Innovation Hub
The Institute's Sustainability Innovation Hub is a dynamic centre of transdisciplinary activity. We promote innovation, collaboration and the adoption of sustainable practices, products, or services linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The Hub acts as a platform to bring together scientific experts with organisations. It fosters an ecosystem that encourages collaboration with a commitment to turn research into actionable solutions.
Purpose of the Hub
The Institute's Sustainability Innovation Hub helps organisations (such as businesses, government, or social enterprise) to develop, or fast-track the adoption of sustainable solutions. We embrace agile innovation practices, collective intelligence and systems thinking approaches to address complex change, transformation and innovation.
Through the Hub, fellows of the Institute for Sustainability have a facilitated and supported consultancy framework with access to external organisations and vetted opportunity to engage and collaborate across disciplines.
The Hub is, in effect, a precursor to growing both ‘spin in’ and ‘spin out’ activities in sustainability.
Spin in activity
Organisations spin into the Institute and access our inventions, research, technologies and facilities to develop an opportunity through a collaborative approach.
Spin out activity
Scientific experts are encouraged to generate and to facilitate the transfer of new inventions and knowledge which have real-world impact on society.
Read about the Institute's Sustainability Innovation Hub in the Guildford Business Guide (pg 39) here.
Aims of the Hub
The Hub is co-designed in consultation with businesses and innovation experts to:
- Promote innovation, creativity and engagement in science
- Foster collective problem-solving abilities and address sustainability challenges at scale
- Support knowledge exchange, drive impact and boosts policy-business engagement
- Strengthen research with action
- Position the Institute as a critical player in the global transition to sustainable living
- Position the Surrey County as a global hotspot for sustainable wellbeing.
Benefits of using our Hub
- Fully costed approach
- Formation of consortiums of organisations with shared problem statements, to work at scale
- The Institute adds seed funding, match funding and resources to support the project management.
Our seven step methodology
-
Select
- Determine tangible change
- Measure reproducibility.
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Discover
- Challenge identification
- Problem statement(s).
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Define
- Project co-design
- Systems thinking for identification of inter-connections
- Mindmap sessions/ roundtable discussion.
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Consult
- Open innovation with the broader community.
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Refine
- Solutions mapping
- Value proposition
- Refine through feedback loop.
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Test
- Develop prototype
- Implement
- Test applications in living lab environment.
-
Roll out
- Monitor real-world impact.
Get in touch
Is your challenge sustainability related? Please email innovation.hub@surrey.ac.uk to get in touch and to receive our contact form.
For any other queries, please email ifs@surrey.ac.uk
Innovation at the Hub
Read about the Institute's Sustainability Innovation Hub in the Guildford Business Guide (pg 39). The University has a responsibility to local, national and global society to make a positive impact for the benefit of all.