A call for ideas was announced in May 2014 and sent directly to almost 400 individuals and organizations, including government representatives, private investors and project developers, development finance institutions, and civil society organizations. The Lab’s members and analytical service providers consulted widely to source the best ideas for financing instruments. The Lab Secretariat received more than 80 submissions from all over the world, far exceeding Lab members’ expectations in terms of quality and quantity.

The Lab Secretariat screened these ideas to assess whether they aligned with the Lab’s objective of being innovative (either in terms of newness, or in encouraging scale up of existing approaches to new technologies or geographies), actionable, potentially transformative, and catalytic. 48 ideas complied with all four of these criteria. Lab Advisors voted for the top 14 of these before prioritizing 10, after considering elements such as The Lab’s added value, and whether instruments helped to generate primary deal flow, established aggregation platforms, reduced risk, or targeted adaptation and climate resilience. At The Lab’s inaugural meeting on 3rd June, Lab Principals further considered elements such as immediate potential for generating impact, to narrow the list to seven instruments for more detailed analysis to assess their suitability for piloting.

In line with The Lab’s goal of encouraging pilots by spring 2015, some very interesting ideas were excluded because the need for extensive legal or regulatory reform before they could be implemented, including in new geographies, meant that The Lab’s potential to add real value was limited. Similarly, some very interesting ideas were at a very conceptual stage and had not yet identified potential sponsors or audiences. The Lab Secretariat is committed to facilitating broader outreach and extensive consultation to develop The Lab proposals, with both developed and developing country stakeholders.