Life Itself Labs is a think-tank and consultancy specializing in designing economic and governance systems to support social transformation, and delivering strategic insights into complex and unorthodox topics. Current focal areas include enhancing the economics of cooperatives and designing incentive mechanisms for governments to share environmental data.
Life Itself was founded by Dr. Rufus Pollock, who was formerly the Mead Fellow in Economics at the University of Cambridge. He’s the author of Open Revolution, which outlines a vision of new economics built around resource allocation driven by transformations in digital information. Rufus also founded the Open Knowledge Foundation to promote data openness.
Rufus’ lead collaborator at Life Itself is Theo Cox, who holds a first class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford, and an MSc in Development Studies from The London School of Economics and Political Science. His current work at Life Itself includes working with G7 officials and stakeholders on the financial incentives for environmental data sharing.
ORA Action Research Grant Project
Life Itself proposes to engage in a targeted mapping exercise designed to identify key actors who are working in response to the threats posed by the polycrisis from similar perspectives but in relative isolation from one another. It will complement the mapping exercise undertaken by Cascade Institute, which is broader and somewhat more shallow in scope. We are facilitating coordination between the two groups and believe that the Life Itself product will nest inside the larger stakeholder map being built by the Cascade Institute.