Partners

Innovation Growth Lab is an international initiative led by Nesta in partnership with several public and private organisations around the world.

Nesta is the UK’s innovation foundation with a mission to help people and organisations bring great ideas to life. Dedicated to supporting great ideas that can help improve lives, Nesta combines a number of roles. These range from early stage investment to funding practical programmes, supporting innovation skills and doing in-depth research. Nesta also run a range of EU wide programmes with partners across Europe.

They believe that we need a more experimental approach to innovation, entrepreneurship and growth policy, trialling new instruments but also evaluating them more rigorously. This involves making much more use of randomised controlled trials (RCTs), learning from successful experiences in other fields. Nesta’s Creative Credits was one of the first innovation policy RCTs, and they want to help extend this practice globally. This is why Nesta has led the development of IGL, a global laboratory for innovation and growth policy.  

The Barcelona School of Economics is a community of researchers, professors, graduate students, and alumni in economics, statistics and social sciences founded in 2006. Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) ranks BSE as the first Spanish economic institution, one of the top 5 economics departments in Europe and Top 10 economics department in the world as of June 2022. In 2020 IGL established a research partnership with BSE to foster scientific cooperation among the BSE research community and the IGL team from an office in Barcelona.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private, nonpartisan foundation that aims to foster economic independence by advancing educational achievement and entrepreneurial success. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo., and has approximately $2 billion in assets. The Kauffman Foundation has been a funder of many different entrepreneurship and innovation programmes in the United States, but the evidence base for what is effective remains thin. Now, with the proliferation of such programmes, they have the opportunity to build a stronger base of such evidence. 

Since the 1980s, the Argidius Foundation has been working to catalyse economic development in low- and middle-income countries, especially in Africa and Central America. Convinced of the potential that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) hold for employment creation, income generation, and poverty reduction, their strategy focuses on building SMEs' capacity and improving their access to finance. By improving the effectiveness and reach of SME capacity development services, they aim to help entrepreneurs to build profitable businesses and contribute to the sustainable development of their communities.

 

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) helps entrepreneurs and organisations to invest, develop and expand their businesses and projects both in the Netherlands and abroad. They are a government agency that carries out the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate policy.

They help entrepreneurs, NGOs, knowledge institutes, policymakers and organisations. They support entrepreneurship, improve collaborations, and strengthen positions through their funding and networks.

Canada is a nation of Innovators, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)’s mission is to work with their innovation leaders to foster a growing, competitive and knowledge-based Canadian economy.  They live out our mission by supporting Canadian businesses from coast-to-coast-to-coast to think and act globally, grow, and take on risk all within a framework of policies designed to improve the competitive intensity and sustainable growth of the Canadian industrial sector. They partner with leading-edge researchers and Canadian companies to enhance innovation performance through the adoption and commercialisation of new technologies, and collaborate with industry on issues that advance Canada's long-term competitiveness and economic growth.

 

ENISA is Spain's funding agency for startups and SMEs. A State-owned enterprise owned by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, ENISA’s main mission is to support viable and innovative projects led by Spanish entrepreneurs or SMEs, by helping them find the necessary funding to develop and compete in a global market. In 2019 ENISA’s investment portfolio reached €1 billion, with more than 6,600 disbursed loans and 5,900 companies financed since the inception of its equity loans programme. ENISA focuses on promoting a culture of innovative entrepreneurship, actively participating in the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem. Their efforts aim to strengthen Spanish companies by making them more competitive, sustainable and ready to export. ENISA takes into account different ways of supporting sustainable projects, making sure no one is left out.

 

The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) is the national funding agency for industrial research and innovation in Austria. Their target groups are companies, RTOs and Universities. The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) offers advice, support and funding for research and innovation projects. In this way, the FFG plays an important role in achieving aims, both research and political, defined by Austria and the European Union.

 

Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency, accelerating sustainable economic growth. Innovators whether small, medium or large, see the world as full of problems  - they have the ideas and talents to fix society’s challenges. They know that taking a new idea to market is a challenge. They fund, support and connect innovative businesses through a unique mix of people and programmes to accelerate sustainable economic growth.

 

Innovation Norway is the Norwegian state and counties' key instrument to achieve both private and socio-economic profitable business and industry development, working to increase the numbers of good entrepreneurs, companies with growth potential, and innovative business clusters. With a regional presence both in Norway and abroad, Innovation Norway is uniquely positioned to generate profitable business development and value added based on the regions' various preconditions and to release the opportunities within business and industry.
 

The UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is the department for economic growth. BEIS aims to promote trade, boost innovation, help people to start and grow a business, and help both individuals and businesses to invest in skills and education. It also protects consumers and reduces the impact of regulation. They are strongly committed to using robust evidence to support the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of their policies.

 

Scottish Enterprise is Scotland's national economic development agency. Its purpose is to help businesses innovate and scale to transform the economy. Central to this are greater levels of innovation, international competitiveness and encouraging more investment in companies and infrastructure. Through Scottish Development International (SDI) we have over 30 global offices (SDI) promoting Scotland as a place for investment and trade. SDI services are delivered in close coordination and partnership with the Scottish Government, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise. We support businesses access funding from a variety of sources including international innovation funds and utilise Scotland Europa in Brussels to make connections with those shaping innovation policy and funding opportunities in Europe