs collaboration and nurtures two-way learning.

‍