Lab Notes - April edition

The April edition of Lab Notes offers a roundup of what public sector innovators from around the world are up to, including how Millenials are using participatory budgeting to kickstart democratic decisionmaking in their communities...

This month's key lab picks:

1. Participatory budgeting is presenting Millennials with an opportunity to engage in collective decision-making processes within their communities. More in this Forbes article.

2. The Malawian government and UNICEF are piloting the use of UAVS to overcome the region’s poor infrastructure and expedite HIV testing in children. Check out Malawi: saving children's lives through drones.

3. Andhra Pradesh, India: A mobile-based app is already making inroads in closing the mental health ‘treatment gap’ by helping to diagnose potential patients.

4. A new project designed to develop sustainable food cities has seen researchers from Bournemouth University collaborate with Bournemouth and Poole's Sustainable Food City partnerships. Read the Phys.org article.

5. Based on his experiences at Alberta’s COLAB, Jonathan Veale’s Medium article offers some strategic insights for governments to consider when setting up an innovation lab.

6. This LA Times piece explores How the Uberization of work is rooted in the cult of 'shareholder value'.

7. Uruguay has launched an award-winning information system which simplifies government services, improves social protection and reduces poverty.

8. Paul Cairney writes an article for the Alliance for Useful Evidence outlining the need for anyone looking to present evidence to policymakers to accept the policy process we have, not the kind of process we wish we had.

9. This World Economic Forum article asks 'Could plastic-eating bacteria be the solution to the world's garbage problem?'

10. Lab launch: The Centre for Social Innovation has launched The Women’s Lab, a new home in New York City for organisations working on behalf of women.

11. Nesta has written elsewhere why motivation matters for public sector innovation. A recent study in Denmark has shown how an easy-to-implement experiment can boost staff motivation.

12. Could social action have unintended consequences? This Wired provocation, Crowdfunding for the public good is evil, casts a critical eye on some of the tensions that can arise from well-meaning civic crowdfunding projects.

13. Hilary Cottam, former head of Participle, reflects on why Britain’s welfare system needs a redesign, and why we need governments to think longer-term when funding public sector innovations.