Innovate Oxfordshire sits within Oxfordshire County Council
 
We understand how change actually happens, from governance and procurement to politics and delivery. This allows us to work effectively across existing services and systems, while bringing the independence to challenge thinking and test new approaches.
 

We are a self-sustaining service, funded by innovation grants and the services we deliver to local authorities and national public sector organisations.

We are not-for-profit, and charge only to cover the costs of the work we undertake and our operational overheads.
 

We believe that innovation in the public sector should deliver real, measurable change for communities. Our focus is on ensuring that ideas translate into practical outcomes that genuinely improve services and deliver value.

We work with organisations that want to move beyond ideas, helping them test, learn, implement and evaluate new approaches in real-world settings. We ground innovation in evidence and align it to clear outcomes, supporting better decision-making and more confident investment in what works.

Our ambition is to help the public sector move faster, reduce risk, and continuously improve. We want a future in which innovation becomes part of how services are delivered, not something separate from it.

Innovate Oxfordshire’s model for delivering de-risked innovation across the public sector is: Define, Deliver, Demonstrate.

• Define
  We work with you to shape clear, outcome-focused briefs, where we set success criteria, risks and assumptions from the start. This grounds every project in evidence and aligns it to real-world needs.
• Deliver
  We take innovation from idea to implementation, designing, piloting and scaling solutions in real-world settings. Continuous testing means we adapt quickly.
• Demonstrate
  We provide clear, evidence-led insight into impact: what’s working, what’s not, and what to do next. We help you prove value and make confident decisions.