A website to support Extension faculty who are interested in innovation to strengthen program impacts.

In A Call to Embrace Program Innovation, Meyer, Boyce & Meyer contend that innovation is critical for Extension to remain vital. They define program innovation as "the ongoing process of challenging and adapting to generate new ideas, processes, or products to strengthen impact performance," and contend that three core practices of designing, constructing, and evaluating programs lead to innovation opportunities. Program innovation is a forward-facing, non-sequential, and developmental approach to creating strong programs that operate effectively in the uncertain circumstances inherent to wicked problems and grand challenges.

In Taking the Leap: Exploring a Theory of Program Innovation, Meyer, Meyer & Katras analyze data from a national survey of practitioners from innovative programs, a panel presentation, and interviews with faculty at the University of Minnesota to describe seven factors that influence what prompts innovation and how the process tends to unfold. They present a capitals-based conceptual model that can be used for diagnosing and strengthening program innovation.