Innovation thrives when governments embrace next-generation public-private partnerships

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For innovation to have long-term benefits for communities, leaders should embrace “next-generation public-private partnerships” that value relationships between institutions, an expert said this week.

Instead of focusing solely on project funding, the next generation of P3, or “P3 2.0,” should emphasize building relationships among a community’s key institutions and advocate the use of new technologies and innovation to help solve problems. community problems.

With the long-term goal of fostering greater trust among governments, academia, businesses and residents, these next-generation P3s support ‘shared economic prosperity through innovation,’ said Debra Lam, founding executive director of the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation and previously managing director of Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Speaking at Nextgov and GCN’s Emerging Tech and Modernization Summit, Lam said innovation “can happen anywhere by anyone,” not just startups.

For communities to reap the benefits of innovation, Lam said barriers to entry must be lowered. This includes removing any issues related to lack of funds or skills that may limit some projects.

For its grants to communities large and small across Georgia, the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation, for example, combines funding with a hands-on learning program for students and early-career professionals who receive an year to work on projects. The partnership divides the grants equally between public and private sector projects.

The program helps communities innovate and offers participants the opportunity to gain expertise in areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, manufacturing and supply chains, as well as mentoring and networking. And Lam said it will hopefully create the next generation of civil servants.

“They’re also learning to navigate fluidly between different industries, different organizations, different cultures, different programs,” she said. He also helps create a stronger partnership between the grant beneficiary and the funding agency that is essential for effective collaboration. Lam said that “it’s not enough for us to give you a grant and expect an annual impact report.” Instead, there must be deeper ties.

One example of the partnership’s inclusive approach to innovation came in Valdosta, Georgia, which retrofitted all 121 traffic lights to do early warning to allow first responders priority through intersections. That project also required vehicle-to-infrastructure technology to be fitted to fire trucks and other public safety vehicles, Lam said.

The successful collaboration between the city and researchers at Georgia Tech and Valdosta State has saved up to 10 seconds in emergency response time. Some of the lessons from the project have also been integrated into the VSU engineering department curriculum.

That project in Valdosta and others like it move away from what Lam said is the “misguided” and sometimes traditional approach where municipal leaders can “get started with the technology,” which they think is a “silver bullet.”

“We prefer to start with a problem,” Lam continued. “Whatever the community issue is, start with the community at large. Let us tell you what the problem is. Let us better understand the local context that we need to do our homework.”

When these pilot projects are successful and the links between the various institutions strengthen, Lam said, there is the long-term benefit of nurturing “a thriving community with several multi-sector anchor institutions that support the well-being of that community.”

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