As the Covid-19 pandemic took its grip on the world in early 2020, global demand for oxygen surged. Pure oxygen in cylinders is expensive, and proved hard to find. Simple technology exists to turn ordinary air into medical-grade oxygen - but that technology is fragile, and manufacturers couldn’t see viable or profitable ways to build something tougher. By bringing people together to discuss the issues, we helped to pinpoint a crucial problem - and a simple solution, which saved thousands of lives.

As part of our work with the Africa Smart Towns Network of 11 cities across Africa (aka ASToN), Brink worked with the City of Matola in Mozambique on a project to increase tax income for the city council. Local officials were convinced that tax non-payment was because citizens were choosing to avoid paying taxes; but when they dug deeper, the team found very different reasons - and came up with creative new service ideas to experiment with.

In 2022 we partnered with Macmillan Cancer Support to evolve the way the organisation designs both for and with marginalised people living with cancer. In just five months we designed and tested a CoLab proposition that fundamentally shifted how Macmillan’s service design and innovation teams develop inclusive solutions.

Creating the environments for rapid, real world testing of new educational technologies that can deliver better learning outcomes for all children, including the most marginalised.