Problem

Grassroots innovations are novel bottom-up solutions that address local needs, align with local interests and values, and are developed collectively by local community members. Their role is becoming increasingly important to communities as mainstream innovations - innovations developed by businesses in pursuit of profit - continue falling short of addressing pressing community needs related to poverty, social exclusion, and climate change.

Examples of grassroots innovations exist worldwide and include community energy, community currency, co-housing, agriculture, and organic food. While these innovations can produce substantial benefit to many community members, they often struggle with scaling up and reaching their broader objectives. A better understanding of how these challenges can be overcome would improve the chances of grassroots innovations succeeding and contributing to addressing pressing community needs.

Project

This study contributes to improving the understanding of how grassroots innovations can be scaled up and meet their broader objectives by describing successful grassroots innovation in Ukraine that led the development of unpiloted systems to defend against Russia’s invasion. The study describes the factors that drove and hindered the innovation, and how the innovation was scaled up.