What is an Ideas Lab?

Ideas Labs, also known as Sandpits, emerged in the early 2000’s in response to two needs:

  • The need to actively encourage greater interdisciplinary collaboration around complex, multifaceted questions,
  • The need to have a robust proposal review process, which could accommodate interdisciplinary proposals. 

Of the two, the latter need was seen as more pressing by the funding agencies. This was largely due to the fact that research funding was usually provided through disciplinary specific programs, which by their nature, meant that the panelists often lacked the knowledge to accurately assess some elements of interdisciplinary proposals. The Ideas Lab model addressed these issues by enabling the reviewers to watch the proposal creation process, in real time, which provided them with a much deeper understanding of the various disciplinary elements.

But what is an Ideas Lab?

In its simplest form, an Ideas Lab is a workshop that’s designed to maximize creative collaboration in order to produce:

  • Novel, exciting, risky research proposals, and
  • New research teams to pursue the proposals.

It is this focus on deliberate creativity that sets an Ideas Lab apart from traditional academic meetings.

The selected participants at the workshop will come from a diverse range of disciplines, and institutions. During the event, which typically last for 5 days, they will work together in a creative, free-thinking environment that is designed so that they can be away from their everyday routines and responsibilities, and immerse themselves in the challenge.

By the end of an Ideas Lab, the participants will usually have created 5-10 novel research proposals, and formed teams to pursue the research, subject to funding review.

One other term which is sometimes used interchangeably with Ideas Lab is Innovation Lab. Although this term is widely used to describe both events and physical locations, we use it in a very specific way. An Ideas Lab is both a workshop and a funding opportunity. In other words, participants attend the workshop with the expectation that their projects have a high chance of receiving funding. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes funders want to generate proposals, which could then be submitted to existing funding schemes. In this case, we refer to these events as Innovation Labs.

Should you organize an Ideas Lab?

Ideas Labs are designed to address situations where either:

  • the current field is stuck, and there is a belief that a more interdisciplinary approach is required, or
  • new opportunities have opened up, perhaps through technological developments, or change in policy, but no one is sure how to exploit these opportunities.

In either of these situations, an Ideas Lab might be an appropriate course of action, if the organizers want to stimulate the creation of novel proposals, and research teams.

How is an Ideas Lab organized?

The key output of an Ideas Lab is a collection of novel research proposals that are being pursued by newly formed, resilient research teams. In order to achieve this goal it is essential to recruit 25-35 carefully selected participants. In addition to the participants there will be a workshop director who has responsibility for focusing the scientific challenge, and a collection of subject matter experts who play a mentoring role for the participants.. 

Although it is possible to recruit participants through standard processes, it is often the case that an Ideas Lab is preceded by a scoping session. The session allows the organizers to both develop a suitably focused question, and to engage with a broad community of potential participants

The original Ideas Lab model was a purely face-to-face affair. However, more recently many Ideas Labs have employed  both hybrid designs – some of the pre, and post event activities being conducted online – and fully virtual designs. Each mode has its merits, and needs to be considered in the light of the organizers objectives.

Irrespective of the modality, the flow of the event will be similar. Participants will move through a deliberate creative thinking process which involves:

  • Exploring and framing the underlying questions
  • Tentatively forming groups based around shared interests in particular questions
  • Developing initial ideas, and receiving feedback
  • Improving and refining the ideas
  • Creating proposals.

Ideas Labs have been run across a wide range of topics, and have proved to be remarkably effective at generating both exciting research ideas, and new collaborations.

Example

In 2016, we ran an Ideas Lab on the Origins of Life. The National Science Foundation wrote an evaluation of the event, and it provides a good overview of both the process, and the outcomes. The assessment can be found here