Global innovation platform UNLEASH held its first Regional Innovation Lab in the Philippines in September 2025, bringing together 150 young innovators from across the country to develop solutions to issues in health, food, and infrastructure.
The week-long program was part of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Leaders in Innovation Fellowships (LIF) Launchpad, which connects Filipino innovators to international networks. Participants used the UNLEASH Innovation Methodology, a structured, design-thinking approach previously applied in Brazil, China, Denmark, Greenland, India, Rwanda, and Singapore.
Working in teams and guided by 14 facilitators from eight countries, participants advanced from identifying key challenges to creating and pitching prototypes. The group represented all 17 regions of the Philippines, including urban centers, rural towns, and remote islands, ensuring that the proposed solutions reflected diverse local conditions.
“Technology on its own isn’t enough to solve big problems,” said Jackie Stenson, managing director of UNLEASH. “You have to understand and serve the whole system: the people, the communities, and the structures around it. That’s what we encourage at UNLEASH, to create solutions that address the whole system and therefore can reach users and create real-world impact.”
The teams worked on three focus areas: health equity and biomedical innovation, resilient agriculture and food systems, and sustainable cities and communities through engineering innovation. Together, they developed 34 early-stage solutions that will move on to the prototyping stage.
Supported by the University of Santo Tomas (UST) through its TOMASInno Center Technology Business Incubator, UNLEASH Philippines aimed to provide equal opportunities for students, researchers, professionals, and community representatives to develop scalable solutions.
The initiative also built a network of emerging Filipino leaders committed to turning innovative ideas into practical solutions for national and global development.