The Innovators Network Over Time

This illustration shows the radiating connections between ideas coming out of each cohort, as well as the increasing size and scale of the network. The project ideas, which are described on page 11, opportunistically touch on each other, without strictly growing from or following one another, eventually coming together into a more coherent whole.

Read about the first three cohorts—the fellows’ experiences and their projects—in our publications on each cohort’s work.

86% Participating in the Innovators Network provided them with new and potentially valuable connections

93%

Being a fellow added value to or would lead to a change in the way they do their work

The Network Beyond the Network

93% They expected to gain new insight into strategies for reducing nuclear threat

93% Being part of the Innovators Network would enable them to achieve more than they could achieve alone

79% They learned new skills or had been exposed to new topics as a result of participating in the Innovators Network

N Square’s Role in the Network

We’ve believed from the start that we could achieve greater outcomes and impact by increasing the numbers and broadening the types of people collaborating with nuclear experts, while also cultivating an esprit de corps among network members. While the Innovators Network sits at the center of N Square’s network strategy, our actual network has grown vastly larger, comprising funders, partner organizations, and a diverse range of professionals and organizations introduced to N Square through existing network members, through collaborative projects, through our own outreach, or through events, trainings, websites, and other touchpoints.

This “network of networks” features many nodes (and more than 2,000 people) that connect and reconnect around new challenges and opportunities, effectively acting as a new kind of dynamic ecosystem for collaboration and problem-solving. The configuration of the network is constantly changing, with some members moving into the center, some serving as nodes that draw multiple other nodes together, and others acting mostly from the periphery. A healthy network needs all these levels of engagement.

Catalyzing, sustaining, and growing a network is not a passive pursuit; it requires consistent care, feeding, and cultivation. N Square plays an active role in the network as convener, champion, matchmaker, and accelerator, steadily engaging in the work of connecting people, ideas, and resources and helping members find new pathways for advancing their work through collaboration and connection. Doing this well requires the whole N Square team to work with a network mindset. This means prioritizing “openness, transparency, relationship building, and distributed decision-making,” “operating with an awareness of the webs of relationships [we] are embedded in,” and “cultivating relationships to achieve the impact we care about.”6 Our core network-building activities include:

Weaving social ties.

N Square is one of the only organizations actively working to foster social relationships and a sense of esprit de corps in the nuclear field. Our innovation summits, brown bag lunches, project launch parties, and “nuclear mixers” have attracted robust crowds, with participants often drawn as much by the company as by the ideas being shared or discussed. These events have been attended not just by nuclear experts but by experts from a range of fields, creating opportunities for cross-issue conversation and shared learning.

Accessing new and diverse perspectives.

Over time, N Square’s network has grown not just larger but more diverse—and not by accident but by design. Notably, working with a network mindset has helped the N Square team identify a throughline of common purpose among seemingly unlikely individuals, organizations, and networks. For example, in 2021 N Square forged a partnership with the Black Speculative Arts Movement, a vibrant international community of afrofuturists, academics, and political activists who intersect with our interest in the future of global security and finding strategies

“A colleague of mine suggested that it would be interesting to participate in this network, as a fun way to apply our design skills to a new area. Three years later, it’s one of the biggest projects I’m working on.”

“I am on a collaborative project with another N Square fellow at the moment and we connected because we were both N Square fellows. I’m not sure we would have taken the time to connect otherwise.”

“I felt like I didn’t quite fit in with the traditional nuclear community, which worried me when I was trying to find my footing. When a call for applications for the fellowship came around, I applied as I wanted to be a part of what seemed like a very supportive, creative, and open community.”

“I like loosely being part of the network. I enjoy going to events/meeting/spaces and seeing fellow innovators there and exchanging a few words. There’s a lot of power in feeling broadly connected to something.”

“Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins encouraged me to apply for the N Square fellowship. I … applied and got to know smart, innovative, talented people in the industry working to reduce nuclear dangers. N Square’s work to reduce global nuclear threats and its unique approach is exactly what we need to break the gridlocks and stasis in nuclear policy. I have immensely benefited, learned, and also unlearned lessons and approaches of analyzing nuclear policy and strategy.”