Innovation collaborations

Introduction to innovation collaborations

Innovation collaborations create opportunities for people and organisations with different experiences, knowledge and perspectives to work together on challenges that cannot be solved alone.

These communities explore new approaches, question existing ways of doing things and learn through action. They focus on changing systems, not just individual practices, with equity, collaboration and shared responsibility at the centre of their work.

Innovation collaboration activities:

• Bring together diverse people and organisations around a complex challenge or shared goal.
• Explore new ideas and approaches that cross organisational and sector boundaries.
• Question existing assumptions and ways of working to identify opportunities for change.
• Test ideas, experiment and learn from what works and what doesn't.
• Centre equity and justice in how challenges are understood and solutions are developed.
• Build relationships based on trust, humility and shared responsibility.
• Recognise the impacts of individual, historical, intergenerational and systemic trauma, and support healing-centred approaches to change.
• Share insights, experiences and learning to help others strengthen their practice and create lasting change.

Global examples

Innovation collaborations take different forms around the world. Examples include Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation, Just2ce: A just transition to circular economy, Regen Melbourne, Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab, The Southern Initiative and School of Systems Change Field and Practice.