The future of innovation in a post-Covid world
The coronavirus pandemic has affected many of the factors shaping the R&D and innovation landscape. Innovative businesses, including early stage companies, face running out of cash due to a lack of external finance or funding, and R&D projects have hit the buffers due to operational restrictions. In the longer-term, contracting markets, uncertainty and financial constraints pose risks to R&D and innovation activity, and the nature and speed with which it may recover. At the same time, however, there are some potential positive effects. Businesses have had to innovate rapidly to adapt to new circumstances, resulting in business model changes and investment in new technologies. The crisis also has the potential to create new opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs. Innovation may also be impacted spatially as the effects of the pandemic vary across sectors and places, as businesses adapt their workplaces and working practices, and through changes to the towns and cities in which businesses are located. For example, some commentators have begun to suggest that the concentration of COVID-19 in densely populated cities may lead to a retreat of both people and innovative economic activity from these urban areas. This webinar will review these changes and discuss the potential impacts of COVID-19 going forward. It will also consider how policies and programmes could be used to respond to the crisis in ways that may assist with longer-term competitiveness from national and sub-national perspectives.
What to expect
Grab a drink and a sandwich and join our one-hour webinar on 5th June 2020 at 12:00-13:00 to hear expert insights and stimulating debate about the future of Innovation in the UK in a post-COVID world. The webinar will include presentations from panel members, followed by a response from Dan Hodges at UKRI before an interactive Q&A session.
Speakers
Prof Rob Huggins, Cardiff University
“Productivity, Innovation and the Pandemic: The Efficiency of Cities?”
Jonathan Cook, SQW
“Recovery and resilience: how can innovation policy respond”
Prof Stephen Roper, University of Warwick
“R&D after COVID – trends and what to expect”
Jen Rae, Nesta
TBC
Discussant
Dan Hodges, Innovate UK
Chair
Tim Vorley, Productivity Insights Network
