The world is changing rapidly, and persistent problems like environmental degradation or accelerating inequality impact the entire global community and press us to do better for each other and our environment. For organizations and individuals working to tackle big social issues and create positive change, scaling impact is a common goal and a well-founded aim. Challenges like these seem to demand a significant scale of action, and here the authors argue that a more creative and critical approach to scaling is both possible and essential.

“Scaling Impact”, a just released book authored by Robert McLean and John Gargania and published by IDRC, introduces a new and practical approach to scaling the positive impacts of research and innovation. Inspired by leading scientific and entrepreneurial innovators from across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East, this book presents a synthesis of diversity and grounded ingenuity. The result is a different perspective on how to achieve impact that matters, and an important challenge to the predominant ‘bigger-is-better’ paradigm of scaling. To encourage uptake and co-creation, the authors present actionable principles that can help organizations and innovators design, manage, and evaluate scaling strategies. “Scaling Impact” is a call to action for all actors concerned with social innovation, to think critically about scaling up scientific research and to be more scientific in how we scale. The book can be downloaded https://www.idrc.ca/en/book/ scaling-impact-innovation-public-good.