During the past decade, experimentation started to make its way towards the core of government in many countries around the world as a new approach to deliver better outcomes. Experimentation can be described as the unconventional way to tackle difficult and complex issues facing governments today, such as quality of education and health, crime reduction, housing, air quality, and many others.
Experimentation is about systematically testing an assumption, identifying gaps and exploring potential solutions, without allocating too much time and resources.
This experimental approach is not new to the government of the United Arab Emirates; as there are several examples of using experimentation as a tool, in order to foster innovation across many areas in society.
The National Strategy for Advanced Innovation (i.AE), which was announced in 2018, represents an updated version of the National Innovation Strategy. The new strategy seeks to shift the focus towards specific purposes and mission-oriented innovations with the aim of developing an experimental approach to achieve the goals of UAE Centennial 2071.
The goal is to build an experimental mindset across the government through shared infrastructure, methodologies and models, not only to promote new and innovative ways to tackle challenges and come up with policies, but also to test them in real life more rapidly.
Here are some examples of experimentation types: