The IGL Winter Research Meeting, held on 13th December in London this year, brought together a group of researchers to discuss experimental research aimed at improving our understanding of the drivers of innovation, entrepreneurship and growth, and some potential interventions to accelerate these.

Researchers around the world presented design-stage, ongoing and completed studies. These ranged from looking at the effects of business coaching on new technology-based firms to estimating the impact of interventions encouraging SME adoption of cutting-edge but tried and tested technologies, to stimulating innovation and productivity improvements more broadly (see the full programme here).

Sharing the wealth of knowledge and experience of running trials in this field formed a key aspect of the meeting. The researchers presented their randomised controlled trials (RCTs) followed by feedback on the strengths and limitations of the studies from the discussants and the wider audience. Drawing on the studies presented and the feedback, the following key takeaways emerged:

The IGL Winter Research Meeting created a forum to generate insights, reflect on lessons learnt and share the experiences of a range of researchers working on trials in this field. It’ll be hugely exciting to see the results of the studies presented at the meeting being published. Meanwhile, the next IGL Research Meeting will take place during 21-23 May 2019 in Berlin as part of the IGL2019 Global Conference. Find out more about this event and register your interest.