Working with the Open Innovation Team
A guide for officials and academics
Working with us if you’re a government official
We work on a project basis for teams across the public sector, not just central government. Officials who work with us tend to want a mix of the following:
- better understanding the evidence base for their policy area
- engagement with a more diverse range of experts
- fresh thinking, creative approaches or innovative ideas
- help framing their problems and defining solutions using the latest evidence
As a government team, we are extremely easy to work with. Commissioning us for a project can be as simple as writing us a brief. We operate on a not-for-profit basis making our pricing extremely competitive.
We have a range of tools we often use, but we can flex these to meet the specific needs of our client teams depending on what they’d find most helpful. We charge for our projects, and subsidise the costs of this work with income from our other activities, such as training.
If you’re interested in working with us, get in touch by emailing us at enquiries@openinnovation.gov.uk and one of the team will be in touch to talk to you about how we can help.
Working with us if you’re an academic
We are a government team that generates analysis and ideas for policy by working with external experts. Most of the work we do is demand-led, with officials commissioning us to help them solve policy problems. We frequently contact academics and other experts to get their input in a variety of ways, including:
- expert interviews
- research reviews
- expert workshops
- seminars to bring academics and officials together
We also offer training for universities on how academics and government can work together more effectively. If you would like to learn more about our training offer, email us at enquiries@openinnovation.gov.uk and we’ll be in touch to see how we can help.