TIAL

Fixing procurement for the era of AI
2025-05-20 16:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Helsinki)
An online event about how public procurement could evolve

This conversation is part of the activities of the community of practice Reimagining Public Institutions.

Public procurement is one of the most powerful tools governments have to become more effective. Yet, it is still underutilised for its potential. Procurement can shape innovation, strengthen capacity, and deliver more wisely to society. Yet in an era of rapid technological change, procurement systems remain rigid, slow, and vulnerable to failure.

Join us for an online conversation between Geoff Mulgan, TIAL cofounder, and Leonardo Quattrucci, author of the white paper A Well-Architected Framework for Public Procurement, to explore how governments can fix procurement by bringing about more agile, adaptive, accurate and accessible systems.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE

Who should join?

This event is designed for professionals working in government, civil society, and technology organisations, as well as anyone passionate about exploring how institutional innovation can help us reimagine and reshape public organisations.

When and where?

May 20th, 4pm CET

Online (link received after registration)

What will you get

Discuss the white paper on Well-Architected Framework for Public Procurement with the author

Join an insightful and purposeful conversation between policymakers, tech experts and academics interested from different parts of the world

Find peers with common interests and contribute to building the field of institutional architecture

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE

Reimagining public institutions: A time for bold experiments
2025-06-05 13:00 - 14:00
We are living in an era of intersecting crises—climate disruption, digital transformation, displacement, misinformation, and inequality. These aren’t isolated issues but systemic and deeply interwoven. Today’s volatility demands institutions that can lead with clarity, legitimacy, and a long-term perspective.

The question is no longer how to restore the status quo—but who we, and our institutions, need to become to lead through permanent unpredictability.

At the 2025 Creative Bureaucracy Festival, taking place in Berlin, this session invites you into a live fishbowl conversation with Demos Helsinki, Transition Collective, and TIAL. We’ll explore real-world experiments in reinventing public institutions—from housing and climate resilience to AI governance.

Together, we’ll unpack design principles, values, and trade-offs—and open the space to your questions and ideas.

A session for curious civil servants, institutional innovators, and those ready to lead beyond business as usual.

Get your Festival ticket here

Find out more about the Festival

Speakers:

Christian Bason, Co-founder, Transition Collective

Nina Langerholc, City Transformation Lead, Demos Helsinki

Geoff Mulgan, Professor, University College London & Co-Founder, TIAL

Caio Werneck, Community Coordinator, TIAL

Louise Agersnap, Head of Innovation Hub, World Health Organisation

Amazon Interchange: Strategic science for urgent times
2025-07-22 16:30 - 18:00
A live/hybrid event on building the science–decision link for a more resilient Amazon

How do societies respond to urgent, nonlinear, irreversible, climate and ecological change?

On July 22nd, TIAL will host a public event, Amazon Interchange: Strategic Science for Urgent Times, in collaboration with CEBRI (the Brazilian Center for International Relations).

This event explores how science and other forms of ecological knowledge can be made more actionable, and how decision-makers across sectors can better integrate ecological realities into what they do. We’ll introduce the concept of the “interchange” — a way to recognise Earth system change, represent it and respond to it in decision making.

https://www.youtube.com/live/-lepXuKn9Fc

REGISTER

WATCH THE LIVESTREAM

This event is linked to TIAL’s “Interchange” project, about which you can read more here.

Who should join?

This event is for policymakers, scientists, business leaders, and community leaders working to align decision making with the realities of our changing environment.

When and where?

22 July 2025

4:30–6:00 PM BRT | 3:30-5:00 PM EDT | 9:30-11:00 PM CEST

Casa COP, Rio de Janeiro or Online

What will you get

Join a cross-sector conversation on the Amazon and climate tipping points

Explore the idea of the “interchange”, a new approach to linking science and decision-making

Connect with others working at the intersection of environment, strategy, and governance

REGISTER

WATCH THE LIVESTREAM

Workshop: Institutional imagination @ Innovation Week 2025, Brazil
2025-10-02 00:00
When nature evolves faster than our institutions, how do we adapt?

Why focus on institutional imagination in the context of climate risk?

Heatwaves intensify, water systems destabilise, and ecosystems shift. Yet, our public institutions remain largely designed for the 20th century. Nature evolves far faster than our organograms, exposing gaps in how we represent, recognise, and respond to ever-changing realities.

To respond effectively, our institutions need to be reimagined as craftwork: constructs that are able to learn from change rather than be overwhelmed by it, solid without rigidity, light without fragmentation, and adaptive without losing direction.

What you can expect

This workshop, coordinated by TIAL, will take nature’s accelerating pressures as the starting point for institutional innovation. Together, we will explore:

Why institutions must evolve at the pace of natural change

Examples of governments tackling extreme heat, water stress, and land-use transitions

Collective imagination exercises inspired by natural systems — from mycelium networks to coral reefs — to sketch new organisational forms

A mapping of the competencies and skills needed for future-ready institutional design

Contributors include Christian Bason (Transition Collective), Caio Werneck (TIAL), and Natália Oliveira (TIAL).

Who should join?

Public leaders, policy innovators, government managers, multilateral organisation staff, and civic practitioners interested in building institutions that keep pace with ecological and social transformation.

Important information:

📍 Brasília, Brazil

📅 2 October 2025

The first part of the workshop will be conducted in English, but the rest will be in Portuguese.

As part of Innovation Week 2025, held by Brazil’s National School of Public Administration (ENAP).

What you will get

A framework for understanding institutional lag versus ecological acceleration

Insights from governments experimenting with institutional reinvention

Hands-on exercises to imagine governance models shaped by natural principles

A skills map for working with institutional design in times of rapid change

Connection to peers committed to rethinking governance for a turbulent century

How to register

If you are attending Innovation Week, you will receive instructions about how to register to this and other workshops before the event starts.

TIAL @ COP30: Building tipping points governance
2025-11-12 09:00 - 09:45
Regional science–policy Interchanges for anticipating, avoiding & adapting

About this event

Planetary tipping points—from ocean circulation to rainforest collapse—pose nonlinear risks that current governance systems struggle to anticipate. This session brings together scientists and policymakers to advance institutional design for monitoring and responding to these complex shifts.

The discussion builds on the 2025 Global Tipping Points Report concept note for a global network of Tipping Element Monitoring and Response Facilities (TEMRFs). Participants will explore key design considerations and identify pathways to implementation.

Hosted by TIAL, with co-organisers CEBRI, the workshop connects regional leaders and scientific experts working to translate frontier science into governance innovation.

Read the event description →

Speakers

ModeratorJessica Seddon — Co-Founder, The Institutional Architecture Lab

Confirmed speakers include:Karen Ellemann — Secretary General, Nordic Council of MinistersMarielos Peña-Claros — Co-chair, Science Panel for the AmazonArunabha Ghosh — South Asia Special Envoy to COP30 & CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water, India

Related work

This workshop builds on TIAL’s ongoing Interchange project, which develops institutional frameworks for complex science–policy challenges such as climate tipping points.

Find relevant resources:

The “Interchange” project: Toward an institutional architecture for representing, recognising, and responding to tipping elements

16 July 2025

No Comments

The project focuses on building the foundations for a closer connection between science and traditional…

Read More

Project update: Building institutional architecture for governing climate tipping points

7 November 2025

No Comments

TIAL’s “Tipping Element Interchange” project focuses on developing new institutional architectures capable of recognising and…

Read More

White Paper #004: Interchange: Design building blocks for complex science-policy challenges

10 November 2025

No Comments

This paper proposes a new institutional architecture framework — the Interchange — to address complex,…

Read More

You can also download the Global Tipping Points concept note here.

Master class: Institutionalising for impact
2026-06-23 17:00 - 2026-06-24 17:00
Join us for an interactive deep-dive learning experience on imagining, structuring, organising and mobilising for long-term & systemic societal change. Hosted by Transition Collective in partnership with TIAL and Demos Helsinki.

When and where?

Copenhagen, June 23rd to June 24th, 2026 – preceded by an introductory webinar

Venue: Thoravej 29, 2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark

The Master Class is held in partnership and conjunction with the Organising for Uncertain Worlds global conference, held at Thoravej 29, Copenhagen on June 25-26, 2026.

Institutions matter

We live in a world where public institutions we have come to take for granted, such as public services, defense and health care, are being challenged and even breaking down. Global challenges, including the multiple environmental crises, election insecurity, forced migration and uncertain futures of AI, are resulting in decreasing trust towards public institutions, polarisation, and the known approaches becoming outdated. We need to develop new approaches for increasing wisdom in decision-making, aligning our actions today with goals in the long term and finding ways to penetrate and bridge across siloed organisations. This is where institutions become relevant – perhaps more than ever.

This Master Class brings together the thinking in institutional architecture with cutting-edge approaches from public design, systems change, mission-oriented innovation, and other transition methodologies in a comprehensive, interactive learning process.

By participating, you will achieve the following learning outcomes:

Recognise the impetus to build and govern societal institutions differently under complexity and crisis

Learn to imagine and design new institutional forms and governance arrangements—temporary authorities, adaptive regulators—instead of stretching old mandates, convincing other alternatives

Insight into the basics of mission-led approaches to societal change

Change in perspective to enable work with deep & sustainable change.

High-level program

Day 1: Tuesday, 23rd June

17.00 to 22.00: Arrival – introduction, networking, inspirational talks, dinner & drinks

Day 2: Wednesday, 24th June

08.00 Arrival & coffees

08.30 Welcome & introductions

09.00 Global insights: Why redesign institutions for change?

11.00 Unpacking global cases and peer-to-peer learning

12.00 Lunch

12.45 Inspirational local guest speaker: A voice from the place

13.45 Reimagining institutions for change: Co-creative case work on:

Strategic imagination

Missions & mobilization

Institutional architecture

16.30 Reflections and peer-to-peer sharing

17.00 End session and segway to the global conference

What’s the cost?

Early bird (before April 1st): €500, excl. VAT

Regular price (from April 1st): €700, excl. VAT

Contact

For more information, please contact Christian Bason (Transition Collective) at +4553579313.

How to register

If you want to take part in the Master Class, please register here.

Read the brochure here.

Looking forward to seeing you!
