DIL STATE OF THE LAB: FALL 2013
Dear Development Practitioners and Innovators,
We welcome you to celebrate the first year of the Development Impact Lab with us.
Headquartered at UC Berkeley and funded by USAID, this bold new initiative brings together world-class, interdisciplinary teams to source, evaluate and scale technologies that sustainably benefit and empower the global poor.
During our inaugural year, the Lab has initiated many new programs. Two funding competitions will give out over
$1 million to source new innovations and establish international collaborators. We’ve created new programs that
help innovators find scaling partners, incorporate market analysis, and leverage external expertise. A novel smart
sensor platform will simplify evaluation of technologies in the field. Meanwhile, our students are participating in innovation competitions, development engineering courses, and internships with USAID.
In this State of the Lab magazine we invite you to join us as we have a look back at development innovators, new
initiatives, and lessons learned from our first year.
As we move into our the new year, DIL will continue to build on its commitment to accelerate the scaling of technologies for global good, building partnerships between academia, government, industry and the social sector.
Sincerely,
The DIL Team
dil.berkeley.edu | @DevImpactLab | [email protected]
IN THIS ISSUE
Innovation Beyond the Transcript
Meet the students and researchers behind the DIL innovation projects.
USAID Professionals go Back to School
Find out about DIL’s new USAID Fellows program, which brings development professionals to campus.
A Toolkit for Big Ideas
Learn about how DIL is helping bring Berkeley’s popular social entrepreneurship competition to new universities in the US and abroad.
Failure: Inspiring Innovation
Read about DIL’s committment to sharing not only its successes but also to learn from
failure.
Bringing Social Sector Innovation into the Classroom
Have a look at design and social impact courses at UC Berkeley, a preamble to the
PhD ‘minor’ in Development Engineering that DIL will launch in 2014.