Innovation Exchange: Supporting third sector innovation through brokerage

The first Learning Paper from Innovation Exchange is now available for download. Innovation Exchange: Supporting third sector innovation through brokerage makes the case for brokerage as a way to support social innovation, outlines key activities and shares early findings from the work of Innovation Exchange.

From recruiters to estate agents to bankers, brokerage is big business. Within the private sector, innovation brokerage – bringing people together to innovate – is well developed. But what is the power of brokerage to drive social innovation? And how can we maximise its potential? These questions are at the heart of Innovation Exchange.

Innovation Exchange is a pilot programme primarily funded by the Office of the Third Sector in The Cabinet Office. In our work up to 31 March 2010, the Exchange aspires to demonstrate the effectiveness of brokerage in supporting innovation in the third sector. The Exchange believes that the third sector is teeming with good ideas but too few of them change the world because innovators, commissioners and investors are often disconnected from each other and lack the capacity and incentive to collaborate. Through our three core strands of work (Festivals of Ideas, the Next Practice programme and Innovation Exchange website), the Exchange is developing and testing practices for bringing together third sector innovators, social investors and commissioners in conditions supportive of innovation.

Practical in approach, Innovation Exchange is also underpinned by a learning programme to capture and reflect on the effective of our brokerage practice. We are currently developing an evidence base around the role of brokers and brokerage for third sector innovation. As we test and refine our three core programmes, we are developing tools, methods and models that can be adapted by other brokers to foster and sustain social innovation.

Our Learning Papers share Innovation Exchange's insights and developing practice. Our next installment is due for release in December 2009.

http://www.socialinnovationexchange.org/node/4127

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