Switzerland is fortunate to have a dynamic and trustworthy administration that contributes significantly to the country’s high quality of life. In times of ever-changing challenges, the administration has to continuously acquire new knowledge and know-how to tackle emerging issues.

The staatslabor thus functions as a platform to both enable exchanges between various actors within the public sector and to provide connections to an external network of experts and practitioners. This network, maintained and continuously expanded by the staatslabor, includes specialists from various fields, ranging from data pioneers to participation experts.

Ultimately, the staatslabor aspires to function as a connection between the users of public  services and those who offer and develop these services on a daily basis.

We organise thematic conferences, meetings, workshops and informal meetings and write about these events in our newsletter.

The fact that innovation can improve the functioning of the public sector is now widely recognised. New technologies and methods have been used by the private sector and NGOs for quite some time. They are increasingly being applied by the administration as well, allowing for processes to be designed more efficiently, interfaces to become more practical and services to become more citizen-friendly.

From an international perspective, the staatslabor finds itself in good company with various other institutions promoting the same innovations. Indeed, a transboundary exchange of best practices and successful applications of innovations is one of the staatslabor’s central achievements.

In addition, the staatslabor highlights and interlinks successful innovation models in the cantons, municipalities and regions of Switzerland to ensure the dissemination of good ideas and their adaptation to regional needs. By publishing snapshots of relevant projects and interviews with the people involved in our blog, we hope to inspire new innovation efforts.

The staatslabor is located on the Bundesgasse in Bern, a place for exchange between pioneers, creative minds, entrepreneurs and representatives of public and private institutions. This is where collaborations for sustainable and inclusive solutions in our society are being planned and implemented. In this suitable environment, the staatslabor tests new innovation methods with various actors at all levels of the public sector. Therefore, it offers public sector staff the opportunity to experiment with new perspectives and approaches outside of their usual workplace.

We believe the current challenges facing our community require customized solutions. This means bringing together a wide range of approaches and expertise. To achieve this goal, we work with practitioners from all fields, ranging from designers to programmers. We analyze, design, test and implement. This enables us to carry out projects with concrete plans and objectives together with the administration. Just like in a real laboratory, making mistakes is allowed, as they enable us to solve problems step by step. We are looking forward to conducting experiments together with you!