Innovation Sandboxes

The Innovation Sandboxes Project will help accelerate Canadian electricity and natural gas systems to a low-emissions future by creating frameworks to enable innovation sandboxes in Canada.

Jurisdictions worldwide have already implemented or are looking to implement sandboxes to accelerate the transition of energy systems. The goal of this project is to collaboratively create foundational policy frameworks and principles for Innovation Sandboxes that are tailored to participating Canadian province and territorial energy systems to enable technological, service and business model innovation. These foundational frameworks can then be used by policymakers, regulators, and other stakeholders to change existing policies and regulations or create more effective policies, regulations, and programs to accelerate the transition to a low-emissions future.

Innovation Sandboxes promote innovation by allowing for collaboration and experimentation to happen safely and in a controlled way in a real-world environment. Innovation Sandboxes include Innovation Hubs, where knowledge exchange is encouraged, and Innovation Enquiry Services, where innovators are helped in navigating the regulatory system and perceived barriers. Regulatory trials are another element that look at overcoming actual regulatory barriers to innovation and work to identify the costs and benefits of removing those barriers through real-world experimentation.

By learning through these experiments, Innovation Sandboxes enable governments, policymakers, regulators, utilities, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders to identify barriers to innovation and remove them by introducing meaningful institutional changes.