Connected Places

In this episode we meet Dan Labbad, CEO of the Crown Estate - an independent commercial business, created by an Act of Parliament, with a diverse portfolio of UK buildings, shoreline, seabed, forestry, agriculture and common land. Dan sat down with the Chair of the Catapult, Prof. Greg Clark, shortly after giving a keynote address to the Summit our second Connected Places Catapult Summit held in in London on 19-20 March. They discussed the Crown Estate's approach to long-term stewardship, the future of placemaking, the role of innovation and new technologies in creating that future, and the challenges of navigating profound change and uncertainty. Dan has a long background in global property and infrastructure. He previously held senior leadership roles at Lendlease, including CEO for International Operations, where he oversaw business expansion across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Dan has previously served as a Director of the Green Building Council of Australia, and more recently as Chairman of the UK Green Building Council. The recorded sessions from the Summit are now available to view online, and you can also subscribe to our newsletter now to find out all about our plans for our next Summit in 2025!   Connected Places Summit website: https://cp.catapult.org.uk/summit/connected-places-summit-2025-wrapped/  Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) 

In this episode we meet Andrew Barr, President of Hitachi Europe in conversation with Becky Wood at our recent Connected Places Summit, held in London on 19/20 March. Hitachi Europe was one of our strategic Summit partners and we are very grateful for their support. Andrew and Becky sat down in the margins of the Summit to discuss Hitachi's approach to innovation in rail, the work they do in the energy sector, navigating the clean transition, and how data and digital technologies are changing how we think about rail, energy and place. Andrew is President of Hitachi Group's Regional Headquarters for Europe, Middle East & Africa - the company's largest business region outside Japan. He has had a career spanning 20 years at Hitachi, and under his leadership he's played a leading role in shaping the company's global strategy and expansion – and that includes helping governments, cities, and customers cut carbon and accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future. Becky is a partner in EY's infrastructure consulting business, and she's lead a number of complex and high-profile transport infrastructure programmes for the UK's Department for Transport, as well as Crossrail, Thameslink, Intercity Express, and the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade programme. The recorded sessions from the Summit are now available to view online, and you can also subscribe to our newsletter now to find out all about our plans for our next Summit in 2025!   Connected Places Summit website: https://cp.catapult.org.uk/summit/connected-places-summit-2025-wrapped/ Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) 

Last week was a big one for the Connected Places Catapult. On the 19/20 March we hosted our second Connected Places Summit, in the heart of London. In this episode we hear from some of the leading voices who spoke at the Summit...  Sir Andrew Haines from Network Rail on the future of Britain's railways and transport connectivity; Dan Labbad from the Crown Estate on the future of innovation in placemaking, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram on the opportunities of devolution, Victoria Hills from the Royal Town Planning Institute on unlocking growth through planning, Prof. Sarah Sharples from Department for Transport on the emerging technologies that will revolutionising how we get from A to B.   Keynote talks will soon be available on the Summit website, and you can also subscribe to our newsletter now to find out all about our plans for our next Summit in 2025!   Visit the Connected Places Summit website Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) 

Every year the UK spends £380bn on third party suppliers - £60bn of that is spent by local authorities - so it is vital to ensure we are getting the best value from the goods and services we buy. A big part of any public budget is not just the question of what things to buy, but how can we be more creative in how we buy, especially when it comes to innovation. So, in this episode we want to revisit what's happening in the world of public procurement, and what's being done to not only improve the UK's procurement landscape, but also make it more innovation-friendly. We were recently up in Leeds at UKREiiF – the UK's Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum – where we hosted a panel on the future of innovation procurement. We were joined by Emma Frost, Chair of the UK Innovation District Group, Amabel Grant, Chief Executive of Bloom Procurement Services, and the Catapult's own Rikesh Shah, Head of the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre.   Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  SHOW NOTES:  Applications for the SES Awards are open until 31 July 2024. Interested organisations are invited to submit their programs and initiatives for consideration here. You can learn more about the work of the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre (IPEC), a new partnership created to inspire, upskill and empower public authorities in innovation-friendly procurement procedures. You can also learn more about what the UK Government is doing to improve our public procurement regime by visiting the Transforming Public Procurement landing page where you can find webinars, factsheets, summary guides and even a checklist to help prepare for when the new rules come into force. To find out more about the work of Bloom, a professional services facilitator specialising in public procurement, click here to learn more about ‘NEPRO BloomSustain'.   If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you!  To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, visit cp.catapult.org.uk and do sign up to our newsletter!  

The UK is positioning itself to be a global hub for innovation by 2035. But how do we make sure that the innovation economy creates opportunities for people and communities from all corners of the country? Getting this right has implications not just for businesses and research institutions, but also for the life chances of people and communities who have typically been marginalised or overlooked by the innovation economy. So in this episode we explore some of the latest thinking on inclusive innovation and what it means for places - specifically one of the UK's most diverse and vibrant city regions: the West Midlands.   We'll be hearing from Emma Frost, Chair of the UK Innovation District Group, Pam Waddell OBE, Director of the Innovation Alliance for West Midlands, James Muscat-Sharpe, Co-Founder of Birmingham Digital Futures Innovation District, Monder Ram, Director of Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship, Alex Cousins, Business Director for Devolved & Local Government  for Connected Places Catapult and Catherine Hadfield, Principal Place Development Lead for Connected Places Catapult. Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  SHOW NOTES:    Register your interest for next year's Connected Places Summit in 2025 on the Summit website. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on the Connected Places Podcast, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you!  Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.   

Last week was a big one for the Connected Places Catapult. On the 20/21 March we hosted our first ever Connected Places Summit, in the heart of the City of London. It was a big one because even though we run multiple events throughout the year, this was the first time we've run a 2-day Summit which brought together all of our flagship projects under one roof. But it also included a keynote programme with some of the most influential thinkers and leaders from across government, business and academia. Over the two days had 220 speakers, 27 companies exhibiting, 30 supporting partners, and 850 people joined us in person and 1000 people joined us online. We are also very grateful to all of our partners, including of course Innovate UK, our strategic partner for the Summit, Department for Transport, and our headline partner, DNV. Keynote talks and other sessions will soon be available on the Summit website, and you can also register now to find out all about our plans for our next Summit on 2025! Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  Register your interest for next year's Summit in 2025 on the Summit website, where you can also view videos of our keynote speakers. Join the IPEC network (mentioned in the episode) by clicking here. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on the Connected Places Podcast, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you!   Follow the show!  Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.   

Ask any Londoner what the city's greatest challenge is and they'll probably mention the housing crisis or, more specifically, the affordable housing crisis. Over the last 40 years, London's population has boomed from 6.9 million in 1980 to 9.6 million today. London now hosts 6 million jobs, £1.5 trillion of housing assets and a £4 trillion property asset base. All of that growth has put enormous pressure on the affordability of living and working in London. In this episode we meet Graeme Craig, CEO of Places for London – an innovate, TfL-owned property company that is transforming how under-utilised public land can be developed with the private sector. What does this new model of place-making mean for London's people and communities, and how might a different approach to property investment help tackle some of London's persistent challenges? Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  Show notes:   To register for our inaugural Connected Places Summit, being held in London on 20-21 March 2024, click here.   To learn more about Places for London and their ambitions as a company, click here.   To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, visit cp.catapult.org.uk and do sign up to our newsletter!    Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.   

In this episode we meet Professor Dame Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge; member of the House of Lords and an engineer by training. We talked about the UK Government's ambition to become a science and technology superpower by 2030; what it's like to straddle the worlds of academia, industry, and government; the role that data and digital has to play in making our national infrastructure more resilient; and how alloys in aeroplane engines react under extreme pressure! Julia began her academic career by studying metals, and the composite structures used in wind turbines. Her specialty was designing metal alloys that are resistant to cracks under pressure.  Over the years she went on to teaching positions at the Universities of Nottingham and Cambridge, as well as senior positions at Rolls Royce, the Institute of Physics, Imperial College, and she also served as Vice-Chancellor of Aston University. In 2007 Julia was appointed by Gordon Brown to lead the King Review, which looked at a route to decarbonising a major segment of the transport sector within 25 years, making an important contribution to the UK's plans to try and achieve Net Zero. Julia then became a crossbench member of the House of Lords in 2015 and is now the chair of its Science and Technology Committee, which is holding the government to account on its promise to make the UK a science superpower by 2030.    Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  To register for our inaugural Connected Places Summit, being held in London on 20-21 March 2024, click here.   To learn more about the Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDO), the digital twin for climate change adaptation that is mentioned in the episode, click here. Also, learn more about the Digital Twin Hub which is hosted at the Catapult by clicking here.   To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, visit cp.catapult.org.uk and do sign up to our newsletter!    

It's been another eventful year on the Connected Places Podcast and we've got a lot to look back on as 2023 draws to a close! In this episode we revisit some of the stories we've featured on the show this year, and the fascinating guests we've been able to have on. We hear from three companies making extraordinary strides on the use of connected digital twins to tackle real world problems; RoyalHaskoningDHV, National Grid ESO and IOTICS. We return to Bristol Temple Meads station where the UK's first Station Innovation Zone was launched earlier this year – how are tech entrepreneurs helping to make a Grade 1 listed station fit for purpose for 21st Century passengers?   We also meet Sir John Armitt, Chair of the UK's National Infrastructure Commission, whose assessment of the UK's national infrastructure hit the headlines in the autumn – how can innovation help to maximise infrastructure assets, and where are the opportunities for UK Plc? Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  SHOW NOTES:  You can listen to the following episodes by clicking on the below links:  Digital Twin series   The power of digital twins with RoyalHaskoningDHV  The power of digital twins with National Grid ESO  The power of digital twins with IOTICS  Station Innovation Zone   Bristol Temple Meads – UK's first Station Innovation Zone  Bristol's Station Innovation Zone Part II – Meet the companies  National Infrastructure   Reimagining national infrastructure – with Sir John Armitt  To register for our inaugural Connected Places Summit, being held in London on 20-21 March 2024, click here.  To learn more about the Digital Twin Hub, click here and to register for the Connected Digital Twins Summit being held on 20 June 2024 click here.      

Innovating isn't easy. It's risky, it's fraught with failure, and there's no guarantees of success. In this episode we meet two companies that have had to navigate the innovation rollercoaster to get to where they are. Both companies have been supported by the Connected Places Catapult at various points in their journey. They have each developed two ground-breaking products and collected some great stories to tell along the way. Our in-house journalist, Mike Walter, spoke to Eugene Bari, the CEO and Managing Director of Ecomar Propulsion and Dr Victoria Kroll, CEO & co-founder of Esitu Solutions. Ecomar Propulsion builds zero emission propulsion systems for the maritime industry, whilst Esitu Solutions is on a mission to improve road safety and reduce the number of driving accidents using virtual reality technology. Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  Show notes:   To read the full article on Ecomar Propulsion or Esitu Solutions, click on the link. To read more articles in our ‘Meet the Innovator' series, click here.    To register for our inaugural Connected Places Summit, being held in London on 20-21 March 2024, click here.   To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, visit cp.catapult.org.uk and do sign up to our newsletter!    Follow the show!  Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.   

The future of Britain's national infrastructure is getting a lot of attention. In large part because it's facing some big challenges. Not least our changing climate and the commitment to decarbonise our economy. But also the question of who pays for it, who benefits from it, and who gets to contribute to the decision-making process about its future. There are also the opportunities that new technologies bring to improve the way we design, build and operate our infrastructure – from transport and energy, flooding and waste management, digital and data, to protecting our biodiversity and the wider natural environment. In this episode we're delighted to have on the show someone who spends a lot of time thinking about all of this; Sir John Armitt, the Chair of the UK's National Infrastructure Commission (NIC).   The Commission's job is to provide the UK Government with impartial, expert advice on major long term infrastructure challenges. Later this month the NIC will publish its second National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA). The last one was published 5 years ago in 2018. This year's NIA will focus on three strategic priorities for the UK's national infrastructure:   Reaching net zero by 2050   Reducing environmental impacts and adapting to a changing climate   Supporting levelling up and creating sustainable economic growth across all regions of the UK.  Sir John and his team recently visited the Catapult and he kindly agreed to an interview with our Chair, Prof. Greg Clark CBE.   They explored a number of key questions:   How can innovation and technology and optimise existing infrastructure?   Where are the business opportunities in responding to climate resilience, net zero and decarbonisation?  Why is procurement, or ‘smarter spending', so important for making investment go further?  What is the role of enlightened leadership at the local level – how important are sub-national bodies at the city and regional level in driving the change we need?  What does the future hold for the UK's national infrastructure?   Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  Show notes:   To learn more about the NIC and the upcoming Nation Infrastructure Assessment to be published on 18th October 2023, click here.   To register for our inaugural Connected Places Summit, being held in London on 20-21 March 2024, click here.   To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, visit cp.catapult.org.uk and do sign up to our newsletter!    Follow the show!  Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.   

There are 14 million people in the UK with some form of disability.  For too many, using public transport can be a nightmare - whether it's getting on and off a bus, or navigating the complex, stressful and often-confusing environment of a large transport interchange.    Sadly, when it comes to accessibility, there's some way to go before we can genuinely say that our public transport system really is open and accessible for all. In this episode we take a look at what airports and airline operators are doing to make flying more accessible. How are new technologies making a difference? What do innovators need to be thinking about when developing solutions for people with disabilities? And what is the Catapult doing to support better collaboration and support for companies working in this space? We meet Ann Frye, the UK Government's Disability and Access Ambassador for Aviation, Fredi Nonyelu, CEO and Founder of Briteyellow, Gavin Neate, CEO and Founder of WelcoMe, Yael Shomron, Marketing Manager at Step Hear, and Andrew Chadwick, the Catapult's Interim Ecosystem Director for Airports & Aviation. Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  Show notes:   To learn more about this issue and what the Catapult is doing, check out this article by Vasant Chari, the Catapult's Director of Human Connected Design. To register for our inaugural Connected Places Summit, being held in London on 20-21 March 2024, click here.   To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, visit cp.catapult.org.uk and do sign up to our newsletter!    Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.   

We conclude our three-part podcast series on digital twins with a conversation with Ali Nicholl, Head of Engagement at IOTICS, a data company helping innovators to better collaborate on digital transformation. Ali and his colleagues are passionate about this. They're impatient too! IOTICS are on a mission to empower those dedicated to making a meaningful impact on our world. They're providing the tools to navigate the intricate landscape of data and information, enabling companies to unlock valuable insights and share data and information better.  So in this episode we invited Ali into our studio to tell us about some of the organisations that IOTICS are working to create a greener and more sustainable future. Ali explains some of the complexities of data sharing between companies, and the importance of making sure digital twin technologies have the real-world impact when it comes to some of society's greatest challenges. The voices in this episode are also featuring on The IOTICS Podcast, where Ali has interviewed a number of fascinating guests to showcase the growing significance of digital twins in shaping our connected future. Featured in this episode are Elly Howe, Environmental and Sustainability Coordinator at Portsmouth International Port;  Louise Donaghey, Services Programmes Director at Rolls Royce; Simon Evans, Global Digital Twin Leader at Arup; Ian Gordon, Head of Data at Houses of Parliament Restoration & Renewal; and Rich Walker, a Data and Analytics Leader in the Government and Public sector.   Connected Digital Twins Summit – 22 June, 2023  The huge opportunity that digital twins offer place-based infrastructure is what guides the work of the Digital Twin Hub (which came out of the UK's National Digital Twin Programme) housed at the Connected Places Catapult. It is a network that is helping to bring people together to learn from each other and collaborate on this hugely ambitious social, environment, and technical journey.    Their work is also guided by the Gemini Principles which are shaping the development of an ecosystem of connected digital twins. And they also host the weekly Gemini Call which has become a staple date in the diary for practitioners across the UK.    On 22 June 2023 the Digital Twin Hub and the Connected Places Catapult hosted the inaugural Connected Digital Twins Summit. IOTICS is an active supporter of the Hub and was a sponsor of the Summit.  

In this episode we meet National Grid ESO, the electricity system operator for Great Britain, and one of the sponsors of the Digital Twin Hub's inaugural Connected Digital Twins Summit held this summer. The UK Government has a target for National Grid ESO to be running a zero-carbon electricity system by 2035. This ambition is crucial in helping the UK meet its wider zero carbon targets. For National Grid ESO, a major milestone in that journey is the development of a Virtual Energy System. This is a real-time, digital replica of Great Britain's entire energy landscape which mirrors the physical system - a network of interconnected digital twins that can be shared by industry to improve ESO's ability to simulate and forecast electricity supply and demand. So how is digital twin technology helping to bring this bold vision to life? How is it being used to better understand and influence consumer behaviour, especially during a cost-of-living crisis? And is the tech always the biggest hurdle when it comes to digital transformation? Featured in this episode are Carolina Tortora, National Grid ESO's Head of Innovation Strategy & Digitalisation in conversation with Dr. Alison Vincent, Chair of the Digital Twin Hub, as well as Lucy Yu, CEO of Centre for Net Zero, and Symon Brown, Smart Grid Director at CGI. Connected Digital Twins Summit – 22 June, 2023 The huge opportunity that digital twins offer place-based infrastructure is what guides the work of the Digital Twin Hub (which came out of the UK's National Digital Twin Programme) housed at the Connected Places Catapult. It is a network that is helping to bring people together to learn from each other and collaborate on this hugely ambitious social, environment, and technical journey. Their work is also guided by the Gemini Principles which are shaping the development of an ecosystem of connected digital twins. And they also host the weekly Gemini Call which has become a staple date in the diary for practitioners across the UK. On 22 June 2023 the Digital Twin Hub and the Connected Places Catapult hosted the inaugural Connected Digital Twins Summit. National Grid ESO is an active supporter of the Hub and was a sponsor of the Summit. Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  Show notes:   Centre for Net Zero is an impact-driven research unit founded by the global tech disruptor, Octopus Energy. They deliver pioneering research to make the future energy system a reality.   Their access to tens of billions of customer data points gives them an unparalleled insight into the behaviours of people and businesses around the world. They combine analysis of this dataset with field trials and experimentation, to build models and centre intelligent demand into the design of the changing energy system.   Centre for New Zero works directly with governments, policy-makers, grid operators and academics, translating their research and analysis into real-world action. Find out more at centrefornetzero.org  To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, visit cp.catapult.org.uk and do sign up to our newsletter!  Follow the show!  Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.     

In this episode we meet Lord Adonis who we were delighted to welcome to our offices last week alongside senior representatives from across the rail sector. Andrew Adonis is a member of the House of Lords and founding Chair of the UK's National Infrastructure Commission. He was a Government Minister in Tony Blair's government, and went on to become Secretary of State for Transport under Gordon Brown. So his reflections on where we've come in Britain when it comes to rail travel, and what we need to be thinking about in the future draw on a wide range of personal experience. Lord Adonis was closely involved with setting up HS2 when it was just a small start-up. He also played a leading role in bringing Crossrail to London – one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects the capital has ever delivered. Music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: If you would like to hear more about the themes that Lord Adonis discusses listen to our feature episode “Reimagining our railways and stations” where we explore how innovation and new technologies are shaping the future of the rail industry as it rises to the huge challenges the 21st Century is throwing at it. You can also listen to our interview with the broadcaster and former MP, Michael Portillo about Britain's railway history and what the future might look like – click here. To learn more about the UK's first ‘Station Innovation Zone' and how the Catapult is supporting Bristol Temple Meads station to trial new technologies, click here. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

A profound shift is happening in the world of infrastructure. Advances in software, sensing and computational technology are seeing connected digital twins being adopted across whole infrastructure systems and even entire cities.  In this episode we meet the global engineering consultancy Royal HaskoningDHV (RHDHV), event podcast partner for the Digital Twin Hub's inaugural Connected Digital Twins Summit, 22 June 2023 (see below for event details). RHDHV are helping their clients rise to the challenges of resiliency, sustainability, and digital transformation. One of the key technologies that is enabling this change is the place-based digital twin. We explore how RHDHV's digital twin services are helping Bacton Beach in Norfolk tackle coastal erosion through a hugely ambitious sandscaping project. We meet the rail startup, East West Rail that is applying digital twin technology to a new railway connecting Oxford and Cambridge. And we visit the Dutch province of Limburg where RHDHV's AquaSuite software is using digital twin technology to improve the processing of 150m3 wastewater across a vast infrastructure network. Featured in this episode are Lisette Heuer, Director of Business Transformation at RHDHV; Ben Lomax Thorpe, Leading Professional – Digital Twin at RHDHV; Rob Goodliffe, Coastal Transition Manager, North Norfolk District Council; Dino Nola, Head of Digital Engineering at East West Rail; and Melchior Schenk, Sales Leader – AquaSuite, RHDHV. Connected Digital Twins Summit – 22 June, 2023 The huge opportunity that digital twins offer place-based infrastructure is what guides the work of the Digital Twin Hub (which came out of the UK's National Digital Twin Programme) housed at the Connected Places Catapult. It is a network that is helping to bring people together to learn from each other and collaborate on this hugely ambitious social, environment, and technical journey. On 22 June 2023 the Digital Twin Hub and the Connected Places Catapult hosted the inaugural Connected Digital Twins Summit. Royal HaskoningDHV is an active supporter of the Hub and was event podcast partner for the Summit. Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  SHOW NOTES For a list of resources about the work of Royal HaskoningDHV and their digital twin services, see below links. RHDHV websites Royal HaskoningDHV (corporate overview), click here. Twinn, by Royal HaskoningDHV, click here. RHDHV videos The Story of a Digital Twin, click here.   Starting your Digital Twin Journey, click here.     Twinn Witness Predictive Simulation Software for Better Decision Making, click here.  Connect your data models to live data | Machine Learning, click here.  RHDHV case studies featured in podcast Sandscaping on Bacton Beach with North Norfolk Council, click here.   Improving wastewater treatment with WBL, click here.   Latest RHDHV White Paper Simplifying Complexity: 3 ways industrial companies can drive value from digital twins, click here.  ***** To learn more about the Digital Twin Hub and how you can become a member, click here. 

Money is tight right now and tough times call for a renewed focus on how public money is spent. Every year the UK spends £300bn on third party suppliers so it is vital to ensure we are getting the best value from the goods and services we buy. A big part of any public budget is not just the question of what things to buy, but the process of agreeing the terms and procedures for acquiring them.  The technical term is public procurement. So, in this episode we're going to have a brief look at what's happening in the world of public procurement, or smarter spending, and what's being done to not only improve the UK's procurement regime, but also make it more innovation-friendly. We hear from Lucy Sydney, Head of Head of Strategic Relations, Procurement Reform at the Cabinet Office who's working on the UK's Government's new Transforming Public Procurement Bill. We meet Hao Zheng, Co-Founder and CEO of RoboK, a 3C sensing software company at the coalface of innovating in the transport sector. And we also hear from the Catapult's Ecosystem Director for Place Leadership, Sam Markey.   Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: Our Smarter Spending Hub has a range of case studies, playbooks for professionals, and an e-learning module that we've produced in collaboration with Open and Agile Smart Cities. You can also learn about the work of the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre (IPEC), a new partnership created to inspire, upskill and empower public authorities in innovation-friendly procurement procedures. You can also learn more about what the UK Government is doing to improve our publice procurement regime by visiting the Transforming Public Procurement landing page where you can find webinars, factsheets, summary guides and even a checklist to help prepare for when the new rules come into force. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, visit cp.catapult.org.uk and do sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.   

Bristol Temple Meads recently became the UK's first ‘Station Innovation Zone'. Working in partnership with Network Rail and Innovate UK we're helping the station to test new technologies designed to improve the passenger experience the station.  In this episode we meet three innovators from the three companies who will be live trialling their solutions in the station over the coming months; Rosie Richardson from Createc, Rob Franklin from Jnction and Neal Byers from Workfromhub. What are the exciting new products that they'll be developing at Temple Meads, how could they make a difference for the travelling public, and what does success look like at the end of the trail phase?  We also hear from one of the Catapult's SME Accelerator Programme Managers, Poppy Driver, and our Ecosystem Director for Rail & Stations, Alan Peters.   Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  Show notes:   To read our full announcement about Bristol Temple Meads becoming the UK's first Station Innovation Zone, click here.   The trio of firms – Createc, Jnction and WorkfromHub – have been chosen as part of the Station Innovation Zone programme that aims to test new ways of improving the rail passenger experience.  Createc offers a LIDAR based crowd monitoring system called Situate which uses artificial intelligence to alert operators to incidents in real time and warn of concerning activity. A single sensor can cover large distances and be alert to people running or standing too close to the platform edge.  Jnction has developed a passenger assistance app known as Aubin designed to help neurodiverse passengers and others who may find travel difficult. It provides journey information, accessible station detail and direct communication with carers and customer experience staff.  WorkfromHub looks to install a remote workspace pod at the station which is bookable via a dedicated app. The remote workspace offers a quiet and private space to enable people to join a virtual meeting or get some deep work done during their time at the Station. To learn more about all nine companies that showcased their solutions to Network Rail at Bristol Temple Meads, click here (this article includes links to the websites of all nine companies). You can also catch up on some of our other rail-themed episodes by clicking on the below links:  Reimagining our railways and stations Great Rail Journeys of the future with Michael Portillo  If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you!   To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, visit cp.catapult.org.uk and do sign up to our newsletter!    Follow the show!  Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

Bristol Temple Meads recently became the UK's first ‘Station Innovation Zone'. Working in partnership with Network Rail and Innovate UK we're helping the station to test new technologies designed to improve the passenger experience the station. This episode is a brief taster of what the Catapult is doing at Bristol Temple Meads to create a safer and more seamless, social and sustainable station. We meet Susan Evans, Head of Passenger Strategy at Network Rail, Brian Wortman, Network Rail's Programme Sponsor for the Station Innovation Zone, and Paul Wilson, the Catapult's Chief Business Officer. In the second episode on the Station Innovation Zone we'll introduce the inovative UK companies who are testing new technologies in the station, and we'll hear what they're hoping to achieve. Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  Show notes:   To read our full announcement about Bristol Temple Meads becoming the UK's first Station Innovation Zone, click here.   To learn more about the innovators honing passenger tech in Bristol Temple Meads Station, click here.    You can listen to the following episodes by clicking on the below links:  Reimagining our railways and stations  Great Rail Journeys of the future with Michael Portillo  If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you!   To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, visit cp.catapult.org.uk and do sign up to our newsletter!   Follow the show!  Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.   

Earlier this month the Catapult announced an exciting new venture which will see Glasgow Airport become the UK's first ‘Connected Airport Living Lab'. With funding from Innovate UK the aim is to test new technologies designed to improve the passenger experience, boost productivity, and help the airport hit its sustainability targets. This episode is a brief taster of what the Catapult is going to be doing with Glasgow Airport over the next 5 years. How does this all fit with how aeronautical and digital technologies are changing the way we think about aviation. More fundamentally, how are we starting to think differently about how places, like airports, feed into the wider economy of a city region? Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  SHOW NOTES:   To read our full announcement about Glasgow Airport becoming the UK's first Connected Airport Living Lab, click here.   You can listen to the following episodes by clicking on the below links:  Reimagining our railways and stations  Great Rail Journeys of the future with Michael Portillo  Reimagining the UK's ports & maritime economy  Our maritime past and future with David Shukman  If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you!   To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please visit our website at www.cp.catapult.org.uk and sign up to our newsletter!   Follow the show!  Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. 

It's been another eventful year on the Connected Places Podcast and we've got a lot to look back on as 2022 draws to a close! In this episode we revisit some of the stories we've featured on the show this year, and the fascinating guests we've been able to have on. We hear from two well-known TV personalities here in Britain – the BBC's former Science Editor, David Shukman and one of Britain's most well-known rail enthusiasts of Great Railway Journeys fame, Michael Portillo. We return to the world's 4th largest city - Sao Paulo, Brazil - where a UK and a Brazilian company have teamed up to tackle the effects of climate change in the city's water supply. And there's the inspiring story of the innovators who are using gaming technology and artificial intelligence to make public transport more accessible for people with disabilities. Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  Show notes:   You can listen to the following episodes by clicking on the below links:  How are tech innovators making it easier for people with disabilities to use public transport?  How are companies in Cambridge and Sao Paulo tacking climate change in Brazil?   Reimagining the UK's ports & maritime economy  Our maritime past and future with David Shukman  Reimaging our railways and stations  Great Rail Journeys of the future with Michael Portillo  Also, to find out more about the UK Government's Transport Research & Innovation Grants (TRIG) 2022, click here. Applications close on 15th January 2023 so don't be late! If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter!   Follow the show!  Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.

The fight against climate change will be won or lost in cities. We've known this for some time. The question is, What do cities need to do financially to rise to that challenge?   How can they strengthen their business cases for net zero investment? And if their plans are brought together and aligned in a new and creative ways, could they generate greater scale, volume and predictability in ways that might make them more attractive to investors?  To answer this, the Connected Places Catapult has teamed up with the UK's Core Cities and London Councils to create the UK Cities Commission for Climate Investment, or 3Ci. The aim is to the leverage the combined scale and clout of the UK's cities to mobilise investment into low and net-zero carbon projects across all of the UK's largest cities, not just individual ones. 3Ci was launched in the lead up to COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, so in this episode we hear about the momentum that's been growing behind 3Ci over the last year. We hear how the UK's cities have started having a closer, more collaborative conversation with banks, pension funds and private investors.   We hear from:   Cllr Susan Aitkin, Leader of Glasgow City Council  Mayor Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol  Cllr Georgia Gould, Leader of Camden Council and Chair of London Councils  Prof Greg Clark CBE, Chair of 3Ci  Chris Sood-Nicholls, Managing Director and Head of Regional Development, Lloyds Banking Group   Pete Gladwell, Group Social Impact & Invesment Director, Legal and General  Lesley McEwan, Assistant Director (Government & Infrastructure), Deloitte  Ingrid Holmes, Executive Director, Green Finance Institute  Josiah Lockhart, CEO of Changeworks  Steve Turner, Director of 3Ci  The 3Ci partnership is now widening to include Metro Mayors, Combined Authorities, Scottish and Key Cities, Counties and Districts and a growing number of private investors, financiers, advisors, developers and built environment technology professionals. Innovate UK has also been providing core funding for 3Ci and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is providing programme support.   Theme music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)

Michael Portillo's Great Railway Journeys have captured the imaginations of millions of TV viewers as he explores the vast world of rail travel, its fascinating history, and what it can reveal about a country. In this episode Michael shares his thoughts on how far we've come in Britain when it comes to our railways, and what we need to be thinking about in the future. As well as a broadcaster and film maker, Michael is also a former Member of Parliament. Throughout the 80's and 90's he held a number of senior Ministerial roles in the Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Minister of State for Transport. Looking back on his time in government, as well as his travels and film making adventures, he reflects on how the rail industry has changed over time, the political obstacles that have held Britain back, and what our priorities should be now. This episode is the full interview with Michael, excerpts of which were included in our previous feature on “Reimagining our railways and stations”. In that episode we explored how innovation and new technologies are shaping the future of the rail industry as it rises to the huge challenges the 21st Century is throwing at it. Like the disruption of a global pandemic, the need to decarbonise our economy, the march of digital technology, and the importance of putting people and the passenger experience at the heart of all of that. Music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)  Show notes: To learn more about the UK's first ‘Station Innovation Zone' and how the Catapult is supporting Bristol Temple Meads station to trial new technologies, click here. And if you're interested in applying for our Station Innovation Zone Competition – we're looking for up to 10 innovators with technology, products or services which can improve passenger experience when travelling through stations – then click here to learn more. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.   

Britain has the oldest rail infrastructure in the world. Our railways have profoundly shaped our history, as well as much of our cultural and civic identity. But like much of our economy, the UK's rail network has had a difficult few years; reduced passenger revenue in the wake of the COVID pandemic; changing commuting patterns; waves of industrial action; and throughout it all the need to modernise some very old infrastructure. And then of course, there are the daunting challenges that the 21st Century are throwing at it. The need to decarbonise our economy, the march of digital technology on the modernisation journey, and the importance of putting people and the passenger experience at the heart of all of that. Historically the rail industry has a long track record of changing and adapting to society's needs. At its heart, rail is an industry that was forged in innovation and creativity. Yet despite its pioneering history, the modern rail industry can still be a difficult space to innovate in. In this episode we'll hear how innovation is helping the sector to rediscover its creativity in becoming a more cost-effective, accessible, sustainable and enjoyable form of travel. We begin our journey with one of Britain's most well-known champions for railways, former MP and Government Minister, Michale Portillo. Along the way we also meet some of the innovators who are helping to write a new story for rail; like Nicolas LeGlatin, from Open Space, a company specialising in digital twins in stations; Steve Erdal from WordNerds, a specialist in language analytics and customer experience; Matteo Maccario whose company Pluvo is revolutionising air quality in stations.  We also hear from Mike Bradley, an expert in inclusive design at the University of Cambridge, Kirstin Durie, Property Development Manager at Network Rail, Daisy Chapman-Chamberlain from the Knowledge Transfer Network, and Alan Peters, our very own Ecosystem Director for Rail & Stations  Music on this episode is by Phil Ward Music (www.philward.com) Show Notes To learn more about the UK's first Station Innovation Zone and how the Catapult is supporting Bristol Temple Meads station to trial new technologies, click here.  And if you're interested in applying for our Station Innovation Zone Competition - we're looking for up to 10 companies with technology, products or services that can improve passenger experience when travelling through stations - then click here to learn more. 

The Wright brothers first took to the air in 1903. That revolution started with the propellor engine. Only a few decades later the jet age began, and since then aviation has become an absolutely vital part of the global economy, as well as the lives of millions of people. But what's really interesting is that our experience of flight - the kind of aircraft we fly in, the routes they take through our airspace, where we need to go in order to get on a plane, and how the airborne goods that we buy to get to us – that hasn't changed very much over the decades. Yet it's starting to change now. The next chapter in the story of flight will look very different to the story that unfolded over the last century. And this has huge implications for how we think about places such as airports, new modes of flight like electric vehicle take-off and landing or air taxis, electric and hydrogen powered planes, and what sustainable flight looks like as we transition to net zero. So in this episode, we turn our attention to the future aviation; to the airports, airlines and aeronautical technologies that have been taking us to the skies, and connected us to the wider world, and to each other, for over a century. What is the next century going to look like? We also meet some of the innovators and industry leaders who are writing that new aviation story, like Captain David Morgan, Interim Chief Operating Officer at easyJet, Prof. Sarah Sharples, Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for Transport, Arnab Chatterjee, VP - Infrastructure at Zero Avia, Michael Cervenka, President of Vertical Aerospace, Simon Earles, Director of Sustainability & Corporate Affairs at Bristol Airport, and Gary Cutts, Challenge Director at the Future Flight Challenge, and Katy Milne, former Head of Industrial Strategy at Fly Zero. And, of course, we hear from the Catapult's Chief Operating Officer, Rachel Gardner-Poole, as well as our Technology Innovation Leads for Aviation, Andrew Chadwick. Music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) *****  Show notes: If you would like to apply to be part of our Future of Air Mobility Accelerator Programme, you have until 11 September to do so. For more information, click here. To find out more about our Zero Emissions Flight Infrastructure Blueprint, click here, as well as our ZEFI White Paper, click here. To learn more about 11 SMEs that we've been supporting as part of the Future Flight Challenge, click here. To learn more about the ‘third revolution of flight' check out a fascinating feature article in our Connected Place Magazine, in which aviation journalist Ben Griffiths looks into aviation's crystal ball – click here. You can also learn more about how drones are being deployed in the housing industry, ports and harbours, search and rescue operations, monitoring coastal erosion, as well as the agriculture industry. You can also access the repository of reports produced by the Fly Zero project, click here. To download our report on Hubs of Innovation, click here, and you can also read our playbook for place leaders by clicking here. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.

In this episode, we meet David Shukman, former BBC Science Editor. For over 30 years David has been reporting from all over the globe on the profound changes that are happening in our environment, our seas, and the wider natural world. Having started his career with the BBC in 1983, he was appointed the BBC's first science editor in 2012, a position he held until stepping down at the end of COP26 in Glasgow. David has some fascinating stories to share from his time as a science reporter, and he's also thought a lot about the future of the world's oceans and the profound changes and innovations we're witnessing here in Britain. This episode is the full interview with David, who briefly appeared on our recent episode on the future of the UK's ports (episode 45). In that episode we explored the innovation that's happening the UK's maritime economy, the role of ports as a powerful engine of regional growth and a potential gateway to new global markets and routes to foreign direct investment. We also heard from some of the innovators and port operators who are writing a new maritime story in Britain, like Bob Sanguinetti, CEO of Aberdeen Harbour and Nolan Gray, Freeport Director at Tees Valley Combined Authority. We heard from Anna Ziou, Policy Director at the UK Chamber of Shipping, as well as Mark Wharton and Sophie Peachy from IOTICS, a UK company specialising in data and digital twin technology. Music on this episode is by Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.

The United Kingdom is a maritime nation. Our ports have long been hubs connecting Britain to the rest of the world. Yet if we think of ports as under-utilised hubs of innovation, things start to get exciting! Whether it's 5G, autonomous systems, or net zero infrastructure, our ports can foster diverse innovation ecosystems. They can also be powerful engines of regional growth, as well as gateways to new global markets and routes to foreign direct investment. With the right vision and imagination, we have the tools and capabilities to write a new and exciting chapter in Britain's maritime story. This episode features a special guest, David Shukman, the BBC's former Science Editor, who's reported from around the world on climate change and the environment for 30 years. We also meet some of the innovators and port operators who are writing that new maritime story, like Bob Sanguinetti, CEO of Aberdeen Harbour and Nolan Gray, Freeport Director at Tees Valley Combined Authority. We hear from Anna Ziou, Policy Director at the UK Chamber of Shipping, as well as Mark Wharton and Sophie Peachy from IOTICS, a UK company specialising in data and digital twin technology. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: To find out more about our Clean Maritime Demonstrator project in Aberdeen, click here. To learn more about our work on the future of the UK's Freeports, click here. To learn about how our ports are increasing being seen as hubs of clean energy and innovation, click here. To download our report on Hubs of Innovation, click here, and you can also read our playbook for place leaders by clicking here. And to register for the Maritime Innovation Week, which the Catapult is participating in as part of London Innovation Week from 13th-17th June, click here. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.

The UK has a powerful story to tell when it comes to regenerating our towns and cities in the wake of industrial decline. We haven't always got it right, and yet we've learned a lot along the way. So as we face the daunting task of decarbonising our entire built environment, what lessons can we glean from the real estate and property sectors? What does the road ahead look like in this current moment of profound disruption? And where might the opportunities lie for investment in new technologies and the connected places of tomorrow? Our guest on this episode is Liz Peace CBE, who has 35 years' experience in government and the property sector. Liz spent her early career in the Ministry of Defence before moving into the property sector and becoming Chief Executive of the British Property Federation (BPF). Liz retired from the BPF at the end of 2014. Among many other roles, she Chairs the Architectural Heritage Fund and Real Estate Balance - the property industry's leading diversity organisation - as well as the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, and the Sponsor Board for the Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Programme. She also serves as a non-executive Board Member at the Connected Places Catapult.  Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: To register for our Integrated Place Planning for Net Zero event on 11 May, click here. To be part of our inaugural Connected Skies event at the British Science Museum in London, on 17/18th May, click here. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

Brazil is a vast country with 16% of the world's fresh water and home to most of the Amazon Rainforest – often referred to as the lungs of the planet. But the frontline of the climate crisis in Brazil is not only protecting its forests, important of course as they are. The fight is also being fought in Brazil's cities. Like Sao Paulo - the 4th largest city in the world. In fact, Sao Paulo isn't just a city. It's a state that's home to around 20% of the Brazilian population.  In this episode, we visit Brazil to hear about the innovation economy from the President of Invest Sao Paulo, Gustavo Junquiera. And we hear how a company in Sao Paulo, and a company in Cambridge, here in the UK, are tackling climate change together. Dr. Thomas Martin, Founder of MeteoIA and Dr. Jessica Ocampos-Colina, Founder of CamNexus are using artificial intelligence and sensing technology to anticipate and plan for climate-related challenges in Sao Paulo's water supply and distribution network. Their collaboration has been made possible by the Catapult's Latin America Net Zero Challenges project, which is being delivered in partnership with Invest Sao Paulo and IdeiaGov, and with the support of the UK Government's Science & Innovation Network. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

Are you one of the 14 million people in the UK with some form of disability? Or do you know someone who lives with a disability? Then you'll probably know how hard it can be to use public transport - whether it's getting on and off a bus, or navigating the complex, stressful and often-confusing environment of a train station.   We're working with innovators to find solutions that will make it easier for people to live active lives. In this episode of the Connected Places Podcast we speak to some of those innovators about how artificial intelligence, gaming and sensing technology is revolutionising how we get from A to B.   It's all part of the UK Government's Inclusive Transport Strategy and the Department for Transport (DfT) is working with technology companies to help find the products and services that could make a real difference in people's lives by removing barriers to travel for people with additional needs.   One of the programmes it's using is called a Transport Research and Innovation Grant (TRIG). It's a way of funding proof of concept research projects that are all about not just improving the UK's transport system, but helping to grow businesses and the wider economy.   And the Catapult's role in this?   As part of our strategic partnership with DfT we're providing wrap around support to government and business, to make sure that the good ideas that come out of these grants don't fail for the wrong reasons.   In this episode we meet some of the companies who participated in the 2021 Accessibility TRIG (formally known as A-TRIG) and what they got out of the programme. We speak to Chris Thompson, CEO of You.Smart.Thing, Fredi Nonyelu, CEO of Brite Yellow, Mark Robinson, Founder of Chrome Angel, as well as Christine Hemphill, Managing Director of the inclusive research consultancy, Open Inclusion, and the Catapult's SME Development Programme Lead, Rebecca Goulding.   Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com)   Show notes:   If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you!   To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter!   Follow the show!   Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

It's been another eventful year at the Connected Places Catapult and we've got a lot to look back on as the year draws to a close! We've had some great conversations with thought leaders across government, business, cities and industry - from London to Mexico City to New York. We've brought you news from our ground-breaking events on active travel, the innovation economy and the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission. And of course, when it comes to harnessing the business opportunities that come from technology and innovations that are shaping the connected, sustainable and low carbon places of tomorrow, we were excited to be at the summit of summits – the UN's COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow. In this episode we take a look back at the people and stories we covered in 2021, and we cast an eye to what 2022 has in store for the Connected Places Podcast. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

Back in the summer of this year, the UK Government launched its Innovation Strategy which set out how the UK plans to become a global hub for innovation over the coming years. It recognised the critical role that place-based innovation is going to play on that journey. One of the many things that place leaders need to take into account is not just how successful that economy is in monetary terms, but also how inclusive it is in societal terms. How can the innovation economy benefit everyone is a question we're interested in at the Catapult and earlier this year we announced a new Research Commission on Inclusive Innovation which is going to be getting under the bonnet of some of these issues, and identifying some of the best practice that's already emerging from across the UK. Our guest on this episode is Claudette Forbes who's held a number of senior roles across local and regional government, including the London Development Agency where she led a £125m London-wide regeneration programme. She's also led numerous city development, economic development, and holistic local area regeneration programmes and she's a strategic adviser to local authorities, government, non-profits across the UK.  Claudette grew up in an inner-city area which was regenerated following race riots in the early 1980s, and she's passionate about combating poverty and deprivation in urban areas.  She's a faculty member of the Whitehall & Industry Group and she currently holds a number of Non-Executive Director positions including the Future of London, and the Connected Places Catapult.  Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! If you're interested in working on the Connected Places Podcast you can find out more about our Media Production Assistant role and how to apply here. Applications close 14th December 2021. To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

How we design, build and invest in infrastructure is at the heart of how we'll decarbonise our economies, as well as harness the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution. The coming decade is set to be the most consequential in living memory for infrastructure investment, especially for new, low carbon technologies and the industries of the future as we repivot our economies towards new zero. In this episode we look at what this means for those larger connectivity projects like ports, airports and critical rail infrastructure? What's the role of government and industry. Where do public and private sector responsibilities lie? And how is the Connected Places Catapult playing a role in enabling new innovation and business growth? Prof. Greg Clark CBE, Chair of the Connected Places Catapult speaks to Dr. Nelson Ogunshakin, CEO of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Ogunshakin has more than 30 years' experience in planning, finance, delivery and managing major property and infrastructure investment projects around the world. He's also a board member of Transport for London, and he was previously a board member of Crossrail Limited as well as chair of the Investment Committee on the new £18 billion East-West Rail development in London. Among other leadership roles, Nelson is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Non-Executive Board member of the Connected Places Catapult. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To read and download the Catapult's Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. To register for our upcoming event, ‘Getting to Net Zero locally – a practical tool for local authorities' in partnership with OnePlanet, please click here. To register for our ‘Innovate at HS2: Net Zero & Safety Demo Day' which is showcasing disruptive, scalable technologies in the designing and building of railways, click here. To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

Why has the Catapult been at the UN's COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow? Because so much of what was discussed, planned and negotiated in Glasgow had everything to do with cities, how we think about place, and how we imagine, design, build and finance places that are not just liveable, but also low carbon and sustainable. One of the big questions we've been tackling is How can cities strengthen their business cases for net zero investment? And if their plans are brought together and aligned in a new and creative ways, could they generate greater scale, volume and predictability in ways that might make them more attractive to investors? To answer this, the Connected Places Catapult has teamed up with the UK's Core Cities and London Councils to create the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission. The aim is to the leverage the combined scale and clout of the UK's cities to mobilise investment into low and net-zero carbon projects across all of the UK's largest cities, not just individual ones. In the lead up to COP26 we published our City Investment Analysis Report and Glasgow has been an invaluable opportunity engage with businesses and the investment community. In part I of ‘Live from COP26' we heard from a number of voices from across the financial industry, including two of the UK's leading banks and two new banks in Britain's financial infrastructure. In part II we hear from Mayors and civic leaders from across the UK and what the challenge and the opportunity of net zero infrastructure means for places. We also take some time to reflect on some of the other conversations that the Catapult has been having at COP26 with technology companies, asset owners and other place leaders. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: You can read the Joint Declaration of the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission on our website, as well as our City Investment Analysis Report. You can also listen to the first podcast we did to introduce the Commission, as well as a follow episode on decarbonising transport in cities. To read and download the Catapult's Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

So why has the Connected Places Catapult been at the UN's COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow? Well, because so much of what's being discussed, planned and negotiated here in Glasgow has everything to do with cities, how we think about place, and how we imagine, design, build and finance places that are liveable, sustainable, low carbon and fit for the 21st Century.  One of the big questions we've been tackling is How can cities strengthen their business cases for net zero investment? And if their plans are brought together and aligned in a new and creative ways, could they generate greater scale, volume and predictability in ways that might make them more attractive to investors? To answer this, the Connected Places Catapult has teamed up with the UK's Core Cities and London Councils to create the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission. The aim is to the leverage the combined scale and clout of the UK's cities to mobilise investment into low and net-zero carbon projects across all of the UK's largest cities, not just individual ones. In the lead up to COP26 we published our City Investment Analysis Report and Glasgow has been an invaluable opportunity engage with businesses and the investment community. In this episode we present some highlights from the events and conversations we've been convening at COP26. We hear from; Prof. Greg Clark, Chair of the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission Cllr Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council John Flint, CEO of the UK Investment Bank Ian Stuart, CEO of HSBC UK Carl Ennis, CEO of Siemens Elsa Palanza, Global Head of Sustainability & ESG, Barclays Susan Campbell, Investment Director for Sustainable Investment, Scottish National Investment Bank Stephen Pegge, Managing Director for Commercial Finance, UK Finance Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: You can read the Joint Declaration of the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission on our website, as well as our City Investment Analysis Report. You can also listen to the first podcast we did to introduce the Commission, as well as a follow episode on decarbonising transport in cities. To read and download the Catapult's Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

In this episode we bring you some of the highlights from our Active Travel Summit, which we held on 29th September, and what the road ahead looks like for collaboration, R&D, and commercialising innovation in this exciting and growing sector. The summit was a space to explore with innovators, city leaders, transport authorities, active travel commissioners, central government, business leaders and world-leading academics, how Britain can unlock the full potential of active travel to power the shift to healthy, net zero mobility.  Active travel is one of the most exciting areas of growth and opportunity within urban mobility - the kind of getting from A to B where your legs, arms and heart have to do their fair share of the work, rather than an energy consuming machine. When we think about what more active travel in places means, it's about creating options for us to move more. This can have a massive impact on our physical and mental health, the air quality in our overly congested cities by getting more commuters out of cars and onto bikes and footpaths, and the UK's collective effort of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. But active travel is also about seizing a potentially huge economic opportunity! Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.  Show notes You can click on these links to read the two UK government reports that are referenced in the episode – Gear Change: A Bold Vision for Cycling and Transport, and Decarbonising Transport: Setting The Challenge. To read and download our Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. You can also read and download free of charge the Catapult's new report on Hubs of Innovation which looks at the role of districts, corridors and quarters as hubs in the COVID-adjusted economy, as well as the accompanying Playbook for Place Leaders, a practical guide for establishing or growing an innovation hub. To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter!

The innovation economy has become one of the defining features of the economic cycle, especially the role of innovation in the post-pandemic recovery and the wider ‘levelling up' agenda. Yet there are stark differences between the innovation activity in different parts of the UK, and there is renewed focus on enabling the innovation economy to flourish right across the country. On 23 September the Catapult hosted the UK's first Innovation Places Summit which brought together place leaders, businesses, researchers, policy makers and innovators from across Britain and around the world. The summit was the first of its kind and it explored some of the key questions facing business and place leaders in the innovation economy; how can innovation locations help to leverage foreign direct investment; how can we democratise innovation; how can we support SMEs; and how do existing hubs build on strong foundations and maintain momentum over time? This episode is a whistle-stop world tour of some of the places of innovation from across the UK and around the globe that we heard from at the summit; from New York to Sydney, from Tel Aviv to Mexico City, we explore what it takes for a place to become a hotbed of innovation. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.  Show notes Our Hubs of Innovation podcast series comes out of two reports that the Catapult recently published, 1) Hubs of Innovation which looks at the role of innovation hubs in the COVID-adjusted economy, and 2) the accompanying Playbook for Place Leaders, a practical guide for how to establish or grow an innovation hub. Both reports are free to download on our website. On Monday 5th October we'll be running an event looking at how innovation procurement can drive new local transport services. Click here to register. On Thursday 7th October is our Transport Innovation Expo where we'll be celebrating early stage innovation in the transport sector. Click here to register. Then on Thursday 21st October the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission will present its findings on the up-front investment needed to address the Net Zero pledges in London and across the UK's Core Cities. Click here to register.

How can cities strengthen their business cases for net zero investment? And if their plans are brought together and aligned in a new and creative ways, could they generate greater scale, volume and predictability in ways that might make them more attractive to investors? To answer these and other questions, the Connected Places Catapult has teamed up with the UK's Core Cities and London Councils to create the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission. The aim is to the leverage the combined scale and clout of the UK's cities to mobilise investment into low and net-zero carbon projects across all of the UK's largest cities, not just individual ones. As an initial step we have commissioned research to assess and analyse the low carbon investment that cities need, and the associated investment cases. The findings of the report will be launched at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow and will look at the following sectors; commercial and industrial property, waste and electricity generation, and transport. In this episode we take a look at transport, which contributes almost a quarter (22%) of the UK's green house gas emissions. There are of course different modes of transport – cars, buses, lorries, trains – and they each contribute emissions in different ways too. In a UK context you also have to bear in mind that local authorities have limited impact on most of those modes, and zero impact on some. So the Commission has been focussing on where councils can have the most impact through policy and investment: Reducing the need to travel. Increasing the use of public transport Increasing the uptake of active travel - walking, cycling Converting from fossil fuelled to electrified forms of transport Prof. Greg Clark, who chairs the Commission, speaks to Cllr Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council about what this looks like from the perspective of one of the UK's core cities. We also meet Andrea Fernandez, Managing Director of C40 Cities Climate Leadership and specialist in climate finance in cities, as well as Asif Ghafoor, CEO of Iduna, a company playing a leading role in Greater Manchester's electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: To read the Joint Declaration of the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission on our website. You can also watch a recording of the launch of the Commission, which was held on 1st July, which included a presentation on the initial findings of the research report. To read and download the Catapult's Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. To register for our Pathway to Net Zero Investment event on the 21st October, where the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission will be presenting its findings, click here. You can also learn more about the organisations featured on this episode; Iduna – a UK infrastructure company specialising in mobility, telecoms and energy. EV. – Iduna's electric vehicle charging company which operates Greater Manchester's largest EV charging network. C40 Cities – a network of 100 megacities committed to addressing climate change. City of Glasgow's plans to host the UN's COP26 Climate Summit from 31 October – 12 November 2021. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

In this instalment of our City Leader's dialogues, “The net zero road to COP26 and beyond”, we speak to Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol; the largest city in the south west of England and a hotbed of innovation, creativity and discovery going back centuries. Before the industrial revolution catapulted cities like Manchester and Liverpool to prominence, Bristol was Britain's third most prosperous city and throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries it remained a key trading gateway to the wider world. To this day Bristol remains a uniquely global city with cosmopolitan connectivity and dynamism in its DNA. In more recent years its innovation and technology economy has shaped what's come to be known as Silicon Gorge – comprising the wider regional economies of Bristol, Swindon, Gloucester and Bath, now ranked as the fifth largest high-tech region in Europe. Behind London, Bristol is now the fourth most popular city for startups in the UK. Yet this globally-minded city also has a reputation as a progressive city where activism on the legacy of colonialism and slavery through to social justice, urban sustainability and tackling climate change have shaped its civic culture. So in this fourth episode in our City Leaders dialogues that we've been holding in the run up to the COP 26 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow this November, Prof. Greg Clark speaks to Mayor Marvin Rees. He asked him how Bristol is positioning itself for the monumental changes ahead; both the challenge of achieving net zero, and the opportunities that innovation and digitisation are bringing to the city? And what does a fair and just transition to net zero look like for a city with some of the highest levels in England of both wealth and deprivation? This conversation was recorded live as part of our City Leaders Dialogue and you can watch the full video here. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: To read more about the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission, founded by the Connected Places Catapult, London Councils and Core Cities, click here. To learn more about the work of the Coalition for Urban Transitions, click here. You can also register for our Innovation Places Summit on 23rd September, as well as our Active Travel Summit on 29th September. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

In this instalment of our City Leader's dialogues, “The net zero road to COP26 and beyond”, we speak to Jan Vapaavpouri, former Mayor of Helsinki; the world's northern most city region with over a million people and the most northerly capital in Europe. Helsinki is often referred to as Finland's only metropolis, the Pearl of the Baltic sea, and after Stockholm and Oslo it's the third largest in the Nordic countries. Famously, Helsinki has one of the world's highest standards of living and consistently ranks among the world's most liveable cities. In July this year Time magazine ranked Helsinki as one of the greatest places in the world in 2021 and the Boston Consulting Group ranked it as the third best city in the world to live, behind New York and London. Yet Finland urbanised quite late compared to most European cities with the population tripling since the 1970's and the arrival of the subway system the same decade. In recent years the city has become a world leader not only in public health and wellbeing, but also environmental sustainability and digital innovation. And now, as cities around the world are adapting to a rapidly changing global climate Helsinki, like most other large cities, has a suite of ambitious plans to reduce carbon emissions and achieve net zero by 2035. Yet Jan Vapaavpouri has attracted a lot of attention for his vision of simply making Helsinki ‘functional'. So in this third episode in our City Leaders dialogues that we've been holding in the run up to the COP 26 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow this November, Prof. Greg Clark met the Mayor of Helsinki as he prepared to leave office. He asked the Mayor how Helsinki is positioning itself for the monumental changes ahead; both the challenge of achieving net zero, but also the opportunities that digitisation is bringing to the city? How should the political leadership of a city bring people along with it? And is the intention to become a ‘functional' city a bland sounding slogan, or surprisingly compelling vision? This conversation was recorded live as part of our City Leaders Dialogue and you can watch the full video here. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: To read our CEO's recent blog on the role that innovation hubs can play in accelerating the UK Government's ambition to level up the economy, click here. You can register for the live City Leader Dialogues with the Mayor of Bristol, Mayor Marvin Rees on 7th September. You can also register for our Innovation Places Summit on 23rd September, as well as our Active Travel Summit on 29th September. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

In recent months we've been exploring one of the most exciting areas of growth and opportunity within urban mobility, and why it matters so much to the Connected Places Catapult, and the future of healthy, connected and net zero places. Active travel is about creating options for us to move more. This can have a massive impact on our physical and mental health, the air quality in our overly congested cities by getting more commuters out of cars and onto bikes and footpaths, and the UK's collective effort of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. In this third episode in our active travel podcast series we continue the conversation with businesses, place leaders and campaigners for better and more active travel. We ask what seizing this potentially huge opportunity might look and feel like on our streets and in our neighbourhoods. How do we design our public spaces for more active travel? How do we ensure that change is accessible to everyone? And what are the gaps in our existing knowledge base when it comes to understanding even the current market? In this episode we hear from Prof. Rachel Aldred, Director of the Active Travel Academy at the University of Westminster, Susan Claris, Associate Director at Arup and Vice President of Living Streets, Isabelle Clement, Director of Wheels for Wellbeing, and Ben Knowles, CEO of Pedal Me. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.  Show notes Register now for our Active Travel Summit on 29th September! You can click on these links to read the two UK government reports that are referenced in the episode – Gear Change: A Bold Vision for Cycling and Transport, and Decarbonising Transport: Setting The Challenge. To read and download the Catapult's Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. The Active Travel Academy has co-authored a report out this month on the benefits of cargo bikes in London, which was supported by Pedal Me. You can download the report here. To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter!

How does innovation happen in a place? What is it about a district, a neighbourhood, a cluster or a corridor that makes it possible for innovation to flourish? And what is the role of local authorities in curating innovation within and between places? In the 2021 Budget, the UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak MP announced a commitment “to stimulating private sector investment to create jobs, develop hubs of innovation, and revitalise local areas and regions across every part of the UK”. This was followed in July by the launch of the UK Government's Innovation Strategy which aims to make the UK a global hub for innovation by 2035. The innovation economy has become one of the defining features of the economic cycle, especially the role of innovation in the post-pandemic recovery and the wider ‘levelling up' agenda. Yet there are stark differences between the innovation activity in different parts of the UK, and there is renewed focus on enabling the innovation economy to flourish right across the country. This is the second episode in our Hubs of Innovation podcast series which began with two reports that the Catapult recently published, 1) Hubs of Innovation which looks at the role of innovation hubs in the COVID-adjusted economy, and 2) the accompanying Playbook for Place Leaders, a practical guide for how to establish or grow an innovation hub. In this episode we explore the role of local authorities curators in the innovation economy. This episode is an edited version of an online event that the Catapult held on 20th July, 2021, “Local Authorities: Curating Places of Innovation”, which is also available to watch in full online. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes:  Our Hubs of Innovation podcast series comes out of two reports that the Catapult recently published, 1) Hubs of Innovation which looks at the role of innovation hubs in the COVID-adjusted economy, and 2) the accompanying Playbook for Place Leaders, a practical guide for how to establish or grow an innovation hub. Both reports are free to download on our website. You can register for our Innovation Places Summit on 23rd September, as well as our Active Travel Summit on 29th September. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

In this instalment of our City Leader's dialogues, “The net zero road to COP26 and beyond”, we speak to the Leader of Manchester City Council in the north of England; one of the most important cities in the history of the industrial revolution and the story of modern Britain. For centuries Manchester has been a hive of innovation, and the urban and industrial technology that's come out of Manchester has had a profound impact not just on the rest of Britain, but on much of the world. Manchester is the home of the UK's first canal and its first passenger railway. It's the birthplace of atomic theory, the programmable computer and the world's thinnest material, graphene. It's a city defined not only by science and industry, but huge amounts of creativity and dynamism. So it's no surprise that going back 150 years the much-loved symbol of Manchester has been the industrious worker bee. And now, as cities around the world are adapting not just to the fourth industrial revolution but a rapidly changing global climate, Manchester is aiming to be a net-zero carbon city by 2038, 12 years before the rest of the UK. So in this second extended summer episode, we meet the Leader of Manchester City Council, Sir Richard Leese. Greg spoke to Sir Richard as part of the City Leaders dialogues that he's holding in the run up to the COP 26 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow in November. How is Manchester positioning itself for the monumental changes ahead; both the challenge of achieving net zero, but also the opportunities that digitisation is bringing to the city? What will a liveable, sustainable and thriving Manchester look like as we begin to recover from a pandemic? And how will the political leadership of this globally connected hive of a city, bring people along on the next phase of Manchester's journey. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: To read our CEO's recent blog on the role that innovation hubs can play in accelerating the UK Government's ambition to level up the economy, click here. You can register for the live City Leader Dialogues with the Mayor of Bristol, Mayor Marvin Rees on 7th September. You can also register for our Innovation Places Summit on 23rd September, as well as our Active Travel Summit on 29th September. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

Cities aren't so much becoming smart, they've always been smart and the history of urban technology is often forgotten when it comes to cities. Yet even the most global and future-facing of cities are living legacies of long histories. Taking a long view of innovation can help us think more creatively in the present about the many possible futures that a city needs to prepare for. Whether it's recovering from a global pandemic, responding to a rapidly changing climate, repivoting an economy to net zero, or improving the trust between city government and citizens, technology will play a defining role. In this extended episode of Connected Places we explore what this means for one of the world's most global and iconic of cities, New York, and few people are more qualified than our tour guide when it comes to understanding the role that urban technology has played, and continues to play, in New York's story. Rit Aggarwala has advised cities all over the world on urban technology and sustainable planning, including his hometown of New York where he played a key role in Michael Bloomberg's administration when he was Mayor of New York. Rit is an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and a Senior Urban Tech Fellow at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. He was also a founding member of the team that built Sidewalk Labs, an urban innovation company founded by Google.  What's so insightful about Rit's reflections is that the story of New York is similar to the story of many other cities because the questions he's grappling with apply to any city: How has technology played a role in the evolution of New York, what are the technologies that will most likely shape its future, and how is the city's leadership preparing for that future? How do you ensure that all New Yorkers can participate in the digital economy? How do city leaders bring people with them in a time of growing mistrust in public institutions and concerns over privacy and civil liberties? And how consequential is the role of leadership, both political and business, in shaping the future of a city? Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: To read our CEO's recent blog on the role that innovation hubs can play in accelerating the UK Government's ambition to level up the economy, click here. You can register for the live City Leader Dialogues with the Mayor of Bristol, Mayor Marvin Rees on 7th September. You can also register for our Innovation Places Summit on 23rd September, as well as our Active Travel Summit on 29th September. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

How can cities strengthen their business cases for net zero investment? And if their plans are brought together and aligned in a new and creative ways, could they generate greater scale, volume and predictability in ways that might make them more attractive to investors? To answer these and other questions, the Connected Places Catapult has teamed with a number of partners to create the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission. The aim is to the leverage the combined scale and clout of the UK's cities to mobilise investment into low and net-zero carbon projects across all of the UK's largest cities, not just individual ones. As an initial step we have commissioned research to assess and analyse the low carbon investment that cities need, and the associated investment cases. The findings of the report will be launched at COP26 with a series of dissemination events being planned in the months leading up to November. The aim of the commission is to; Support UK cities in achieving their carbon reduction targets, whilst developing a deeper understanding of the low carbon investment opportunities and challenges faced by UK cities. Create increased confidence within the investment community in low carbon projects by leveraging the benefits of the scale offered through networks of cities rather than individual ones. Provide the basis for engaging with industry on the opportunities for the supply and deployment of low carbon technologies into the marketplace. This episode is a summarised overview of the work of the commission using audio from the launch event that was held on 1st July, 2021 chaired by Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of the Centre for Cities and attended by Prof. Greg Clark, Chair of the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission, Cllr Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council, Niall Bolger, CEO of the London Borough of Hounslow, Rachel Dickie, Executive Director for Investment at Grosvenor Britain and Ireland, Shuen Chan, Head of ESG at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM). Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: To read the Joint Declaration of the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission on our website. You can also watch a recording of the launch of the Commission, which was held on 1st July, which included a presentation on the initial findings of the research report. To read and download the Catapult's Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. You can register for the live City Leader Dialogues with Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council on Monday 26th July, and Mayor of Bristol, Mayor Marvin Rees on 7th September. You can also register for our Innovation Places Summit on 23rd September, as well as our Active Travel Summit on 29th September. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

The physical and digital infrastructure that connects and powers our towns, cities and transport systems is something we don't often think about until emergency strikes. Which is why in countries all around the world the COVID pandemic has refocussed our attention on the resilience and adaptability of our infrastructure. Yet ironically, how we design, build and invest in infrastructure is at the heart of the post-pandemic recovery. Even before COVID, the 2020s were set to become the most consequential decade in living memory for infrastructure investment, especially for new, low carbon technologies and the industries of the future as we re-pivot our economies towards new zero. In this episode we look at the global investment patterns and infrastructure needs that will shape the coming decade, and the opportunities that digitisation brings in decarbonising our economies and achieving net zero carbon emissions. What might this mean for those larger connectivity projects like ports, airports and critical rail infrastructure? What's the role of government and industry - where do public and private sector responsibilities lie? Prof. Greg Clark CBE, Chair of the Connected Places Catapult speaks to Nick Chism, an expert in the field of infrastructure investment and delivery. Nick was Global Chair of Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare at KPMG, where he worked on infrastructure and new technologies in global markets across 120 countries worldwide. He represented KPMG on the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the CBI Infrastructure Board, and at the World Economic Forum.  More recently, he was Chief Business Adviser and Director General of Enterprise at the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy where his portfolio overed business engagement, growth and investment. Nick is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and Executive Chair of IPFA, the global professional association for infrastructure and energy project financing. We're also very lucky to have Nick on the Board of the Connected Places Catapult. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To read and download the Catapult's Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. Our Connections Cafés are our series of SME innovation support webinars that explore developments and opportunities in the built environment and mobility sectors that enable new levels of physical, digital and social connectedness. Our next café is on the 14th July and will be focussing on knowledge exchange and collaboration between SMEs and Universities. You can register here. We're working with the Department for Transport, to help deliver their 2021 Transport Research and Innovation Grants for Zero Emission Flight. The department will be awarding a minimum of 12 funding grants of £50k to organisations doing R&D in this space, and on the 12th July we're running a webinar that will provide further information, support and guidance to interested businesses You can register here. To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

We're running a series of dialogues with Mayors from around the world in the lead up to the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow later this year. The series was launched this week at the World Cities Summit 2021, which was hosted by our partner, the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) and held virtually for the first time. Over the coming months the Catapult will be convening a series of dialogues with city Mayors from around the world about the road to a resilient and green recovery. Each dialogue will be facilitated by Prof Greg Clark, the Chair of the Connected Places Catapult. The effects of the COVID pandemic are far from over but city leaders have already begun planning for the recovery. And with the grand urban challenges of climate change, population growth and quality of life still very much in the in-tray, that recovery needs to be both resilient and green. In the first conversation in the series, we begin with a city that is often lauded as one of the most liveable in the world: Melbourne, one of Australia's urban jewels known for its parks, beaches, thriving cultural life and innovative economy. But Melbourne is also a city that has had to adapt, pivot and embrace change throughout its history, and no more than during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode we meet the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Sally Capp to hear how the City of Melbourne has actually used the disruption of lockdown to fast track it's environmental sustainability programme. We ask how Melbourne's world-renown innovators and entrepreneurs are shaping the city's embrace of a digitised future. How is the city's innovation economy and its iconic global port helping to make Melbourne a more connected place in which to do business? And how is the Lord Mayor taking Melburnians with her on the road to a greener and more resilient future? Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: You can learn more here about what the City of Melbourne is doing on climate action and a list of climate change impacts on the city region, as well as the city's Climate Change Mitigation Strategy. If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk. We're looking forward to hearing from you! To read and download the Catapult's Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. If you're an SME looking to understand the impact of COVID-19 on your business, the wider supply chain and what the road to recovery might look like, come along to our next SME Masterclass: Rebalancing the Supply Chain in COVID Recovery being held on 29th June. To register for free, click here. On the 1st July we'll be launching our UK Cities Climate Investment Commission, in partnership with Core Cities and London Councils. We'll be presenting some early-stage findings on the estimated Net Zero investment need of the UK's Cities. It's a piece of work that we've commissioned in the run-up to the COP26 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow later this year. To register for free, click here.   To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter! Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

In episode 16, “Accelerating the UK active travel market” we explored one of the most exciting areas of growth and opportunity within urban mobility, and why it matters so much to the Connected Places Catapult, and the future of healthy, connected and net zero places. Active travel is about creating options for us to move more. This can have a massive impact on our physical and mental health, the air quality in our overly congested cities by getting more commuters out of cars and onto bikes and footpaths, and the UK's collective effort of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. In this episode we kick off a series of conversations we've been having with businesses, place leaders and experts in active travel. We ask what seizing this potentially huge opportunity for economic growth and public health and wellbeing looks like around the country. How do we design our cities for more active travel? How do we ensure that change is led by communities and accessible to all? And where are the opportunities, at home and abroad, for government and industry to get ahead of the curve? We begin by speaking to Dame Sarah Storey, one of the most decorated British athletes of all time and the Active Travel Commissioner for the Sheffield City Region. We also hear from Will Butler-Adams, CEO of Brompton Bikes, one of Britain's best known cycling brands and sold all over the world. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes To find out more about the Sheffield City Region's active travel programme, check out their Active Travel Implementation Plan, as well as the region's interactive Active Travel Map. You can click on these links to read the two UK government reports that are referenced in the episode – Gear Change: A Bold Vision for Cycling and Transport, and Decarbonising Transport: Setting The Challenge. To read and download the Catapult's Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. On the 23rd June we're running an event on Connecting Homes for Healthy Ageing as part of our multi-year Homes for Healthy Ageing Programme which is contributing towards the UK Government's goal of supporting older people to live at home independently for 5+ years longer. We'll be exploring the barriers and opportunities for leveraging innovation to overcome the existing healthy ageing challenges in the UK. To register for free, click here.  On the 1st July we'll also be launching our UK Cities Climate Investment Commission, in partnership with Core Cities and London Councils. We'll be presenting some early-stage findings on the estimated Net Zero investment need of the UK's Cities. It's a piece of work that we've commissioned in the run-up to the COP26 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow later this year. To register for free, click here. To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter!

Cycles of technologies and innovations have been connecting and shaping the places where we live and work for centuries – from aqueduct and sewerage systems through to the advent of the motor vehicle, railways and the skyscraper. But the digital age has accelerated the pace of change more than any other, and it has not only brought with it a slew of new technologies, but also a profound and complex set of risks and dilemmas that governments, businesses and citizens are having to navigate. In episode 18, “Connected and Secure Places: A Conversation with Matt Warman MP” we discussed the secure and connected places of tomorrow with the UK Government's Minister for Digital Infrastructure. In this episode we ask how the next cycle of new technologies are shaping these places, and what place leaders, businesses and individuals need to do to be ahead of the curve. What will 5G connectivity bring to our towns and cities, and at a time of rising mistrust in public institutions and even wild conspiracy theories, how do place leaders bring citizens with them on a journey of change? How do we ensure that our national digital infrastructure is safe and secure, and where is the balance between protecting civil liberties such as the right to privacy, and creating new data ecosystems that enable ground-breaking innovation? In this episode, Prof. Greg Clark CBE, Chair of the Connected Places Catapult speaks to Dr. Alison Vincent, a technical thought leader in the field of technology, innovation and global business. Throughout her 30 year career Alison has held senior positions at Cisco, HSBC, IBM and Micro Focus. Among many of her hats, she's a Member of the Court of the University of Southampton, an Ambassador for Women In Science and Engineering (WISE), a Fellow of the British Computer Society and the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and a Non Exec Director on the Board of the Connected Places Catapult. Alison's experience and expertise covers cybersecurity, digital strategy, research and development, product management and mergers and acquisitions. She holds a PhD in Cryptography from London University.  Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: If you'd like to get in touch with your feedback, comments and suggestions on what you'd like to hear more of on Connected Places, please email us at: podcast@cp.catapult.org.uk  If you're interested in the often tricky question of how to procure innovation, come along to the next event in our Challenging Procurement Series: Co-creating Innovation which is being held on 14th June. You'll get a chance to hear case studies and best practices in procurement, and learn why citizen-led projects are often cited as a powerful tool by innovative public sector organisations. To register, click here. Applications for the HS2 Accelerator are now open. The programme in partnership with HS2 and Connected Places Catapult is looking for five SMEs to provide innovative digital solutions to cut carbon and increase construction site safety and security as part of Europe's largest infrastructure project. To find out more about a support and information webinar we're holding on 15th June, click here. On the 23rd June we're running an event on Connecting Homes for Healthy Ageing as part of our multi-year Homes for Healthy Ageing Programme which is contributing towards the UK Government's goal of supporting older people to live at home independently for 5+ years longer. We'll be exploring the barriers and opportunities for leveraging innovation to overcome the existing healthy ageing challenges in the UK. To register for free, click here.

In this next part of our series on Hubs of Innovation, we return to the question of how innovation happens in a place. What is it about a district, a neighbourhood, or a corridor that makes it possible for innovation to flourish? And how can a deeper understanding of the innovation economy inform our thinking about how to create better connections within and between places across the UK? In this episode Prof. Greg Clark speaks to Chris Oglesby, CEO of Bruntwood, a property company that employs over 800 people and owns over £1.4 billion of commercial assets and 100 properties across the city regions of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham and Cambridge. Bruntwood provides everything from coworking spaces and meeting rooms, through to serviced and managed offices for all sorts of innovation labs, hubs, and tech spaces. We ask how the buildings which host the innovation economy can shape a successful innovation location in how they're designed and serviced. Do you have to be a smart company yourself if you're a property company that's hosting innovators? And given Chris' strong involvement in shaping the innovation economy of Greater Manchester, we explore the link between the city regions across the North West of England and the UK government's ambitious plans to level up the national economy. As well as running Bruntwood, Chris is involved in a number of public and private partnerships, including the Manchester Climate Change Forum, the Manchester Oxford Road Corridor, the Greater Manchester Enterprise Partnership and the North Powerhouse Partnership. He is Interim Chair of Innovation Greater Manchester which brings together business, science academia and government. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: If you would like to learn more about Bruntwood and the buildings, workspaces, innovation and science facilities that they own, let and manage, click here. Our Hubs of Innovation series comes out of two reports that the Catapult recently published, 1) Hubs of Innovation which looks at the role of innovation hubs in the COVID-adjusted economy, and 2) the accompanying Playbook for Place Leaders, a practical guide for how to establish or grow an innovation hub. Both reports are free to download on our website. If you're interested the often tricky question of how to procure innovation, come along to the next event in our Challenging Procurement Series: Co-creating Innovation which is being held on 14th June. You'll get a chance to hear case studies and best practices in procurement, and learn why citizen-led projects are often cited as a powerful tool by innovative public sector organisations. To register, click here. To register for our next Virtual Connections Café on 9th June, click here. These SME innovation support webinars explore developments and opportunities in the built environment and mobility sectors, as well as offering support and guidance to growing businesses. Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult. 

If the UK is going to hit its net zero targets by 2050 we need to decarbonise across every sector of the economy – that includes shifting from fossil fuel consumption to electrification and other sustainable energy sources like hydrogen. We've made good progress on decarbonising the power sector in the UK, but more needs to be done to mainstream renewables such as wind and solar. Yet it's not just the fossil fuel consuming machines that move us around which contribute a huge amount to our carbon emissions, the same is also true of the buildings in which we live and work. So the question of how we decarbonise the most carbon-reliant sectors like transport and the built environment speaks to a bigger question: if we are to increase our electricity demand we will only decarbonise if that electricity is being generated from low carbon sources. In this episode we ask what the barriers and the enablers to that net zero future look like, and what emerging technologies are mostly likely to help us achieve it. But we also explore another power source that gets us from A to B which is so often untapped in our towns and cities: human power. As we saw in episode 16 “Accelerating the UK's active travel market” the world of active travel is now at a tipping point as new technologies, applications, business models and digital platforms are revolutionising how we'll get around the connected places of tomorrow. So as a global pandemic ushered in a massive uptick in walking, cycling, running and even scooting, is this an opportunity to rethink and reimagine our net zero future? In this episode, Prof. Greg Clark CBE, Chair of the Connected Places Catapult speaks to Lucy Yu, CEO of the Centre for Net Zero (backed by Octopus Energy), Senior Advisor to Voi Technology, and Non-Executive Director on the Connected Places Catapult's Board. Lucy is a business leader who is well embedded in the UK's tech and innovation ecosystem and over the years her work has focused on artificial intelligence, future mobility, open data and open source, regulating high risk technologies, and the social impact of disruptive technology. She's led commercial operations, policy and research functions for several high-growth, globally-renowned tech start-ups, including two unicorns. She's also worked ob tech policy and regulation for the UK government, the European Commission, and the United Nations.  Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes: If you're interested the often tricky question of how to procure innovation, come along to the next event in our Challenging Procurement Series: Co-creating Innovation which is being held on 14th June. You'll get a chance to hear case studies and best practices in procurement, and learn why citizen-led projects are often cited as a powerful tool by innovative public sector organisations. To register, click here. To register for our next Virtual Connections Café on 9th June, click here. These SME innovation support webinars explore developments and opportunities in the built environment and mobility sectors, as well as offering support and guidance to growing businesses. Follow the show! Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please also take a moment to write a review and rate us so that more people can hear about the podcast and what we do at Connected Places Catapult.