Public institutions worldwide face a crisis of legitimacy and effectiveness, yet they remain critical for addressing 21st-century challenges from energy transitions to AI governance. While most government structures have remained unchanged for decades, emerging innovations—from India's billion-person biometric ID system to new roles like urban heat officers—demonstrate what is possible. Professor Geoff Mulgan and the Institutional Architecture Lab are working globally to develop alternative institutional models suited to today's complexity, exploring networked structures, rapid-response mechanisms, and platform-based designs that move beyond traditional hierarchies. As disruption accelerates, this moment offers a rare opportunity to fundamentally reimagine public institutions at both national and global levels.

Sir Geoff Mulgan CBE is Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London. He was Chief Executive of Nesta, the UK's innovation foundation, from 2011 to 2019, and previously held senior roles in the UK government, including director of the Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister's office from 1997 to 2004. Sir Mulgan has founded and co-founded numerous organisations, including Demos, the Young Foundation, and the Social Innovation Exchange. He has advised governments worldwide and chaired a European Commission programme on 'Whole of Government Innovation' in 2023-24. A pioneer of concepts such as joined-up government, anticipatory regulation, and open innovation, he is editor-in-chief of the Collective Intelligence journal and serves on the board of CEPS, the leading EU think tank in Brussels. He was knighted in 2020 for his contributions to social innovation and public policy.