Luminary Labs is a strategy and innovation consultancy that addresses complex problems through various initiatives and competitions focused on public health, climate, education, and technology.

Luminary Labs

Luminary Labs | 5,642 followers on LinkedIn. Hello, future Luminary. Join the team solving problems that matter — we’re hiring consultants in NYC. | WHAT WE DO

Luminary Labs is a New York City-based strategy and innovation consultancy established in 2009. Thorny problems are our strong suit: We are energized by complex, multistakeholder spaces where the solutions are not obvious and the potential for impact is high. Our work spans a broad cross section of topics across four focus areas: future of health, future of work and education, scientific discovery, and infrastructure.

Founding Partner and CEO, Luminary Labs

Sara Holoubek Sara Holoubek is an Influencer

Partner and President at Luminary Labs, A Strategy and Innovation Consultancy (We're hiring!)

Janna Gilbert

Head of Content & Community at Luminary Labs

Jessica Hibbard

Design Manager at Luminary Labs // Join the team solving problems that matter.

Winnie Chang

With a focus on the intersection of AI and climate resilience, the Cornell Tech Urban Tech Summit will convene leaders from industry, academia, and government for groundbreaking discussions on how intelligent technologies can transform our cities’ response to climate challenges. Connect with urban tech and sustainability experts, learn how AI/ML is revolutionizing climate adaptation strategies, and explore real-world applications in heat management, flood control, and renewable energy. Get more info and register here: https://lnkd.in/esMEZ5zU Our team will be there, and we’d love to connect. Drop a comment below if you are planning to attend. #UrbanTechSummit #UTS2024 #ClimateInnovation #ClimateResilience #CornellTech #Sustainability #UrbanInnovation

The #LymeXDiagnosticsPrize is a $10+ million competition from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation to accelerate the development of Lyme disease diagnostics. On November 21, the Phase 3 teams will showcase their proposed solutions at a live Demo Day at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. Learn more about the event and register here: https://lnkd.in/ePyfSV-3 At the Demo Day, you’ll have the opportunity to: — Watch teams’ showcases on their next-gen diagnostic concepts. — Hear from leaders and patient advocates in the field. — Network with the #Lyme disease community. With an estimated 476,000 cases in America annually, the U.S. has an urgent need for new #Lymedisease diagnostics. From translating diagnostics for sepsis to utilizing new genetic sequencing, Phase 3 teams are working on groundbreaking concepts with major implications for infectious disease testing more broadly.

📣 NEW: An open letter to the next administration. Innovation is not a partisan activity, and public prizes in particular create an opportunity to collaborate in the service of solving the world’s thorniest problems. Luminary Labs has been responsible for designing and producing prizes under 3 (soon to be 4) different administrations and for more than 10 different federal agencies. Across all sectors, these open innovation programs represent over $370 million in non-dilutive funding to accelerate the development of effective, scalable solutions to important problems. Through this work, we have learned that partnership is prerequisite for solving the nation’s most pressing problems, and prizes create an opportunity for America to incentivize its best and brightest to develop solutions that improve American lives and boost the U.S. economy. But after more than a decade of successful prizes, the true potential of the COMPETES Act has barely been tapped. The next administration has an opportunity to harness the power of prizes for the greater good. With that in mind, we offer the following recommendations: 1️⃣ Modernize and expand guidance. On our wish list for the future: updated memos (or perhaps online courses) addressing the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), judging, and private-sector collaboration. 2️⃣ Nurture the community. Hats off to the GSA Challenge.gov team for building a community of practice – including webinars and toolkits. To complement this foundational work, we encourage the next administration to return to the practice of appointing a Grand Challenges Lead within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to expand the use of #openinnovation in the federal government. We also envision a return to more intentional dialogue between prize competition experts, including private and nonprofit organizations with prize expertise and vendors responsible for designing and producing prizes. 3️⃣ Inspire the world by pushing the boundaries of prizes. We encourage the next administration to consider how additional incentives, such as #advancemarketcommitments (AMCs) or advance purchase agreements, could further stimulate the development of innovations with a high social value. One idea would be to explore if an AMC could constitute a prize in and of itself. Alternatively, an AMC could be offered in a parallel track to complement a prize. Read more from Janna Gilbert & me below – and if you have an open innovation or prize competition wishlist addition, add to the comments below. https://lnkd.in/eS-QiwwR

Sara Holoubek

🎉 Happy 15th birthday, Luminary Labs ! What a wild ride – as every entrepreneur knows, what you set out to build and what it becomes are rarely the same thing. And yet, there are through lines that persist. When I started Luminary Labs (as a very reluctant entrepreneur – AMA if you are on that journey!), someone asked me what is at the very core, I remember saying that "I love to solve problems." They scoffed. Fast forward to today, and I am so proud of the body of work and team that have helped our public, private, and non-profit sector clients address some of the world's most pressing problems. It is a privilege to do the work we do – all within a framework we created that allows our team to have high-performance careers while also living their lives. I look forward to celebrating with Luminaries past and present later this month at our anniversary party. Until then, my deepest gratitude to everyone who played a role over the years – there are too many people to list here – you know who you are! 🙏

Lead poisoning remains a significant public health issue in the United States and around the world, disproportionately impacting children living in communities experiencing disadvantage or poverty. There is no safe level of lead in the blood; exposure to even small amounts of lead can cause irreversible neurological damage and other harmful health effects in children. The #LeadDetectPrize was launched to advance point-of-care testing solutions and enable more reliable, accessible, and efficient blood lead testing for children. This week the prize announced three Phase 2 winners during a live Demo Day at The George Washington University- Milken Institute School of Public Health . The Lead Detect Prize demonstrates how #OpenInnovation can stimulate the development of new tools and technologies to address pressing but otherwise unsolved public health challenges. Meet the three winning teams and learn more about what’s being done to realize a future in which no child suffers from the harmful effects of lead exposure: https://lnkd.in/ebpdzfpg Luminary Labs designed and produced the Lead Detect Prize on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through a contract with NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration . #NLPPW #ILPPW #publichealth #healthequity #openinnovation #leadpoisoning

According to this month's fact sheet (see link in comments ⬇️ ) from The White House "Lead is a neurotoxin that can irreversibly harm brain development in children, lower IQ, cause behavioral problems, and lead to life-long health effects. There is no safe level of #lead exposure. Yet, due to decades of inequitable #infrastructure development and underinvestment, lead poisoning disproportionately affects low-income communities and communities of color." While there is much being done to reduce lead exposure (e.g., the recent announcement of national lead pipe replacement), there is also a critical immediate need for advanced point-of-care blood lead tests to protect our children, especially the most vulnerable. The early detection of lead exposure can avert crises, reduce exposure, and allow those impacted to get treatment promptly. Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 's Lead Detect Prize celebrated five innovative new solutions focused on the development of groundbreaking advanced point-of-care testing solutions designed to enable more reliable, accessible, affordable, and efficient blood lead testing for children. It was incredible to witness the progress made by these teams in such a short period of time. Congratulations to the first-place winner Meridian Bioscience Inc. , second-place winner OndaVia, Inc. , third-place winner GlucoSentient, Inc. I also was personally inspired by the incredible speakers who really brought home the *why* behind why we desperately need this technology: Lynn Goldman , Pam Protzel Berman, Karla Johnson and Nicole Jones. Thank you to the entire #CDC team for their vision for this program, it was an honor and a pleasure to work alongside you on this project. Photo credit: April Renae https://lnkd.in/eKc5kSDb

📣 Join us on October 24 for the Lead Detect Prize Demo Day! 📣 There is no safe level of lead in blood. Full stop. In addition to remediation, we must improve our ability to detect low levels of lead exposure through blood tests administered at the point of care. That is why Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the $1 million Lead Detect Prize, designed and produced by Luminary Labs . On October 24, the five Phase 2 teams will showcase their concepts for advanced point-of-care blood lead tests –– and the winners of the $850,000 Phase 2 prize pool will be announced. If you are passionate about lead detection, innovations in #diagnostics , or #openinnovation more broadly, we invite you to join us for this live event: Date: Thursday, October 24, 1:30-5:00 p.m. Location: The George Washington University- Milken Institute School of Public Health , Washington, D.C. Registration link: click on image below to reserve your seat

Last week, Luminary Labs Partner and President Janna Gilbert joined educators, innovators, funders, and policymakers at EDTECH WEEK , a global innovation festival in New York. It should come as no surprise that #artificialintelligence was a central topic at the conference; there was plenty of discussion about the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, but new tech tools were just one part of the conversation. In this week’s Lab Report, we highlight some key themes we heard from the field, including: ▶ AI is out of the sandbox and in the classroom. ▶ Infrastructure is essential to innovation. ▶ Successful edtech implementation requires partnership and collaboration. ▶ Edtech is exploring innovative models to balance responsive and responsible R&D. ▶ Stakeholders need shared standards and frameworks to coordinate resources and maximize impact. Read the full article for more context and examples of how education leaders are pursuing the future of education. https://lnkd.in/errsh_aa Do you have other reflections from EdTech Week? Add your additions in the comments. ⤵ #EdTechWeek2024 #EdTech #Education #AI #R &D #Innovation

$$$$ Youth Funding Opportunity for High Schools! $$$$ Please share widely! The school year is in full swing — and it’s the perfect time to start something new with your students. Check out the latest challenge in the U.S. Department of Education ’s annual #CTEMomentum series! Youth + Innovative Ideas about Climate and Energy = Exactly What We Need to Address #climatechange The #PowerYourFuture Challenge invites teams to submit innovative action plans that will advance the use of #cleanenergy in local schools and communities. Participating students will lead clean energy solutions while exploring the range of industry #careers . Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ePQw8hsw ;utm_medium=social- long&amp;utm_campaign=pyf Tagging some leaders in this space XQ Institute , Jade Grieve , Scott Bess , The Futures Institute , In Tandem , Aurora Institute , Building 21 , Valor Collegiate Academies

Erin Mote

If you're attending the Grantmakers for Education conference in Minneapolis this week, join Siegel Family Endowment and the Walton Family Foundation to learn more about the #LearningLandscapesChallenge challenge and hear how prize competitions can accelerate education innovation.

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