Innovation at the IBTS 

Innovation is the creation and implementation of new, viable products and services that adds value. In our view, this refers to something that is new or different and / or improves the experience of our service users (donors, hospital clients, clinicians, scientists, our own people).

Innovation is deemed a critical requirement for all Public Service Organisations to progress the development and delivery of services both for today and for tomorrow, as per Our Public Service ‘Making Innovation Real Strategy’ (OPS2020) and ‘Enabling innovation in the Irish public service’ (Deloitte, 2018*). This innovation strategy reflects the need for the Irish Blood Transfusion Service to continuously improve in providing services and products that are at the forefront of transfusion medicine and science. It will also tackle the major challenges and opportunities facing the IBTS in the future.

We follow three principles help us nurture a culture of innovation:

• Encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration in a supportive environment
• Give our people the skills and resources to be innovators
• Drive our successes by supporting failure

In order to be successful in our innovation vision, mission and objective, the team has identified a number of supports that aide progress and help nurture an innovative culture:

• Silo disruption – use projects that are cross-functional to allow greater collaboration and so that personnel can practice working across departmental lines, gain new skills and provide fresh, unique solutions
• Space and Connection - encourage the active sharing of information, connecting via media and holding space for innovative ideas
• Curiosity - analytical curiosity to ask ‘why’, leads to innovative problem-solving solutions.
• Shared purpose - Innovation must be approached from a shared purpose & user-centric perspective. This innovative thinking must be imbedded within the staff & organisation at the grass roots level
• Environment - create a space where there is courage to fail, and fail better, knowing this process supported.

The innovation team was established as a first step in response to addressing the strategic goal in our People and Culture enabler. Our innovation team is a multi-disciplinary group of stakeholders from across our organisation and in 2024 we worked hard to include a more diverse range of staff members.

As we enter 2025 we are excited to continue to encourage and celebrate innovative practices, training and collaboration within the organisation and beyond!

Innovation Team

Our innovation team is a multi-disciplinary group of stakeholders from across our organisation, including Research, Education , Quality and more. 

To contact the Innovation Team directly please email innovation@ibts.ie