The Mediterranean is facing increasingly complex and systemic sustainability challenges, including climate change, social inequalities, water scarcity, intensive agriculture, and unsustainable food systems. While innovative solutions are emerging across all these fields, turning ideas and innovation into lasting policy change remains a significant challenge.  

Transformative Innovation Policy Labs (TIP Labs) bridge this gap. TIP Labs bring together diverse territorial actors in collaborative spaces where place-based challenges can be explored from multiple perspectives. Using a systemic and transformative innovation approach, TIP Labs guide participants through a structured and facilitated process that enables them to develop a shared understanding of complex issues, learn from one another, and co-create innovative pathways to transform promising ideas into policies that can drive long-term change. 

The TIPLab process unfolds through five key steps: 

1. Selecting a relevant place-based challenge 
2. Delivering three Innovation Camp sessions, covering the following components:  

• Envisioning the desired future  
• Understanding the current situation, including the enablers and obstacles to achieving the desired future 
• Exploring possible transition pathways  
• Defining a Collective Action Plan 

     3. Implementing the Collective Action Plan (beyond the scope of the project)
     4. Monitoring, Evalutation and Learning (MEL) to track the implementation of actions and assess systemic transformations 

To discover the methodology behind the TIPLabs, consult: 

• Guide for the design and implementation of ISE Mission TIP Labs 

From methodology to real-world experiences 

The Innovative Sustainable Economy Mission has launched the first generation of TIP Labs across the Mediterranean region. Nine pilot labs are bringing together committed stakeholder groups to address local challenges related to the ISE Mission’s priorities. 

Each TIP Lab is adapted to the specific challenge, territorial context, and stakeholders involved, while following the common methodology grounded in systemic and transformative innovation. Through these pilots, involved territories are building the capacity to translate innovation into concrete policies and actions that can contribute to long-term, systemic change. 

Discover and get inspired by the 9 TIP Labs currently being implemented: