7 minute read
Introduction
[1] OEDC (2021), Achieving Cross-Border Government Innovation: Governing cross-border challenges, OECD Publishing Paris, https://oecd-opsi.org/ publications/crossborder-governance/
The world is experiencing increased global and complex problems that cannot be solved by one nation or government alone. Further, as highlighted by OECD, 2020c “The ongoing crisis [Covid19] has made two things tremendously clear: the public sector is critical to ensuring the stability and wellbeing of society, and governments can rapidly and radically transform themselves to respond to shifting needs” (OECD,2021:7) [1]. The GSUP sets action behind the words and comes up with one solution on how to work intergovernmental on solving global challenges
The CivTech Alliance
The CivTech Alliance was founded in 2020 by the Scottish Government. The mission is to empower global GovTech and Civic Tech innovation programmes to deliver better outcomes for people and communities, helping to navigate, promote challenge-based methodologies, and give governments the confidence to adopt new methods of engagement, procurement, and technology adoption. The Alliance is a worldwide network of public, private and third sector organisations working across Civic and GovTech sectors, supporting and nurturing an ecosystem, which develops products and services to benefit the lives of citizens’. There is currently 23 members from 16 countries, including Australia, Brazil, the United States, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain. Its membership grows on a monthly basis with more partners from around the world interested to join.
COP26 Global Scale-Up Programme
The CivTech Alliance COP26 Global Scale-Up Programme joined together 8 governments and 3 academic/not-for-profit institutions across 10 countries to provide a unique access programme. The mission was to source, surface, and scale climate tech solutions for global public applications and create a unique access programme for climate tech companies in the run up to, and during, COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021.
The challenges
In collaboration with the United Nations Development Program, the World Resources Institute and Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc, three challenges were set aligning to the overarching COP26 goals.
The 3 challenges were centred on the themes of environmental resilience, food wastage and the decarbonisation of transportation.
Environmental Resilience How can the public and private sector use innovation and collaboration to protect the natural environment and better join up data and technology to help inform decision making on the repurposing of land and protecting the natural environment? Reducing Food Waste How can we use technology to reduce food waste and improve supply chains, in order to decrease world hunger and overuse of natural resources? Decarbonising Transport How can data and technology help reduce global emissions through the decarbonising and optimal usage of commercial and niche vehicles?
The programme
The GSUP consisted of 7 stages.
The GSUP programme
April-May 2021
Pre-Market Engagement
Warming up the market (companies/investors) and eliciting early feedback on the proposition.
June-August 2021
Open Call for Innovation
Via an open call for innovations on solving the three challenges the programme received applications from 67 scale-up tech companies from 14 countries applying to participate in the programme. Participants signed up to the general terms and conditions, and submitted one written application and a video. During the open call three live Q&A engagement sessions were run with 15 people attending on average. Due to summer holidays the initial closing date of 26/07/21 produced only 36 applications from 9 countries. The closing date was therefore extended to 09/08/21.
Aug 2021
Evaluation and Sifting
The companies were evaluated at a regional level using a pre-set scorecard assessing three primary elements: innovation, market potential and team capability. A total number of 32 companies were shortlisted and invited for an interview.
August 2021
Exploration
During a 2 week exploration-period the programme partners further investigated the potential of the companies to solve the challenge, in order to make a selection. Further, each of the chosen applicants submitted a needs analysis document outlining their preferences for public sector engagement, the company’s product route map, and their investment journey. The information was used to brief the programme partners in planning the Scale-Up Safari. 18 companies were selected from 9 countries with each region having a quota of up to 5 companies. September-October 2021
Scale-up Safari™
The chosen companies took part in a single cohort as part of a 7 week virtual Safari, rotating through each programme partner's region. In the seven-week safari the companies were given the opportunity to meet policy makers, academia, procurers, innovators and investors from each of the regional ecosystems. To enable optimum attendance across the participating time zones, the majority of the sessions were hosted in the afternoon, Central European Time.
The 69 sessions delivered over 200 introductions with the likes of the Nasa Open Innovation Team, the Federal Emergency Management Agency US Gov, NatureScot, Marine Scotland, Telefonica Spain, Bosch Venture Capital Germany, Ignitis Lithuania, Liga Ventures Brazil, and the office of the South Australian Chief Entrepreneur, as well as Ministers in Lithuania, Brazil and Scotland.
November 2021
COP26 Demo Week
During the COP26 Summit, the participating scale-up companies had the opportunity to present their solutions as part of the Scottish Government's official COP26 programme. 16 out of the 18 companies were able to present in person. Over the course of three days, the themed presentations were viewed in 46 countries. In addition, the companies were able to leverage this platform for further business development opportunities as part of the events held within the Blue and Green Zones of COP26. The Demo Week ended with a major networking event in the Great Hall, Edinburgh Castle, hosted by the Scottish Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism & Enterprise, Ivan McKee MSP.
November 2021- ... Field testing
At the time of going to print, the GSUP is still in its field-testing phase. This is where the companies have the opportunity to build on the connections made within the various regional ecosystems and seek to win contracts. The programme has already delivered contracts for companies as well as accelerated investments.
Technical University of Denmark
Stakeholders
The GSUP brings together multiple countries as collaborative members of the same extended innovation system. The programme draws together leading Govtech and Civic Tech innovation programmes and academic institutions from around the world. With the GSUP the Scottish Government has developed a programme that includes collaboration with partners from outside their usual sphere of engagement.
Initiative-taker
• Scottish Government
Programme partners
• Go2Gov (South Australia Government) • BrazilLAB (Brazil) • Ideiagov (Brazil) • InvestSP (Brazil) • Accelerate Estonia (Estonia) • Innolab (Baden Württemberg, Germany) • GovTech Lab Lithuania (Lithuania) • GovTech Center (Poland) • CivTech (Scotland) • PublicTech Lab IE University (Spain) • 10x, General Services Administration (USA) • DTU Compute, The Technical University of Denmark (Denmark)
Programme administration
• Central Team - Scottish Government
Global commitment
As seen on the world map the programme partners spread from Europe to USA and further on to Australia. The programme partners were all part of the CivTech Alliance, and therefore knew each other from this network.
Regional engagement
For the purposes of the initial three stages − market engagement, the open call and sifting − the programme was split according to regions: North America, South America, Europe and Australia. With this, each of the programme partners could utilise the regional innovation and investment networks which they were already part of. Hence, enabling a strong regional promotion of the programme and sourcing of companies to participate as well as limiting the effort of the programme partners.
Participating Companies
Environmental Resilience
Participating companies • Eco Panplas (Brazil) • Eco Wave Power (Sweden/Israel) • Laboratorium EE (Poland) • Um Grau e Meio (Brazil) • Blockchain Triangle (US) • Brazil Mata Viva (Brazil) • Foros (Lithuania) • XDI Systems (Australia) • Iceni Earth (UK)
Reducing Food Waste Participating companies
• Alpha Protein (Germany) • Blue Lobster (Denmark) • TooGoodToGo (Denmark) • Lemobs (Brazil)
Decarbonizing Transport Participating companies
• Scipopulis (Brazil) • CHRG Network App (Lithuania) • Datahood (Lithuania) • Mash Makes (Denmark) • The Routing Company (US/UK)
Collective journey
The GSUP embodies a collective journey for heterogeneous groups of innovators, initiators, programme partners and companies across sectors. For the GSUP to be successful, it has required mutual and extensive cooperation and willingness amongst all stakeholder groups.
Source: https://cop26.civtechalliance.org/
