Commissioned by Unearthodox and led by the Post Growth Institute, the report “Nurturing Innovation: Weaving containers with care and courage for collective change” explores how systemic innovation takes root and begins to flourish. It asks: What conditions help support the people behind ideas to thrive, rather than spotlighting bold new ideas alone? Too often, innovation is framed in terms of speed, measurability, and scale. But this lens leaves little room for the slow, relational, and deeply contextual work that systemic transformation demands.
Nurturing Innovation offers a grounded and practice-based inquiry into how we can better enable the emergence of systemic innovation in today’s complex world, through slow, relational, and deeply contextual work. It responds to the gap left from decades of framing innovation in terms of speed, measurability, and scale.
“Co-creating the report made me confront how much I had internalized conventional research methodologies and "innovation" language. Our research was enriched by intentionally slowing down, questioning things I’d always taken for granted, and finding kinder ways to collaborate. I'm confident our findings will resonate with others and help them foster that kind of magic in any space or project.”
Marianna Coulentianos
Research Lead, Post Growth Institute
System innovators frequently find themselves working in silos, unsupported and unseen. Their work often falls outside traditional categories, making it difficult to access funding or institutional support. These innovators are building new pathways—but without networks, recognition, or resources, many struggle to sustain momentum.
The Post Growth Institute uplifted insights from global interviews, diverse contexts, and critical literature, all guided by a post-capitalist lens. Their research process centred on lived experiences and surfaced core values essential to systems change, such as relationality and reflexivity.
"At Unearthodox, deep listening has always been central to how we surface systemic challenges and potential pathways for change. This project was no exception. We began by listening to innovators, changemakers, and catalysts working towards transformative change, in order to better understand their struggles and identify opportunities. This report distils what we heard and offers a roadmap for what needs to shift so that transformative innovations—and the people behind them—can grow and thrive.”
Claire Dusonchet
Project Lead, Unearthodox
At its heart, the Nurturing Innovation report invites funders, practitioners, and changemakers to rethink how innovation is supported. It challenges us to value slow growth, trust-building, and experimentation. It reminds us that real change doesn’t arrive neatly packaged—it emerges through deep relationships, long-term commitment, and the courage to hold space for the unknown.
Rather than asking, what’s the next big idea?, the report encourages us to ask: What kind of ecosystem makes lasting change possible?
