Frontiers of Innovation
Through Frontiers of Innovation (FOI), the Center collaborated with partners to launch innovation clusters and provide technical assistance to a portfolio of projects, with the goal of generating and sharing new knowledge to advance the early childhood field.
Innovation Clusters
Innovation clusters were cross-network collaborations between researchers, intervention developers, program sites, and practitioners. Within each cluster, project teams co-designed new strategies for addressing a specific unmet need within a population. The diverse pilot sites then tested these strategies and shared findings across the innovation cluster to advance each other’s work and accelerate the overall rate of learning. The Center partnered with key institutions to host three innovation clusters:
Washington FOI Innovation Cluster
Inspired and energized by the Center’s integrated science of learning, behavior, and health, a group of state-level policymakers coined the term “one science approach” to coordinate efforts across systems, policy, research, and practice aimed at improving outcomes for young children in Washington State. One project was the Washington Innovation Cluster, which built an infrastructure to support science-based innovation and a continuous flow of new ideas in the early childhood field. Supported by the Gates Foundation, the cluster played an indispensable role in developing, testing, and refining a new approach to program development and evaluation, now known as the IDEAS Impact Framework Toolkit. The work, relationships, and innovation mindset fostered by this cluster have continued to shape the state’s early childhood landscape in many ways, including through the Best Starts for Kids Innovation Fund.
iLab (Brazil Innovation Cluster)
Starting in 2015, FOI and Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância (NCPI) jointly launched the iLab, a Brazilian social innovation laboratory, to design and test strategies with the potential to transform the lives of children facing adversity. The iLab supported two cohorts of Brazilian innovators to co-create novel solutions based on the latest science and the lived experiences of the communities with which they work.
Aceleradora (Mexico Innovation Cluster)
Starting in 2016, the Center partnered with Universidad Regiomontana to launch the Aceleradora de Innovación para la Primera Infancia (Early Childhood Innovation Accelerator), an FOI innovation lab in Monterrey, Mexico. The Aceleradora supported a variety of innovative projects across Mexico, each with the potential to achieve breakthrough impacts with children and caregivers facing adversity. The Aceleradora employed the IDEAS Impact Framework to build capacity among members to design, test, and refine promising, science-based intervention strategies.
Frontiers of Innovation Projects
Frontiers of Innovation drove science-based innovation through a diverse portfolio of on-the-ground projects that formed a dynamic, global learning community. Projects were supported through fast-cycle iteration by the Center or our partner organizations through ongoing consultation.
Coming soon: Check out our full listing of projects that received consultation in the IDEAS Impact Framework and/or modest financial support from FOI.