Public Value Lab

Collaborative Innovation for Value and Institutional Change

Mission

The Public Value Lab is dedicated to advancing knowledge and practice at the intersection of public management, public policy, and cross-sector collaboration (including private and non-profit actors).

In an era where complex societal challenges (such as economic and social inequality, demographic change and migration, urban transformation and unaffordable housing, the digital revolution, and increasing budget constraints across Europe and beyond) require innovative and collective responses, the Public Value Lab explores:

how governments, businesses, and civil society can work together to create and sustain public value;
how to appraise and measure public value creation;
how public administration can be more robust, reformed and reorganized to meet emerging challenges;
how a new generation of public leaders can drive transformational change.

Why Public Value Lab

To bridge the gap between management theory and practice, public and private sector, present and future, value and values.

Who is it for

The Public Value Lab is designed for organizations and leaders engaged in creating, managing, and sustaining public value, such as:

International organizations
Central, regional, and local governments
Public agencies and State-Owned Enterprises
Foundations, NGOs, and philanthropic institutions
Educational and research institutions
Cultural and heritage organizations
Private companies and investors committed to social innovation and public value creation

Research activities

Through rigorous research, applied projects, and executive education, the Public Value Lab fosters new models of governance, leadership, and service design and delivery that enhance both efficiency and social impact. The Lab’s activities are aimed at addressing key public policy and management challenges across different policy areas, as outlined in the table below, while also disseminating results with the scientific community, policy-makers, practitioners and the wider public.

Research challenges for public value creation

Public Value Lab gathers and analyses the main challenges that affect the ability of institutions, companies and civil society to generate public value. Adopting a comparative and multidisciplinary approach, the research explores how different thematic areas - from government and public leadership to education, economic development and environmental sustainability, digitisation and international cooperation - contribute to transforming policies, services and governance practices. The diagram below offers an overview of these areas of study, highlighting the range and relationship between the challenges on which the Lab focuses its research and innovation activities.