Context
InoLab is the Romanian Innovation Lab, a space where ideas come to life to support the development of a modern, accessible, and citizen-centred public administration in Romania. Established in 2022/2023 within the General Secretariat of the Government, InoLab supports public institutions that are open to new ideas and innovative ways of working. Through exploration, investigation, testing, and collaboration, InoLab fosters a culture of innovation that goes beyond generating new ideas, emphasising creativity, courage, and curiosity in public administration, as well as new approaches to delivering better public services. InoLab provides public servants and partners from the public and private sectors with a safe environment to explore challenges, analyse needs and bottlenecks, propose alternative methods of work, and test and prototype innovative solutions. While not an IT laboratory, InoLab plays a key role in promoting innovation-oriented thinking, facilitating skills development for a modern and digital public sector, encouraging the use of open data, and acting as an innovation broker that connects people, ideas, and institutions to build sustainable partnerships and accelerate innovation for the benefit of citizens.
Objectives
InoLab was established to address key challenges within Romania’s public administration, including limited capacity for systematic innovation, insufficient citizen-centred service design, fragmented collaboration across institutions, underuse of data and evidence in decision-making, lack of safe spaces for experimentation, and skills gaps related to innovation and digital transformation. Inolab’s goal is to strengthen the ability of public institutions to respond effectively to complex societal challenges by fostering a sustainable culture of innovation and collaboration. To achieve this, InoLab (and the innovation platform – inovare.gov.ro) provides a structured framework for exploration, investigation, testing, and prototyping, enabling public servants and cross-sector partners to jointly analyse administrative challenges and develop practical, scalable solutions. The laboratory offers a safe environment for experimentation, supports capacity-building through targeted skills development, promotes alternative working methods and the use of open data, and facilitates partnerships between public and private actors. Through these concrete solutions, InoLab contributes to more effective, accessible, and citizen-centred public services and supports the long-term modernisation of public administration.
Implementation
InoLab was established to tackle Romania’s public administration challenges, including limited innovation capacity, weak citizen-centred service design, fragmented collaboration, underuse of data, lack of experimentation spaces, and skills gaps in innovation and digital transformation. InoLab is embedded within the General Secretariat of the Government and operates under clear institutional arrangements, with defined governance and management structures that ensure strategic alignment, coordination, and accountability. Dedicated staff (10 public servants) and budgetary resources (mentioned within the first National Strategy on Public Sector Innovation 2026–2030) support the design and implementation of activities, while structured processes guide exploration, investigation, testing, and prototyping of innovative solutions. InoLab actively engages stakeholders from across public institutions, as well as private sector, academic, and civil society partners, through consultations, co-creation activities, and partnerships. A dedicated digital platform (inovare.gov.ro) supports transparent communication, project monitoring, and knowledge exchange, and serves as a key channel for contributing to the implementation of the National Strategy for Innovation in the Public Sector. Complemented by capacity-building initiatives and an annual Innovation Gala that recognises excellence, InoLab contributes to more effective, collaborative, and citizen-centred public services and supports the long-term modernisation of public administration.