Waterstons’ Post

Today we welcomed Michiel Scheffer, President of the European Innovation Council (EIC) at the CESAER office in Leuven! We discussed many topics regarding European R&I policy, which included: • the future of European competitiveness and the role of S&T universities in this area; • how to enhance the integration of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) into Europe's R&I frameworks, and how to foster more SSH-STEM collaboration in R&I ecosystems; • the future of the EIC in FP10, and the growing role of deep tech (and challenges in deep tech development) in the past years; • synergies between the EIC and EIT; • the future of dual-use technology in FP10. Read more about our position on this topic, here: https://lnkd.in/gVCam8FC Looking forward to future cooperation between the EIC and CESAER when it comes to enhancing R&I ecosystems and beyond! Thank you for your visit, Michiel!

🚀 Get ready! The official launch for Round 1 of the Call for Pilots opens tomorrow at 9am. ⬇ Make sure to visit the link to the European Commissions EU Funding and Tenders Portal in the comments section below. 🗓 In fact there are so many great events coming up, here is a quick overview of what is to come: #Funding #EU #Innovation #Research #Opportunities #events #callforpilots #ds4sscc #smartcities #smartcommunities #digitaltransformation European Commission Open & Agile Smart Cities & Communities (OASC) imec FIWARE IDC Serendipity TalTech – Tallinn University of Technology Gospodarska zbornica Slovenije

Four transformative events coming up in November, December, and January that will showcase support options available to innovative businesses, including those in the Cardiff Capital Region cyber cluster. Come along to hear from industry experts and academics on the opportunities available and become part of a thriving network. #CCR #cyber #cybersecurity #innovation #support #funding #technology #data #digital #manufacturing

I spent the last week at the schoms annual conference at the University of Birmingham. The Monday (24 June) was the Training Day - which was run in conjunction with AVIXA. From Extron (Tony Patterson & Daniel Gallant) I took away that USB-C requires us to think about how we engineer spaces. From Noel Bruton I took away that measuring what we do needs to be considered from multiple viewpoints. From Greg Jeffreys I took away that we should build spaces to needs and standards. The Tuesday (25 June) brought the Information and Exposition. There were so many Partners to discuss solutions with...... and these are now listed here: https://lnkd.in/eN-QHkuZ . We also spent a great event at the Conference Dinner at the Black Country Living Museum - where we got to look at the Fairground, and a tour around the site - including Charlie's Yard. Conference Dinner was Fish and Chips and a watch of the football in the Worker's Institute. The Wednesday (26 June) brought the start of the presentations. Following a welcome from Diane Job - I took away that we should spend time working out what you can do with what you have - what do the future values look like? From Zoe Kleinman's Keynote, I took away that we should consider the implications of what we look to provide. We should look to find products that do not simply fit alongside others, but will genuinely change what we do. From Joe Way, PhD, CTS, I took away that we shouldn't be future-proof, but future-ready. From Iker Ormazabal Martínez, I took away that digital literacy is as important as making the technology transparent (to the users). From Emerson Pratt, I took away that the pandemic was useful to stop doing things because they're in the culture; but to work out for whom you are actually doing them. From Mark Dunlop, I took away that knowing what you systemically have allows you to realign what you can do to improve. From Rich Draper and Tim Packwood I took away that a digital twin can help you be very smart. From Ian Knowles of The University of Sheffield, I took away that new technology can help in creating venues that have multiple purposes. Catherine Sharman, Adrian Brett and I spent some time enlisting the help of our colleagues at the conference to discuss and plan how we measure, plan and develop staff in education - to try and increase the professional recognition of AV and Learning Technology staff. Catherine then spent time showing us how well they have taken to having AV Apprentices in King's College London, and how the process would be very valuable. From Karen Ethier from Educational Technology Collaborative, I took away many things, but particularly that environments that are built simulation are important. We should also look to simply and empower staff to use spaces without barriers. Re-engineering for sustainability in future grows every year. And finally from the conference, I took away from Ryan Walker that AI can augment our operations.

What a line-up! Captains of our data-driven future. Leading us to a world where operational certainty and agile scalability of digital infrastructure will be key to unlocking AI-driven growth and innovation opportunities. #AdelaideInnovate24 #MoreThanAParty #DigitalSouthAustralia

#PSA: If you have thoughts around a materials protection and/or performance subject, don't forget to get your abstract in to AMPP: Association for Materials Protection and Performance before the August 5th deadline. Looking forward to reviewing many insightful topics.

Competition? What competition?! It's been Event-tastic for me this week. The first stop was a great Tech Leaders event from Manchester Digital, always a good turnout. Then last night up to Burnley College for an excellent meetup by the team at Lancashire Digital Hub: Powered by Innovate Lancashire and Barclays Eagle Labs, where yours truly did a talk on becoming an Accidental Leader. This morning I'm back on the road for the great business networking event at SciTech Daresbury. More details to follow next week when I come up for air but what a fantastic set of events. It got me considering a few things though, obviously I met some old and some new faces, some potential clients and.... what others would consider "competition". Yep, others in the software space. But that's not how I see anybody. I see them as opportunities. Why? We are all offering slightly different services, or work with slightly different budgets or industries. Or completely different tech stacks - we work with Microsoft and there's not a lot of agencies that do. Then there's overspill when we get busy, we don't often need it but it may happen. And vice versa where someone may want to use us in the same manner. So there's no such thing as competition in my mind, what about you? Do you consider anyone to be a direct competitor? #innovation #technology #NoSuchThingAsCompetition

Jonathon Mee and Alfie Taylor, two new members of the NTH Innovation Team, were in attendance at The University of Manchester yesterday for a great Innovate UK funded digital innovation workshop. 💡 The workshop has allowed a deeper understanding of all the latest trends, strategies, and insights shaping the digital landscape. 🚀 #digitalinnovation #healthcareinnovation #continuousdevelopment

Day three at embedded world Exhibition&Conference Looking forward to see you in hall 4-200. I will be there until 1pm today and can show you our groundbreaking Electronic Contols Unit for #dielectric #elastomer #actuators in action… …and allow me a comment: AI generated subtitles sometimes generate funny stuff, and definitely has no idea what our BSC-idea is about. Our smart material is silicone (elastomer) not silicon (semiconductor) 😀

Thriving in the Digital Storm: Adaptive learning organisation principles and practices for Higher education institutions… My reflections from the Dream sessions I attended at the dream2024 conference. I hope you enjoy the read. Tell me what you think. https://lnkd.in/dz6Pd6UP)