ADB’s Digital Learning Labs Program
The “Digital Learning Labs” (formerly referred to as the “Digital Innovation Sandbox Program”) allows innovative companies (often start-ups and other small companies with limited track record) access to ADB’s platforms to test new products and services with a small number of actual users in a simulated environment. Through the piloting of a product or business model in the lab, start-ups can build and test business ideas without having to spend significant time and resources developing completed products and services which may not work in practice or to scale.
Giving start-ups access to its platforms allows ADB to better understand if a product or service is likely to work in practice. Through the Digital Learning Labs Program, only once the feasibility of a proposed product is developed and proven successful to meet the institution’s objectives, can it then be scaled-up and mainstreamed. The Digital Learning Labs Program can be viewed more in the nature of partnerships and not purely commercial relationships.
ADB has created the Digital Learning Labs Program through which it seeks innovative solutions from technology companies, start-ups, and academic institutions to address one or more programs, each program corresponding to a particular emerging technology.
