From Big Bets to Smart Tests: Rethinking Innovation in Aid

2025-06-26

The DPCR organised a seminar at Almedalsveckan 2025, where our Associate Professor Jonathan Hall and Professor Gustaf Gredebäck from the Department of Psychology presented their method of “Innovation Sandboxes", which run small-scale, head-to-head experiments before large investments are made. The method also pairs proven interventions with rigorous process evaluations and qualitative work to understand how and why impact fades—or endures—especially when programs are scaled-up. Trials in Uganda and Tanzania are focusing on mental health.

The presentation was followed by a discussion with Åsa Regnér, Secretary General of Save the Children Sweden, Jan Pettersson, Director General, Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA) and UCDP Driector Magnus Öberg. It centred on the benefits, but also the real-world challenges, when it comes to integrating academic research into the process of both designing interventions and scaling them.

–We will continue the discussion with EBA on how we can help to further enhance the role that rigorous academic research plays as input to Swedish aid policy. We are also working to develop collaborations with frontline NGOs like save the children, in order to make the sandbox of innovation a reality. We plan to continue presenting our ideas to policymakers and practitioners with the goal of helping to build a coalition in pursuit of this goal, said Jonathan Hall after the seminar.