Christine Owen
Associate Director (Scotland)
Christine is an Associate Director at the Innovation Unit. She joined in August 2023 and is now working closely with the Innovation Unit team of directors and others to continue to design and develop programmes across Scotland and the UK that maximises social impact and create new efficient ways of working across the public sector and drives better outcomes for local communities,
Christine is a place based innovation expert and designs and leads large scale place based innovation programmes across Scotland. These programmes are delivered with a range of local and national partners and use place-based approaches to develop services and new ways of working, and make best use of local assets, resources and buildings to achieve better outcomes for communities to live well locally.
A current example of this work is the Caithness Place-Based Demonstrator programme which aims to address key challenges in Caithness communities and create better outcomes for local communities and to learn about how organisations, services and communities can work together in new ways. The focus is on working together to make best use of local assets and resources, including local spaces in Caithness.
Based in Edinburgh, Christine most recently worked with the People Powered Result (PPR), a Nesta Specialist Enterprise. The PPR team worked with organisations and public systems to release the power of communities and people closest to issues to adapt and take action in an increasingly complex world. Christine established, grew and led the PPR work in Scotland, shaping large scale place-based innovation programmes in partnerships with national organisations and local places and communities. These programmes were community-led, focusing on achieving change and innovation, and shaping new ways of working in the public sector in Scotland. The Innovation Unit will now continue to grow and scale the PPR legacy, approaches, programmes and networks in Scotland, with Christine in her new role as Associate Director.
Before working with Innovation Unit and PPR, Christine had a range of roles that continue to influence and shape the work that she leads. These included a range of leadership roles in Scotland as a clinician, academic, Scottish Quality and Safety Fellow, and as a National Improvement Advisor. In all of these roles Christine built large scale collaborations that shaped programmes that put people and those rarely heard at the heart of change, creating significant social impact and new ways of working across the public and private sector.