MOIN cities exchange experiences of place-based innovation 

On 12 December, the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)’s Mission-Oriented Innovation Network (MOIN) convened five pioneering local authorities to discuss how they are using a mission-oriented approach to make their regions better, fairer and greener.  

In this community call, senior leaders from Valencia City Council, the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Camden Council and the Greater London Authority exchanged views and experiences on the challenges and opportunities of using a mission-oriented approach to tackle some of the regions’ biggest objectives, from reaching carbon neutrality to increasing economic opportunities for young people.  

The online meeting built on the MOIN place-based Green Missions dialogue held in February this year. The dialogue focussed on two key themes selected via a group needs analysis: “financing missions” and “movement building for scaling action”. Nick Kimber, Director of Strategy and Design at Camden Council, and Robyn Smyth, Project Manager for the Mission Based Approach at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, delivered insightful presentations on how they are leading work under each of the two themes: notably, Camden’s development of a Community Wealth Fund and Manchester’s target to become a carbon neutral city by 2038. 

Participants shared experiences, thinking and collective insights on how to tackle some of the diverse barriers to developing and delivering place-based missions. In particular, they discussed the need to build institutional capabilities and drive organisational change, break out of siloed thinking and instead take a systemic approach, and understand how to scale and communicate big-picture impact to stakeholders. They exchanged tips, strategies and initiatives drawn from their experiences of actively leading missions in their cities and the IIPP team looks forward to continuing the conversation. 

For more information 

IIPP's Mission-Oriented Innovation Network is a non-fee-paying network of public sector organisations who want to engage with IIPP in rethinking public value, shaping innovation, redirecting finance and transforming our public institutions to best meet humanity’s challenges. To learn more about the MOIN Global Cities Community Call or MOIN more generally, please contact Nora Clinton (n.clinton@ucl.ac.uk).