Jerusalem Innovation Lab

The Challenge

The Eden Municipal Corporation is the economic company of the Jerusalem Municipality, and it incorporates a variety of very significant areas of activity for the development of the city. Among other ventures, the company is engaged in the development of the central business districts (e.g., the new Entrance Quarter to Jerusalem, Talpiot, and the City Center), the development of public space, parking lots, models of cooperative housing, renewable energy, and more. The Company’s role is development and economic growth in Jerusalem, and therefore the challenge it faces is understanding ways to increase economic value in existing areas of activity. As a principle, various forms of innovation are required, but the question is, always, how will this innovation be expressed?

Our Role

Innovation is a broad concept — certainly when it comes to a city that is a complex and multi-branched organism. To this end, together with Eden, we established the Jerusalem Urban Innovation Lab, which aims to produce projects that generate revenues and/or create efficiency and reduce expenses. The laboratory has been defined as Eden’s R&D arm, which provides a response to core challenges through processes of identification, testing, screening, and experimentation of innovative and economic solutions.

The process of developing the laboratory included several sequential methodological stages: characterizing the core areas of the laboratory’s activity and defining the challenges it will face; collecting, reviewing, researching, and gaining inspiration regarding potential solutions from Israel and around the world; brainstorming sessions with professionals and stakeholders; identification and examination of appropriate solutions through calls for proposals, collaborations with public innovation entities and the business sector; screening according to criteria and success indicators; implementing innovation through pilots; formation of project portfolios for broad operations.