PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION LABORATORIES IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS BETWEEN BRAZIL AND SPAIN

The purpose of this article is to compare the conceptions of innovation and the characteristics of two public sector laboratories, one of the government in Brazil and another social in Spain. In this sense, the qualitative approach was applied through documents and interviews with semi-structured scripts with three managers of these laboratories to deepen their perceptions about the modus operandi of these organizations. The data were analyzed in a categorial interpretative way with the support of the WebQDA software. As main results, while convergences, it was found that the analyzed laboratories are spaces of innovation that focus their work on methods of experimentation and radical change. It was observed that although the laboratories have different focuses (organizational and social innovation), they present a common point, which is the creation of values for citizens that occur directly or indirectly. Both laboratories have a fundamental role in forming ideas to solve everyday social and political-administrative problems, especially in a post-pandemic context.