Agile Nations

The Agile Nations is an inter-governmental regulatory cooperation network designed to foster co-operation on innovative regulatory practice between participating governments. The network focuses on the testing and development of new solutions to make it easier for businesses to introduce and scale innovations across different markets while upholding protections for citizens and the environment.

What is the Agile Nations

The Agile Nations is an inter-governmental regulatory cooperation network of 7 countries that focuses on practical collaboration on emerging technology.

The UK is one of the founding members, along with:

  • Canada
  • Denmark
  • Italy
  • Singapore
  • Japan
  • UAE (United Arab Emirates)

The UAE is the current Chair (until April 2023).

The Agile Nations’ core mission is to help innovators navigate the complex regulatory landscape, test new ideas in collaboration with regulators and scale their innovation across markets, while upholding protections for citizens and the environment.

The network aims to promote international regulatory cooperation through various activities, including:

  • sharing foresight and evidence on the opportunities and risks of innovation, to enable timely regulatory reform
  • exploring opportunities to jointly test approaches to regulating through collaborative initiatives such as joint experimentation and sandboxes
  • identifying opportunities to develop interoperable regulation relating to innovations
  • supporting innovative firms to navigate participating governments’ regulations regimes as they look to introduce and scale new ideas

Agile Nations Charter

The Agile Nations was officially launched on 25 November 2020 with the signing of the Agile Nations Charter.

The Charter paved the way for like-minded nations to begin collaboration that supports more effective regulation and approaches to agile governance.

Agile Nations Progress Report

The Agile Nations work programme was officially approved by the Agile Nations Ministerial Council on 20 October 2021, and this report outlines the progress of the Agile Nations during its first term.

Contact details

agilenations@beis.gov.uk