SHIFT is an ‘innovation ecosystem’ that equips projects to deliver community and environmental impact. We sat down with Francesca Colloca to find out how thinking differently can help tackle London’s big challenges.
At Gainsborough Primary School, food waste from school dinners is turned into fertiliser on site. With its help herbs, greens and fruits are grown fresh for the kitchen. This elegant closed-loop compost system was installed by startup MAD Leap.
Mad LEAP is just one of 215 SMEs receiving support from SHIFT to embed inclusive innovation across the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
The SHIFT catalyst aims to make innovation – and growth it brings – work for all. Founded in 2022 with public and private sector seed funding, its place-based, network approach to innovation brings a new offer to London, explains Francesca Colloca, Head of Innovation at SHIFT. She calls the park “living testbed”.
Why innovation should work for all
“Put simply, innovation is about doing things differently, and better”, Francesca said. “This means making processes that are streamlined, efficient and – key to inclusivity – benefit more people.”
The picture in London is in many ways a positive one. London ranks in the top few cities globally by number of startups. “And local authorities and the Greater London Authority are looked to internationally as models for placemaking”, Francesca added.
But when we look at who gets to do the innovating, London falls down. Female entrepreneurs usually receive only two per cent of venture capital funding in the UK. Furthermore, less than one per cent of funding in 2022 went to startups with Black founders. And that’s before we factor in other forms of capital, like enabling connections.
In the face of challenges like the climate emergency, we can’t afford for innovation to be owned by a select few. London must move smart and fast – empowering problem solvers who can draw on diverse lived experiences.
Making innovation mission-led
SHIFT is tackling this issue head-on with a mission-led approach. Its vision for urbanism is about going beyond market requirements, shifting the goalposts on solutions for climate, wellbeing and mobility. The catalyst provides seed funding to SMEs and supports them to get their ideas up and running.
Its ‘Future Industries Demonstrator’ asks entrepreneurs to respond to innovation challenges, such as creating “natural cities” or “transforming food systems”. For each innovation challenge five winners are selected who receive £25k funding, alongside a support package that includes an eight-week accelerator, access to affordable workspace and support to trial their product in east London.
The demonstrator has secured almost £1.5 million in UK Shared Prosperity funding and will run until 2025.
“Working inclusively means thinking critically about who is involved at each stage of an innovation process starting from design, through to delivery and dissemination”, Francesca said. “The built environment sector needs to be better at thinking about how a product will affect the wider public – not just an end user.”
‘Network innovation’ is the way forward
“We also need to think more expansively about what innovation means. Innovation can be data-driven, high tech and flashy, but some of the best social innovation is more analogue – about finding simpler ways to do established processes.”
SHIFT was set up with funding from seven public and private sector organisations. The London Legacy Development Corporation, University of the Arts London, University College London, Loughborough University London, Here East, Plexal and Lendlease each pledged an annual contribution for a period of three years, adding to the pot of seed-funding from the Greater London Authority and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Cross-sector collaboration remains key to its model. SHIFT connects startups with diverse stakeholders in its ecosystem, including universities, investors, policymakers and community organisations. There are 219 organisations in the SHIFT collective and counting.
Through SHIFT, founders meet potential partners, community advisers and other enablers. “The key is that it’s not just public-sector-led”, Francesca said. “Projects attract real commercial, academic and community buy-in.”
Local community groups can advise on design before products are brought to market. SHIFT trains start-ups to engage with inclusivity frameworks early in their design process, such as NESTA’s Standards of Evidence principles and London Office of Technology and Innovation resources.
The city as a ‘testbed’
The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is also made available for SMEs to viability test their products, a second key ingredient in the SHIFT model. The park has a unique mix of assets under public ownership, including Olympic venues and canals. For startups, it offers a 560-acre physical and digital testbed.
“Usability testing encourages potential partner organisations to invest, such as local authorities, because it reduces the risks associated with a project”, Francesca explained.
One success story is Mosa, an SME trialling new smart bike-lock technology. Mosa were able to install trial locks at the park’s Aquatics Centre and at Westfield Shopping Centre. Converting these standard cycle racks into secure spaces enabled Mosa to gather user feedback from the public. The team also captured data to showcase its net-zero impact.
Josh Liu, Founder at Mosa commented: “we received substantial support from the public to tackle the issue of bike theft, as well as feedback to enhance the user-friendliness of our product.”
How can we innovate for scale?
SHIFT’s innovation model is thus distinctively place-based, drawing on the unique physical infrastructure of the area and involving local people in tandem, as projects develop.
The SHIFT ecosystem is an example of what Systems Innovation Professor Frank Geels calls ‘network governance’. Geels says there’s a need for innovation accelerators that work by getting people together, creating visions and enabling learning processes and collaboration. This approach differs from traditional ‘paradigms’, which are often top-down and government-led, or provide market incentives and “let the private sector get on with it”.
The successes of Nordic states and Germany in driving innovation can be largely attributed to network governance, says Geels. SHIFT illustrates in practice how network governance can create step-change transformations. Introducing local authorities to cutting-edge innovators supports them to be market shaping. And new thought-leaders could leverage policy influence through these connections.
Two successful years in, SHIFT is focusing on scaling impact and developing a self-sustaining financial model, for once initial pledge funding is over.
The team worked with Newham Council early this year to explore the mechanics of innovating for scale, focusing on enabling mass retrofit of housing. The initiative explored how bringing together diverse stakeholders can leverage different sectors’ strengths, setting the challenge of delivering 1000 homes at a time.
How can innovation move at pace, while ensuring it brings everyone with it? SHIFT will tackle this questions next.