In the run up to the next General Election, The Research & Development Society is holding an event to look at national R&D strategy, the ‘infrastructure’ required to support a world-class innovation ecosystem for the UK and the expectations for how this will accelerate exploitation and economic growth. The aim is to focus on some of the larger infrastructure activities that have been taking place such as the Catapult Centres as well as other centres such as Materials Innovation Factory at Liverpool University, the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and University of Strathclyde’s Technology and Innovation Centre. However the overall purpose of the event is broader in understanding UK R&D priorities around knowledge transfer, skills supply and competiveness, so we anticipate a wider discussion around effective and sustainable innovation.

At the event will be a distinguished panel including:

• Will Hutton, political economist, writer and journalist; chair of the Big Innovation Centre; Principal of Hertford College, Oxford
• Dr Hermann Hauser, KBE, CBE FRS FREng FInstP – Director, Amadeus Capital Partners
• Uday Phadke – CEO, Cartezia and AcceleratorIndia
• Matt Reed - Senior Open Innovation Director, Unilever
• Professor Keith Ridgway, FREng CBE, Executive Dean, University of Sheffield AMRC

who will present their thoughts on key aspects of UK R&D infrastructure and then participate in a discussion, including questions from the floor on how we can better build a future vision for UK R&D.

Registration fees (which include refreshments during the event and drinks reception at 21:00)

Full fee £50 (organisations) and £25 (individuals/SMEs), but we have a special offer ‘Early Bird’ rate of £10 for the first 50 attendees who register before April 23rd.

Organised by the Research and Development Society with the Knowledge Transfer Network, and supported by Lucideon