United States
Rick Stopfer
234,710 (2017)
Aimee Kaslik
Improve internal government operations
Anticipate and manage future challenges
Improve service delivery
Dedicated funding
Dedicated innovation team
Leadership from Mayor
Culture of innovation in city
The city sees innovation as “a new or adapted solution that fundamentally impacts operations and creates a positive and meaningful impact on the community.” Over the last few years, the City of Irving has embarked on building their innovation capacity, seeking the best approaches to engage residents and staff as problem solvers supported by data analytics. The city is using their innovation framework as it assesses projects and ideas across the city.
Note: The City Innovation Snapshot (PDF version) was produced in 2019 and some aggregate findings have been updated with the latest survey results below.
Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Irving has an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to 24% of cities surveyed, Irving approaches innovation capacity in specific policy areas/domains.
Situated in the City Manager’s office, Irving has a dedicated team for innovation that consists of 3 staff. The city is currently in the process of creating a visioning committee and cross-departmental engagement team focused on smart cities.
Taking risks or testing new ideas
Data-driven analytics/public data management
Engaging residents in new ways
Developing new solutions based on digital technologies
Organizational change within the municipality
Human-centered design
Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships
Like 81% of cities surveyed, Irving has dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Irving’s Innovation team also operates a small grants program for ideas approved by the Innovation Vetting Committee.
Irving is building an ecosystem of innovation. The city’s innovation work engages departments within the administration and other levels of government, along with the private, non-profit and philanthropic sectors, and residents. It also fosters partnerships with academia/think tanks.
With Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities initiative, the city has been implementing an open data policy and will soon be completing a data inventory.