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At CAT, we believe that real change happens when people come together to share knowledge, challenge assumptions and co-create new ways forward. Our Zero Carbon Britain Innovation Lab is designed to enable exactly that – helping people tackle complex environmental and social challenges through structured, participatory processes.
The Innovation Lab uses a flexible methodology rooted in systems thinking, that we adapt and iterate to apply to a wide range of contexts – from supporting organisations to turn sustainability aspirations into action, to enabling collaboration between organisations and sectors across a region to developing a sector strategy for climate justice. At its core, the Innovation Lab’s work is about creating the conditions for systemic change: inclusive, participatory, and grounded in real-world understanding and testing.
What is an Innovation Lab?
An Innovation Lab is a facilitated process that supports collaborative problem-solving. It brings together diverse groups of people to explore a specific challenge, develop shared understanding, and test practical interventions.
A typical lab has the following aspects:
- Problem definition – identifying the focus of the lab, the problem it aims to address and the broad goal.
- Participant mapping – identifying and engaging with a diverse mix of relevant people and organisations . This means thinking about who is involved and impacted by an issue, who is overlooked and who might oppose the goal we are working towards – and inviting them all into the process.
- Participatory workshops – designing and facilitating workshops, where participants explore the challenge, co-create shared understandings, build relationships, and generate ideas together.
- Intervention design and testing – co-designing interventions and testing them on the ground, taking an experimental and iterative approach.
- Evaluation and learning – observing, reflecting and sense-making happens throughout the lab process. We capture what works (and what doesn’t) to inform future action and share with others.
This approach enables people to collaborate across sectors, test ideas quickly and responsively, and build solutions that are rooted in lived experience and practical action.
Why this methodology matters
Many of today’s biggest challenges – from climate breakdown to food insecurity – are deeply interconnected. They can’t be solved by top-down policies alone or by any one group or perspective working in isolation.
The Innovation Lab methodology is designed to bring people together across divides, be this within or between organisations, communities, regions, sectors or beyond. It enables collaboration between different perspectives, from academics and community organisers, policymakers and practitioners, to large organisations and small grassroots groups, or simply different teams within an organisation. This creates a richer understanding of issues and helps build trust, capacity and long-term networks for implementing change.
The lab process doesn’t just aim to come up with good ideas – it’s about testing them in real life, adapting ideas based on new learning, and laying the groundwork for meaningful, lasting systemic transformation.
Introducing CAT’s role in Cymru Wledig LPIP Rural Wales
One of the current projects working with CAT’s Innovation Lab is the Local Policy and Innovation Partnership (LPIP) for Rural Wales – a UKRI-funded initiative that brings together researchers, local authorities, community organisations and others to explore how Wales can move towards a wellbeing economy.
CAT is a core partner in Cymru Wledig LPIP Rural Wales, which is led by Aberystwyth University. LPIPs have been set up in regions across the UK to trial new ways of aligning local action, research and policy. The aim is to work with researchers, citizens, policy-makers and others in responding to communities’ unique challenges and opportunities, while contributing to wider learning about how place-based innovation can support national goals for sustainability and wellbeing.
As part of the Rural Wales partnership, CAT is running one of the four Innovation Labs – the Net Zero Transition Lab – and also overseeing the delivery of the Innovation Lab Workstream. This includes advising on methodology, and supporting the implementation of the other three labs, which are led by Aberystwyth University, Cardiff University, and CCRI (Countryside and Community Research Institute) .
What’s happening in CAT’s LPIP lab?
The innovation lab we are delivering as part of LPIP will focus on the horticulture sector in Wales. We will be exploring how we can better support and reward low-carbon, nature-friendly horticulture and the role this can play in a resilient food system.
The team is currently working with LPIP partners at Aberystwyth University on participant mapping – identifying and inviting a wide range of people to take part in the workshops. This includes growers, researchers, local organisers, land-based businesses, and those working in education, policy and distribution. The aim is to bring together diverse voices with lived experience and professional insight to explore the opportunities and challenges in this area.
The first participatory workshop will be held in Carmarthenshire in mid-June, with a second in late July. Participants will co-design a practical intervention to trial, with LPIP funding and support in place to test it in a real-world context.
Looking ahead
CAT’s Innovation Lab team will have a busy summer delivering and overseeing LPIP labs. We are excited to be working on such a positive project and can already see significant potential for further labs engaging with food systems transformation. Separately, we are in discussions about labs on community energy, regenerative architecture and putting nature at the heart of business decisions… watch this space! Whatever the topic, each lab builds knowledge, relationships and momentum.
By creating spaces for collaboration, co-creation and experimentation, CAT’s Innovation Lab is helping to shape a future that is not only more sustainable – but also more inclusive, imaginative and grounded in what works.
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