The Accountant General and the Deputy Director General for Government and Society at the Prime Minister’s Office today laid the cornerstone for the Government Innovation Space – a first-of-its-kind space designed to serve as a platform for experimentation, streamlining, and improving core government processes.
The Innovation Space is an initiative of the Accountant General and is being established as part of a broad process by the Government Innovation Team, led by the Prime Minister’s Office, which is laying out for the first time the strategic operational framework for innovation in government. The team’s work is driven by the understanding that innovation is not a privilege, but an applicable strategic tool that must be integrated into all governance mechanisms.
The space will enable ministries to solve core professional challenges in an environment that supports innovative thinking and enables risk management. Within the space, an acceleration process will be conducted to formulate efficient work processes, which will conclude with an applicable solution and accompany the ministry in the implementation process in the field.
The space’s activity will focus on identifying systemic “bottlenecks” and will promote high-impact initiatives, using methodologies of open innovation, pilots, and sandbox. Additionally, a surrounding ecosystem will accompany the space, including, among other things, meetups – learning and knowledge-sharing sessions, hackathons, roundtables, and venture incubation.
The space is being established for the use of the entire government – as a joint venture between the government and Joint Israel, under the joint leadership of the Accountant General and the Prime Minister’s Office, with the guidance of the Government Innovation Team. Its physical structure will be built on the Givat Ram campus in Jerusalem, as part of the connection to the innovation campus in the area.
Yahli Rotenberg, the Accountant General, said during the ceremony:
“The laying of the cornerstone today is not just a real estate event; it symbolizes a profound change in the culture of government management. The Innovation Center is not an isolated ‘island’ of technology; it is the place where innovative ideas meet the daily practice of work processes. We are adopting a two-way strategy here: operating efficiently under existing constraints to produce quick solutions, and simultaneously working to remove long-term regulatory barriers. Our goal is clear: to transform the government into a smart and flexible organization that uses data and technology to provide better service to the citizens of Israel and to streamline the work of civil servants.”
Drorit Steinmetz, Acting Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office:
“The Innovation Space we are launching this evening is a significant step in increasing government effectiveness. The joint work of the staff units as part of the inter-ministerial team allows us to create a ‘safe space’ on the way to cracking the national challenges before us, out of a deep commitment to implementing groundbreaking innovation in public service. This space will serve as a tool for progress, effectiveness, and the development of innovative ideas to streamline government processes.
This move joins many other initiatives in the fields of innovation, cyber, and artificial intelligence that place Israel at the forefront.”
Liron Henetz, Deputy Director General for Government and Society at the Prime Minister’s Office:
“Innovation in government is not a luxury. This evening is a real opportunity to combine two efforts simultaneously – strategic and practical. We are publishing the government framework for innovation in government for the first time while developing the Innovation Space.
In the spirit of the OECD’s international principles, we will take forward – islands of innovation towards a national movement that will leverage capabilities and represent a leap forward in the field.”
Avithar Peretz, Senior Deputy to the Accountant General for Innovation and Technology, said during the ceremony:
“We are realizing a dream that has been developing for several years: a home for innovation in government, a place that will disseminate the doctrine of innovation within the government and enable the government to think and act differently. The Innovation Space will allow for out-of-the-box thinking and a push for paradigm and perception shifts, with the goal of providing efficient, high-quality, and fast service to citizens and businesses. The space will enable a culture of failure on the path to success, because there is no success without failure, and no chance without taking risks. We at the Accountant General’s office support and accompany innovation initiatives in government procurement, service conditions, and other areas within the Accountant General’s purview, which have already led to the acceleration of government and economy activities in many fields. Through the space, we will be able to expand these activities to all areas within the government.”
Dr. Hadas Minka-Brand, CEO of Joint Israel:
“Since the establishment of the state, Joint Israel has been working to build Israel’s strong social infrastructure, and we see great privilege in our extensive partnership with the government to advance the public sector. The new space will allow us to harness Joint Israel’s social, digital, and process experience into the government’s content areas, thereby fulfilling our deep commitment to making public systems more efficient and beneficial for every citizen, a vital step towards ensuring the continued growth and resilience of Israeli society as a whole.”