BFH-HAFL Hugo P Cecchini Institute hosts its first Ideation Lab

The Ideation Lab welcomed BFH-HAFL staff already working on the topics of international development and cooperation as part of the Institute, as well as a number of newcomers and staff from different divisions within BFH-HAFL who are interested in the topic.

The participants focused on addressing such questions as:

• What topics and methods should the Institute and the wider BFH-HAFL team focus on for the development and implementation of high-significance future projects?
• Who are the potential partners that could support these projects (external and potential internal co-funding), especially considering opportunities for transboundary collaboration, like the North-South partnerships?

Another core objective of the first Ideation Lab was to promote internal networking and offer opportunities to exchange ideas and participate in the co-creation of concepts for future project activities. Having staff from all of BFH-HAFL’s organisational units, including the Agriculture Division and the Multifunctional Forest Management, Food Processing & Consumption and Knowledge Systems & Knowledge Transfer (SüD) subject-area groups, offered a platform for a truly transdisciplinary exchange.

To deliver the opening remarks, the Institute management team invited Dr Zenebe Uraguchi, a development economist leading the Eastern Europe, South Caucasus & the Western Balkans Programme. He spoke on the power of ‘small talks’ for ​creativity and productivity​ and shared experiences around this concept from BFH-HAFL’s long-term partner Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation. After the Ideation Lab, he reflected on his exchange with BFH-HAFL colleagues:

The Lab was organised in collaboration with and moderated by the team from the BFH-HAFL Innovation Factory – Patrick Bürgisser, Sandra Schweizer and Christine Geissbühler. From the first planning days, it was agreed that the format which would inspire the Ideation Lab participants to think outside of their regular day-to-day work and open up to ideation and innovation needed to be different. So the Innovation Factory developed a programme that had human-centered design thinking concepts and collaboration principles at its core. The participants joining the Lab in hybrid form were guided through the ideation journey as they participated in world café presentations, ideation group work and discussions around the United Nations Food Systems Summit coalitions that BFH-HAFL teams are taking an active part in.

One of the participants, Nancy Bourgeois Luethi, commented afterwards that [it was great to have the opportunity to exchange with HAFL colleagues we usually do not work with on a daily basis. The event was very well organised, the moderation highly professional and the working sessions very constructive. I warmly encourage colleagues from all divisions to participate in the next Lab!]

The Institute team is now exploring how to build effective workstreams around the fresh ideas that were proposed by the transdisciplinary teams during the Ideation Lab and is already looking forward to organising the next Lab with the Innovation Factory team and additional external partners.

According to Dominique Guenat, the Head of the HAFL Hugo P. Cecchini Institute, our wish is to “build on the momentum of the first Ideation Lab and ensure that this one-day event and the insights from all of the colleagues who joined contributes in a meaningful way towards building sustainable food and landscape systems, with a focus on developing and transition countries”.