- Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University - https://developingchild.harvard.edu -

Mexican Innovation Cluster

Led by the Aceleradora de Innovación para la Primera Infancia [1], an initiative of Universidad Regiomontana [2]

In 2016, the Center partnered with Universidad Regiomontana [2] to launch the Aceleradora de Innovación para la Primera Infancia [1] (Early Childhood Innovation Accelerator), an FOI innovation lab in Monterrey, Mexico. The “Aceleradora” supports a variety of innovative projects across Mexico, each with the potential to achieve breakthrough impacts among children and families facing adversity. Like other FOI innovation clusters [3], the Aceleradora employs the IDEAS Impact Framework [4] to build capacity among members to design, test, and refine promising, science-based intervention strategies. By bringing together practitioners, program developers, policymakers, and doctors, among other specialties, the cluster is able to leverage diverse experiences and perspectives to drive an ideation process rooted in both 21st century science and the lived experiences of the communities in which they work.

Teams from the new cohort of the Mexico Innovation Cluster in a workshop
The Mexico Innovation Cluster’s new cohort of teams came together in Monterrey in December 2019 to learn and apply the IDEAS Impact Framework to their programs.

The Aceleradora launched its second cohort of projects in 2020. The cohort model has not only helped individual projects advance their own work but has also facilitated shared learning within and beyond the cluster’s portfolio, increasing the pace of science-informed innovation within the national ECD field and enhancing the initiative’s impact across the country. This movement has engaged a diverse group of leaders across sectors, communities, and professions who are eager to work together in the pursuit of transformative change.