Innovation Labs
How do we innovate for a future that is more Star Trek and less Mad Max?
Experimental spaces for imagining and building better futures together.
Our Innovation Labs are multi-year, collaborative spaces designed to tackle society’s most urgent and complex challenges. Rooted in the principles of collective intelligence, each lab brings together a diverse network of experts to experiment with new approaches. The labs evolve through a cycle of convenings, including hands-on workshops and targeted strategy sessions where insights are tested and synthesized.
This year’s active labs, focused on megatrends related to Governance, Disinformation, and Education, serve as ongoing engines for prototyping bold ideas, generating policy guidance, and building coalitions for long-term impact. Rather than one-off initiatives, these are living environments where ideas grow and eventually shape into our Audacious Projects.
GEOPOLITICAL FUTURES
After World War II, the world came together to build a new multilateral order, anchored by institutions like the United Nations, NATO, the World Bank, and others, designed to prevent future conflict and manage the existential risks of a nuclear age. These institutions helped stabilize a fractured world, but oday, the post-war architecture is under strain, challenged by new power dynamics, emerging alliances like BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and a growing crisis of legitimacy and effectiveness. Our Geopolitical Futures Lab explores what multilateralism looks like in a world where old structures no longer match new realities.
CRITICAL THINKING
Mis- and disinformation are systemic threats that disrupt markets, destabilize democracies, and have eroded public trust at scale. As generative AI and other emerging technologies accelerate the spread and sophistication of false narratives, even defining what counts as disinformation has become contested. Our Critical Thinking Lab tackles this complexity head-on, creating a space to experiment with new models of information integrity and trust-building. We bring together experts to explore interventions ranging from AI auditing and platform governance to narrative inoculation and truth infrastructure.
SKILLS PATHWAYS
The Covid pandemic laid bare the deep inequities embedded in our education and labor systems disrupting learning for millions and accelerating automation. Vulnerable communities were hit hardest, revealing not only unequal access to learning but also systemic gaps in how we prepare people for a rapidly changing world of work. Our Skills Pathways Lab confronts these challenges by experimenting with bold new models for learning and workforce development. Our lab explores everything from alternative credentials to portable benefits and human-centered reskilling systems.