The Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship’s Policy Innovation Platform has announced a partnership with the Ontario Public Service’s Policy Innovation Hub.
The Policy Innovation Platform is an initiative that uses design thinking and entrepreneurial strategies to gain insights and build solutions to complex policy issues. For two years, the platform has tested the application of new tools and methodologies, and supported initiatives with five ministries and agencies to tackle issues such as the challenges people face in making low-carbon choices, and how Ontario can attract individuals with digital skills to the Ontario Public Service.
Through the partnership, the Policy Innovation Platform and the Policy Innovation Hub will work together over the next year to design and implement several engagements related to policy challenges in Ontario.
“We envision that this partnership will help augment and accelerate the great policy innovation work that is already happening in the Ontario Public Service, and help create opportunities for even more.”
The Brookfield Institute said the partnership will focus on achieving a number of key goals, including learning when to use what tools, how, and with whom; and engaging Ontarians in the policy development process; increasing the use of policy innovation tools across the Ontario public service; and applying innovative policy tools to improve outcomes for citizens.
The Brookfield Institute also said that the Policy Innovation Platform will specifically explore topics such as innovation policies, the potential impacts of disruptive technologies, and social and environment policy challenges.
“Our partnership builds on the Policy Innovation Hub’s mandate to connect and collaborate with partners inside and outside of government to drive policy innovation to help the Ontario Public Service better address policy challenges, and the Policy Innovation Platform’s mandate of helping the public sector use innovative policy development methods and tools that lead to better outcomes for all Canadians,” the Brookfield Institute wrote in a statement. “We envision that this partnership will help augment and accelerate the great policy innovation work that is already happening in the Ontario Public Service, and help create opportunities for even more.”