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Canada’s primary care system has been described as “a culture of pilot projects” with little evidence of converting successful initiatives into funded, permanent programs or sharing project outcomes and insights across jurisdictions. Health services pilot projects are advocated as an effective strategy for identifying promising models of care and building integrated care partnerships in local settings. In the qualitative study reported here, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the strengths and challenges of this approach.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 primary care physicians who discussed their experiences as pilot project leads. Following thematic analysis methods, broad system issues were captured as well as individual project information.

While participants often portrayed themselves as advocates for vulnerable patients, mobilizing healthcare organizations and providers to support new models of care was discussed as challenging. Competition between local healthcare providers and initiatives could impact pilot project success. Participants also reported tensions between their clinical, project management and research roles with additional time demands and skill requirements interfering with the work of implementing and evaluating service innovations.

Study findings highlight the complexity of pilot project implementation, which encompasses physician commitment to addressing care for vulnerable populations through to the need for additional skill set requirements and the impact of local project environments. The current pilot project approach could be strengthened by including more multidisciplinary collaboration and providing infrastructure supports to enhance the design, implementation and evaluation of health services improvement initiatives.

This research aimed to determine the differences and similarities in each pilot project to understand the primary design forms and concepts of sponge city concept (SCC) projects in China. It also aimed to examine ten pilot projects in Shanghai to extrapolate their main characteristics and the processes necessary for implementing SCC projects effectively.

A literature review and field survey case study were employed. Data were mostly collected through a field survey in Shanghai, focusing on both the projects and the surrounding environment. Based on these projects' examination, a comparative method was used to determine the characteristics of the ten pilot SCC projects and programs in Shanghai.

Six main types of SCC projects among 30 pilot cities were classified in this research to find differences and similarities among the pilot cities. Four sponge design methods were classified into ten pilot projects. After comparing each project size using the same geographical size, three geometrical types were categorized into both existing and new city areas. SCC project characteristics could be identified by combining four methods and three geometrical types and those of the SCC programs by comparing the change in land-use and the surrounding environment in ten pilot projects.

The results are valuable for implementing SCC projects in China and elsewhere and future research on the impact of SCC projects.

This paper aims to present the feasibility study findings from a four-year project funded by the European Union Commission (the SAIL project, Staying Active and Independent for Longer). The funding stream was Interreg 2Seas which offers opportunities for coastal areas on both sides of the English Channel to work together on complex practical issues. The project focused on enabling older people to stay active and independent for longer using social innovation (co-production) approaches.

Ten pilot projects were developed, and each of the pilots worked with an academic partner to undertake a feasibility study that included 10 pilots across the four countries involved, France, Belgium, Holland and England.

This paper presents barriers and facilitators (using logic models) to the social innovation process with older people, which has wider relevance in terms of social innovation and its application.

The findings which inform this paper are extensive, and this is a longitudinal qualitative study with much of the data collection being done using an online wiki (complemented by interviews and documentary analysis) which is a relatively new method for data collection. However, the consistency of the findings when analysed by three researchers was clear and pragmatically this complex method was required to examine complexity in the process of implementing social innovation in practice.

This project has enabled greater understanding of how social innovation can be applied and has highlighted contextual issues that can undermine or enable attempts to adopt the approach.

For the 10 pilot projects generated, there were obviously important cultural and geographical differences in terms of engagement and practical implementation of social innovation. Some of which, as mentioned in this paper, are very important for the successful implementation of social innovation in a particular setting and indeed may be a strength or a barrier in terms of engaging with local people and agencies.

The development of logic models is a useful approach when the topic under study is complex and likely to produce a diverse set of process outcomes. The logic model focuses upon the relationships between the resources that are used to create the intervention and what is produced in terms of outcomes. Ultimately, this enables the identification of the factors that contribute to a successful intervention. Thus, in relation to this study, logic models have helped to provide an evidence-based framework that can support decision-making regarding the most effective use of limited resources to support successful social innovation processes in the future. The logic model for each area of the findings presented here can in the future be used to help implement social innovation; also, to consider how it can be improved in future research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility of adopting a pilot project approach for foreseeing the working and financial viability of a technique, named as agile innovative total quality function deployment (agile ITQFD).

The agile ITQFD technique and its financial accounting system were designed. The implementation study of two pilot projects on agile ITQFD was conducted in an electronics switches manufacturing company. The statements of the financial accounting system were used to foresee the financial viability of agile ITQFD projects.

The research reported in this paper indicates the feasibility of adopting a pilot project approach and its financial accounting system for test implementing new techniques and models in the organisations aspiring to attain global competitiveness.

Like many other modern organisations, the company in which the research work was carried out has been aspiring to compete globally. Hence, even though the implementation study involved only two pilot projects, the implications of this research would represent the global scenario as well.

Currently practitioners struggle to choose the best techniques for applying them in specific cases. The research reported in this paper would help practitioners in this regard to adopt the pilot project approach and its financial accounting system.

The pilot project approach reported in this paper helps a company save time and money while exploring the practical compatibility of the technique. The financial accounting system presented would be useful in foreseeing the viability of projects using monetary values.

This paper seeks to describe a pilot project for the Federal Science eLibrary to measure the impacts on Government of Canada researchers when provided with seamless, equitable access to an expanded core of electronic journals in science, technology and medicine (STM). The Federal Science eLibrary is an initiative supported by the Strategic Alliance of Federal Science and Technology Libraries to provide improved access to information at the desktop for the 22,000 Canadian federal scientists, policy analysts and decision makers. The pilot project was designed to evaluate the benefits of increased access to e‐journals at the pilot sites and test network performance in connecting to a central digital repository.

A total of 500 users in three Canadian government sites with limited access to electronic resources were provided with full text access to a digital repository of over 3,000 e‐journals over a 12‐week period. Questionnaires, teleconferences, usage statistics and e‐mail correspondence were used to gather and measure researchers' response and show impacts on their ability to do their work.

Pilot groups reported significantly reduced time finding and verifying information. Time saved was redirected into critical activities such as research, laboratory activities, manuscript preparation, peer review activities and professional reading. Participants found that increased desktop access had a very positive impact on their ability to do their work.

This study shows the benefits of expanded access to electronic journals for federal government scientists through a Federal Science eLibrary initiative.

To explore what type of support is required by social enterprises, how this is different from mainstream business, what the preferred approaches to learning and working with support providers are, and how the provision of social enterprise support can be co‐ordinated and the capacity of support providers built up.

The study examined the different approaches and indicators used in conventional evaluations of social enterprises. Uses the literature and the views of those delivering support for the pilot projects to identify indicators to include social enterprises’ perceptions of the process of support provision, changes in their operations and behaviour and the extent of constraints faced. Describes the three pilot projects, comprising: Areas of Industrial Decline (Ex‐coalfield areas) pilot project, based on work with 11 eleven existing and 4 pre‐start social enterprises in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, UK, exploring the use of tools developed for conventional micro‐businesses; Black, minority and ethnic fledgling social enterprises pilot project, involving 14 social enterprises in the West Midlands, emphasizing those managed by Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) women; and Rural social enterprise pilot project, which provided advisory support to 14 organizations in Lancashire and Oxfordshire on organization structure, management and legal structures.

The results revealed the importance of meeting those technical skill gaps that are easier to identify plus those that are harder to define (lack of confidence). Concludes that social enterprises may be confused about types of support available, particularly where duplication and competition takes place.

Draws on the author’s official evaluation of three pilot projects that were jointly run by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Home Office and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).

This chapter describes and discusses the main results of the successful off-hour delivery (OHD) pilot test in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, which took place between October 2014 and March 2015. The pilot engaged major stakeholders in urban distribution, including local authorities, shippers, carriers, and receivers, with the aim to determine what are the main requirements, constraints, opportunities, and threats for establishing a public policy related to shifting deliveries to late night in order to mitigate traffic congestion.

Differently from the former City of New York OHD pilot, here all participant companies were volunteers, with no need for cash incentives. The primary focus in São Paulo was on the issues of safety and noise, besides productivity aspects of travel time, truck speed, and delivery time.

The pilot was very successful, with no registered complaints of noise or security incidents. Travel speeds were obtained from global positioning system (GPS) tracking data and internal delivery systems. The chapter compares daytime and night operations and shows that productivity in some chains would improve significantly, but noise and safety must be carefully controlled to guarantee the expansion of the concept.

Improving construction supply chain collaboration and performance is central for achieving short‐term business objectives as well as long‐term competitive advantage. Lean thinking is an approach that has been adopted in many different industrial settings as a means for improving supply chain performance. In the project‐based construction industry, lean thinking has, however, not yet been widely adopted. The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how various aspects of lean thinking can be implemented in a construction project and how they affect supply chain actors and their performance.

Action research was performed in a case study of a lean construction pilot project. Empirical data were collected through three surveys and follow‐up workshops, document studies, and interviews of 12 project participants.

The findings show that many of the lean‐related aspects identified in the literature review were utilized in the pilot project. These aspects have mostly focused on increasing the cooperation among supply chain actors, for which reason the pilot project is very similar to a partnering project. Hence, much work remains in order to obtain full‐fledged lean construction, but the pilot project may serve as a starting point for continuous improvements and development of lean construction in future projects.

The research results are based on one empirical case study for which reasonable generalisations could be made, albeit cautiously.

The frame of reference can serve as an illustration of important aspects and core elements of lean construction and the case study findings show how various lean related aspects can be implemented and how they affect supply chain actors and their performance in a construction project context.

The action research approach based on both qualitative and quantitative data collection in a lean construction pilot project provides a valuable opportunity to study both the process of implementing lean construction and its outcomes.

The European Commission has accepted a proposal for an Open Systems Inter‐Connection (OSI) pilot/demonstration project between library networks in Europe for interlending services. The project arose from the Commission's call for ‘declaration of interest’ in pilot or demonstration projects designed to promote competitiveness and develop the information service market in Europe. It predates the ‘Plan of Action for Libraries in the European Community’, but subscribes to the objectives and action lines included in it.

This paper reviews how women help women in the South African Women in Construction (SAWIC) organization to effectively participate in projects. In a pilot project partnering with industry stakeholders, the Development Bank of Southern Africa as incubator of SAWIC, further explored what support women contractors required to succeed, tested mentoring and coaching as part of enterprise development.

Relevant literature were studied and analysed, testing the views and measure of success of women contractors against existing models. A survey instrument was developed to test the constructs empirically.

The empirical testing of success as a construct indicated that women overwhelmingly view mentoring and coaching as key capacity building and growth strategies towards successful women‐owned construction enterprises, underpinned by preliminary indications of the almost complete pilot study.

A limitation to the study is that it is based on preliminary findings and limited scope of the civil project.

Given the excellent results of the Cronbach α and factor analysis, the instrument developed proved to be reliable and valid and could be used for similar studies.

Knowledge sharing of lessons learnt in the joint initiative between government, the building industry, development finance institutions and women associations towards addressing critical skills shortages and gender equity.