How the Lab Works

The Guelph Lab is committed to the principles of ethical community engagement, open access to research (and other outputs) as well as consensus-based decision making.

The Guelph Lab addresses challenges that:

  • Have direct impact and relevance to the community
  • Require action by the municipality – this could be through changes in policy and bylaws, changes to internal processes, or the creation of services, programs, partnerships and/or the allocation of funding etc.
  • Require research and “discovery” – stakeholders are uncertain about the best course of action and therefore need to learn more about the problem and potential solutions before taking action
  • Require experimentation – effective solutions will need to be designed and tested before being fully implemented
  • Are focused at the local level but require consideration of and/or action at regional, provincial and/or national levels

Learn more about the Lab on the Guelph Lab website.

Starting a Social Innovation Lab

You can learn more about how you can start your own social innovation lab in our blog post