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Fraunhofer studies uptower carbon blade repairs, Vineyard Wind’s fight with GE Vernova deepens, the UK backs offshore innovation, and a 26-year Horns Rev study tracks how birds adapt to turbines. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by StrikeTape.  Protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit striketape.com. And now your hosts. Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall. I’m here with Rosemary Barnes, Yolanda Padron, and Matthew Stead. Fraunhofer has published peer-reviewed feasibility research in wind energy science. And Rosemary, I don’t know if you read wind energy science, but there’s a lot of good information there about wind turbines and mechanical aspects. Not much on the electrical side, but a lot about mechanical. Uh, in, in, in wind energy science, uh, they had a discussion or an article about repairing damaged pultruded CFRP spar cap planks while the blade stays on the turbine. Using finite element analysis on a 81.6-meter [00:01:00] blade from a seven-megawatt offshore turbine, the researchers found that a shear web window cut out as short as one meter drops buckling resistance from 20.7 times critical load to four times critical load, a reduction of over 80%. The fix? Temporary external clamping frames with a pre-tensioned span-wise rod to carry gravity loads, combined with internal push rod assemblies and external stringers profiles to restore buckling resistance, all installed and removed uptower. Wow. I know we’ve discussed the carbon pultrusion repair situation and how critical that is or h- how difficult it is. I didn’t realize it was that difficult, Rosemary, that if you actually try to replace a one-meter section of a carbon pultrusion, you’re re- reducing the, the, what, the, the buckling resistance by 80%? [00:02:00] Holy moly.  Rosemary Barnes: I don’t think that’s even 100% pultrusion specific, right? They’re talking about cutting a, a window in the shear web. Allen Hall: Yes.  Rosemary Barnes: So that could be for any kind of repair you might have to do that, including if you need to repair, like sometimes you need to repair the, the shear web. Um, and even though, like, they’re not doing a lot of heavy lifting, um, that’s kind of a structural pun, um, they’re still super important. If they’re not there, then you’re gonna have big problems pretty immediately. The way that it works with repairs is that there’s certain kinds of damage that you know that you can just do uptower. The technicians know they can do it. They don’t need to call an engineer. The engineer doesn’t call- need to call the expert engineer. But when you need to do something a bit unusual, like a whole meter of web removed, then you’re gonna need to get an engineer to, um, dial in the, y- the, to rerun the design codes basically, um, but with this weak structure now to see is this okay and is it okay, you know, uh, [00:03:00] obviously a turbine that is just, um, idle or it’s not even idle, it’s just fixed in place while they’re repairing it, that has different loads on it to one that’s operating. So, you know, they’ll run that and make sure that it’s safe, um, before they do the repair. So what I really like about Fraunhofer is that they in some ways, like- Maybe it’s not cutting-edge science or engineering because they are largely repeating what is already well known in industry. But the problem is that industry doesn’t tell everybody else. And so it is, like, such a vital role to then go and illustrate, um, to everybody else what, what’s happening in industry. And they, they are… Like, there is this problem with wind energy where academia and industry are not, um, talking too much, and a lot of the academic stuff just doesn’t relate at all to what’s happening in the industry. But Fraunhofer do, like, 90, 90% of the time seem to get it at pretty right.  Allen Hall: When a carbon protrusion is [00:04:00] used, that really localizes where the load is versus in, in some of the more fiberglass designs that I’ve seen, the shell is actually taking some of the load. It’s not all in the shear web, so to speak. So doesn’t that sort of focus the loads into one location a little bit more when you move to carbon? Isn’t that the point?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Well, the carbon fiber is, is a lot, lot, lot stiffer than, um, fiberglass, and it’s, it’s a lot stronger. So yeah, you are designing… I, I mean, always the spar caps have been the main load carriers, the, um, you know, the main laminate, the bit between the shear webs or over the shear webs. Um, but it’s, yeah, it probably is, um uh, e- exacerbated or the increased effect when you add carbon fiber. But the, the thing about carbon fiber is it’s so susceptible to small damages or small deviations, so like a tiny little bit of fiber waviness, like if your fibers aren’t perfectly straight, then you can easily get a, a crack. And [00:05:00] carbon fiber can also be a lot less forgiving than fiberglass. It is not uncommon that it will just break, and you didn’t even know there was anything wrong. So that damage intolerance is what led to people moving away from carbon fiber fabric and into pultrusions, because they’re made with perfectly straight fibers. Um, but it, it raises some, uh, problems of its own because y- yeah, like how do you repair that? You can’t, um, you can’t get the fibers as straight again unless you repair a whole plank, um, because like they look like, like two-by-fours or something. You know, like they look like little fence palings, basically. Black, black fence palings. Um, and so yeah, you, you’d have to repair, replace a whole one, and then you’ve got like a big chunk of structure that’s missing there, so that’s pretty hard to do uptower. I, I don’t know anybody that does those uptower, actually. Um, m- maybe they can now with this reinforcement method, but I would still not enjoy being in a blade that was missing a, a [00:06:00] pultrusion and up in the air. Allen Hall: The offshore versus onshore equation, it, it would make more sense onshore to actually drop the blade, I assume. Offshore adds difficulty, but it sounds like with all the rigging a- and assembly that you would have to do offshore, it, it probably is gonna be close in terms of total cost to do an uptower repair versus a downtower repair I would think. It, it– Wouldn’t you think it’d be roughly right?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, like in, in offshore, there’s always more motivation to do complicated, um, expe-expensive uh, things that will save you from having to do something even more expensive, like bringing, um, a whole blade back. Uh, yeah, going out, getting the vessel with the crane, bringing the blade down, and taking it in is just incredibly expensive. So you can spend a lot of time faffing around reinforcing a blade uptower before you, um, you know, would come out behind. But you know what? While we’re on topic of carbon pultrusions, I think it, like it, um, it’s almost bypassing the, the biggest risk with them ’cause [00:07:00] what I see is the– Like it’s one thing when you know you’ve got damage that you need to repair, but far more common, I think, is that you don’t even know that you’ve got damage. It’s very hard to, to see what’s going on in there. Um, I mean, people aren’t just going up periodically and doing ultrasounds, ul-ultrasound scans of their entire blade. But even if they were, it’s still not that easy to find all of the, the little damages in, in pultrusions. So, um, yeah, that’s something… ‘Cause it’s not such an old technology. It’s been around for, I, I don’t know, like not even 10 years these have been, being used consistently, probably more like five, um, that there’s been a lot of them out there. And I just, yeah, I, uh, maybe I’m overreacting because all I see is broken blades in my career, but, um, you know, I am a little bit worried that we’re gonna start to see as, you know, fatigue builds up, that we might start to see some more like sudden breakages in these blades. Allen Hall: If Fraunhofer’s working on it, there must be a reason for the [00:08:00] analysis and all the engineering time that they spent on it, that it’s a concern. I don’t know how you would do it offshore, honestly, because of all the wind loads. That you would have this damaged blade, and yes, you would have all the engineering calculations, but I would just see the safety people being very concerned about it. Because if it does go free, you have a couple of people up there minimum, and who knows what’s below.  Rosemary Barnes: But even the amount of time in between knowing that you have to, um, replace a pultrusion and actually getting up there to do it, like I’d be surprised that it didn’t break in that, in that time because it is such a big, a big, a big thing. Um, so yeah. Uh, but super interesting work and I do, I, I do really, really appreciate that the Fraunhofer exists to, you know, do this sort of stuff and, um, give us the information w-we need to get a better understanding. Allen Hall: Delamination and bondline failures in blades are [00:09:00]difficult problems to detect early. These hidden issues can cost you millions in repairs and lost energy production. CIC NDT are specialists to detect these critical flaws before they become expensive burdens. Their nondestructive test technology penetrates deep into blade materials to find voids and cracks traditional inspections completely miss. CIC NDT maps every critical defect, delivers actionable reports, and provides support to get your blades back in service. So visit CICNDT.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions UK government has deployed 15 million pounds, uh, which is about $20 million, uh, through Innovate UK in a coordinated push to move offshore wind technology from prototype stage into commercial supply chains. The package has three components: a 10 million [00:10:00] pound offshore wind innovation program, open competition for high potential businesses, a five million pound wind innovation hub to align industry, government, and research, and a 12 million pound effort for phase one of a large structures innovation center on the Isle of Wight, with Vestas already signed as its first industry partner for sustainable blade development. So the, the large structure innovation center is a composite center which is gonna be doing some advanced technology work on blade design. And I think there’s no better place to do that at the moment than in the UK. But it does open the door to a number of UK firms, and even outside the UK firms, to get involved in the UK offshore and somewhat on the onshore side. This has massive potential, I think, within the UK and outside the UK, Matthew.  Matthew Stead: I, I know from my own firsthand experience that, um, uh, actually getting into the wind space is, like, really [00:11:00] hard. So for this sort of, um, incubator and support around, um, you know, setting up businesses, I, I think this is a really, really good thing for the UK government to be doing. Um, ’cause, yeah, how do, how do you build up a future industry if you, if you don’t have the new businesses coming through? So I, I think it’s a, it’s a, it’s a great thing that the UK government’s doing. And yeah, and how do you get small companies working with the larger OEMs? How do you get the innovation? Yeah, it’s, yeah, I think that’s probably, you know, got five gold stars for the UK government.  Allen Hall: What are the areas that they should be focused on over the next couple of years? Obviously, blades is, is a massive one. I’m sure Vestas is gonna be deeply involved with that. Are there some other areas in technologies that the UK should be orienting its supply chains towards? Matthew Stead: I’m personally 100% biased towards blades ’cause w- we know that, you know, um, if we look at the failures and we look at the failure rate, you know, where is the greatest growth in failure rates? It’s blades. Um, [00:12:00]you know, why, why are we still having failures? Why haven’t we learned? You know, where is the knowledge exchange? Um, so I- I’m biased, but I think it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s needed in, in the blade space. Yeah, as what, you know, Rosie and you were talking about before, um, you know, knowing more about, um, what’s going on, how it can be repaired, how it can be dealt with, I think is super, super critical.  Allen Hall: Well, Vineyard Wind has its 62 turbines in the water south of Martha’s Vineyard, but the project is delivering only partial power while GE Vernova works through its outstanding repairs. Now, the financial pressure is breaking into public view on two fronts. Boston landlord BP Hancock LLC is suing Vineyard Offshore, uh, the Avangrid and BP joint venture, for nearly $1.2 million in back rent at its John Hancock Tower offices. Uh, separately, GE Vernova wants out of its turbine supply contract, claiming Vineyard Wind owes [00:13:00] it over $300 million. Vineyard Wind fires back that it is actually owed more than 800 million from GE Vernova, so that, that saga will continue for a while. But it is a little odd that the rent is not being paid by Vineyard Wind at, at, in the John Hancock Tower. And if you’re familiar… That’s downtown Boston. If you’re familiar with downtown Boston, that, the John Hancock Tower is one of those iconic buildings you see in pretty much every downtown photo of Boston. There must be a lot happening at the moment at Vineyard that they’re not able to pay the rent, or they’re trying to shuffle some money around or, or seek more financing. Sounds like they’re in a refinancing phase, honestly. Yeah,  Yolanda Padron: I know that at, at times there’s– it’s really common for, for an asset manager to think, you know, “Oh, we have X amount of money,” and then all of a sudden you– it’s all of the, the additional [00:14:00] repairs or the additional operational costs stack up to a bit more than they thought they were gonna have, and then maybe they don’t even have enough money to go do trash removal or anything. And that happens, and it’s more often than, than we’d like to admit. Um, but this is on a bigger scale, right? Like, this is a project that we’ve talked a lot about, everyone’s talked a lot about, and it has a lot of eyes on it. And so for it to, to be so behind on rent on such an iconic place and such an important place and such an important part of the country, backed by a very important company, it’s really, it’s really interesting to, to think about kind of what they’re thinking. ‘Cause in, in my mind, right, like, if I was the people backing them, I would think, “Okay, well, the f- first thing’s first, like, let’s not give them any additional reason to hate us right now.” Right? Or like, you know, the public opinion is really big on these kind of things. Um, so I, I don’t, I don’t know what the, what [00:15:00] the exact plan is here. Allen Hall: Well, I wonder if this is part of the, the negotiation with GE Vernova, that, uh, the, the payments and the, the power which leads to payments, uh, hasn’t been at it- its desired output from Vineyard Wind and is this an effort to, uh, shore up their legal case with GE Vernova to say, “Hey, look, uh, Avangrid’s not gonna throw a bunch of money in, even for rent. This project needs to stand on its own two feet, and it can, but GE Vernova needs to be involved with it and get the turbines up and running to the level at which they were contracted to do”? Is this part of that play? ‘Cause it just feels like it. You know Avon Grid has the money to pay the rent. That’s not even a question. It’s, but it’s why they are not doing it is probably the bigger question at the moment. Is, is it just all legal maneuvering at the minute?  Matthew Stead: I, I wonder if it’s a bit like, uh, you get the utility billing, you get the [00:16:00] electricity billing, you put it in the, the drawer over there, and then you forget about it, and then you forget to pay it, and-  Allen Hall: It’s a million dollars Matthew Stead: $1 million out of, uh, 600 or whatever billions, you know? Maybe it was, maybe it was just a simple oversight.  Allen Hall: It could totally be oversight, but it’s, it seems like with the amount of attention that Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova are, are getting, and they are literally within a stone’s throw of one another, they can s- I’m– You could probably see the GE Vernova building from the John Hancock Tower, that, uh, you, you think that some of this would get settled, but it’s not. It’s still going on. It’s, it’s crazy. It– With, and with Avon Grid and BP still being involved with it somewhat, uh, there’s something happening behind the scenes that has not poked its head up yet. It’s coming, though. This is all coming to a head pretty quickly. The– Massachusetts needs Vineyard Wind to run. They really do, and it’s, it is a little surprising at [00:17:00] times that the state of Massachusetts is standing on the sidelines in this.  Matthew Stead: As wind energy professionals, staying informed is crucial, and let’s face it, difficult. That’s why the  Allen Hall: Uptime Podcast recommends PES Wind Magazine. PES Wind offers a diverse range of in-depth articles and expert insights that dive into the most pressing issues facing our energy future. Whether you’re an industry veteran or new to wind, PES Wind has the high-quality content you need. Don’t miss out. Visit peswind.com today. In this quarter’s PES Wind, there’s a lot of good articles in there. If you don’t have a copy, you can go to peswind.com and download one. A interesting article from Safe Lifting, which is a European-based lifting company that does basically bespoke engineering on lifts, and they’ve been making a push that’s saying that the next wave of projects depends on bigger [00:18:00] turbines, of course, which means bigger lifts, but they need to have some standardization to them. Uh, things like spreader beams and rigging systems that are pre-built and pre-validated, uh, just reduce the overall engineering time it takes to do these lifts. Uh, and rental equipment models are a lot lower cost than buying OEM-specific or site-specific lift equipment, trying to keep the capital costs down. That’s one of the big pushes in the wind industry is lowering the overall cost of installation. It does make sense, but it– as we were talking off-air a minute ago, a lot of lifts for basically the same kind of turbine are different. The, the connection points are different. There’s a lot of engineering that goes on there, and as the turbine sizes reach 15 megawatts plus, and the cells are massive, blades are massive.[00:19:00] But it does seem like in a lot of other aspects of wind, there is some standardization, an IEC spec or some sort of overall guidance document for the industry that like, let’s put the lift points here, here, here, and here and lift with the right equipment. And Matthew, we just haven’t done it in lifting, even in smaller turbines, same thing. Matthew Stead: Oh, it’s crazy. Um, I was, I was thinking about it, and, you know, my, my suggestion would be that, you know, when I buy 100 turbines, I should get, um, a blade lifting kit. It’s like when you buy a car, you, you get a, you get a kit to change the tire, don’t you? So I would’ve thought it would be just fundamental. Um, but, but, but we know that the wind industry is not always logical. Um, so what is, what might be considered normal in a car is not normal for a wind turbine. Um, but yeah, uh, you know, this sounds like a perfect way of going to have more of a sort of standardized and, you know, not, not wait for the OEMs, but actually lead this and, and [00:20:00] drive this standardization. So yeah, thumbs up from me. Yolanda Padron: I think this is really cool. Uh, I really hope that if we can standardize the way that we do that, we can make sure that the teams are trained in, like, the standard ways of, of lifting. I know that, um, I’ve, I’ve seen a few cases where someone didn’t know, there hadn’t- been exposed to a particular blade type and they were in char- you know, in charge of, of lifting it to, to, to do a blade replacement and then, um, they accidentally ended up damaging the blade and so you had this bad crack that they kind of painted over because it was a little bit embarrassing for them at the time. And then, you know, a year later it’s like, well, okay, well, maybe next time ask someone, um, if you if you don’t know the, the exact lifting protocols or, or if you mess up, you know, let someone know. Um, but, but [00:21:00] yeah, the, you know, a lot of these, these smaller and, and larger structural cracks that, that come from, from lifting errors would be avoided if everybody was doing the same thing or the same two iterations of Of lifting standards, which is really exciting  Matthew Stead: Y- y- if you’ve got a wind farm, y- y- you’re guaranteed you’re gonna have to drop a blade at some point, aren’t you? Allen Hall: And a gearbox  Matthew Stead: and a generator It’s, it’s pretty much a given. So like, like I said before, I reckon it should just be part of the standard kit that you buy, is you, you, you buy a substation, but you also buy a lifting, a lifting kit as well.  Allen Hall: It’s one of the more, uh, dangerous parts of wind is lifting, clearly, and we’ve seen that over time. And, uh, having standardized equipment, back to Yolanda’s point, does make a lot of sense because if you’re out there doing this quite often and you have different rigging for every different OEM, you can get crosswise, and things happen. And if we had some standardization there, that would make a tremendous [00:22:00] amount of sense. That’s why, uh, Safe Lifting wrote this article on PES Wind. So if, if you wanna read this article, just visit peswind.com. When engineers plan an offshore wind farm, they try to account for everything, including seabirds. And at the Horns Rev wind farm in the Danish North Sea, the layout was meant to leave birds a clear way through, but the birds had, uh, ideas of their own. After 26 years of patient monitoring, researchers found that the turbines did not simply chase wildlife away. Instead, they reshuffled the entire neighborhood in the sky, turning some species into avoiders and others into opportunists. So this has been a big discussion in the wind industry for a long time, particularly for offshore wind projects, of what to do with the birds. And the early assumption was that, hey, let’s just give them a pathway where they can fly [00:23:00] through, and birds have made up their minds. Some are taking that path. Others are avoiding it because of the change in the which, uh, species are hanging out where. This is a remarkable outcome, and it’s been going on long enough that there’s, uh, some statistical relevance to it now. Do we need to get some bird psychologists involved in these offshore projects on how we think of how birds behave? Because I think to the engineering community, you know, like, you, you put a road there for you to fly through, bird, and then you decide not to. This is at a different level than engineering. Yolanda Padron: I think it’s great to do as much as you can do, right? It’s amazing that they did all of this work. It is kind of funny. I mean, it’s, it’s sad. I’ve… I’m, I’m gonna get into trouble on LinkedIn or something by someone. I, I mean, it’s, it’s sad, of course, if, if birds get hit, right? But it’s, it’s, we can’t control everything. You [00:24:00] know, as much planning that went into this, it’s And what’s the next step here?  Matthew Stead: Well, first of all, 26 years? Is that correct? Yeah, 26 years. I mean, m- I, my- the thought that came to mind is that sometimes engineers don’t understand the natural environment. Sorry, just, just take that as a, as a observation. But, you know, I- it just reminds me of when, um, when civil engineers lay out paths and pavement, you know, they put a path in, but then people walk around it. People do whatever they wanna do. And so, you know, I, I don’t think we can actually design out some of these things because we just will never understand the bird, we’ll never understand the human. Um, so yeah, I think put a little bit of effort in. I think going back to what Yolanda said, just put a, a bit of effort in. But yeah, actually, there are some things in this world we can’t control.  Yolanda Padron: Yeah, I mean, [00:25:00] there’s, there’s of course endangered species. There’s of course, you know, a lot of, a lot of monitoring companies out there that do a really good job. Depending on what you need and depending on, you know… You can tailor your site needs around w- what’s gonna happen, right? Or, you know, if you know that you’re in the migratory pattern of a particular species- There’s, I know there’s a lot of very smart people hard at work to make sure that your site is tailored to fit what needs to, what needs to happen there. And it’s great. I think it’s a great, it’s great to know, you know, that, that people in this industry care about birds. I know I once had to go through extra check at TSA because the, the person there said, you know, “Oh, you work in wind? Save the birds.” And then he sent me through this, like, a lot, because he, he thought I was killing birds every day. Um, so I mean, you know, [00:26:00] we’re not killing birds out here, and it’s great, and it’s lovely to see all the hard work that goes into this. But it, but it also, it’s, it’s important to note that the plans aren’t gonna be 100% foolproof, and that’s okay. You can just try your best.  Allen Hall: What’s the one bird you would assume as an engineer would not care if the wind turbines were there or not? The bird you see absolutely everywhere around the sea. Matthew Stead: Seagull.  Allen Hall: Seagull. They do not care. They love wind turbines. They’ll use them as perches. I’m sure that, uh, yeah, a lot of, uh, technicians had to deal with seagulls, uh, hanging around the wind turbines. That has to be a thing. So it just depends on the species, for sure. Which is unique, right? E- every species has its own separate personality and things that it likes to do. Uh, so in some of the wind turbines, I’m sure the seagulls are probably an annoyance, but they’re gonna let them be. And s- and some other species just don’t wanna be around the wind turbines, so even if you put a pathway through them, they’re just not gonna be [00:27:00] there. That’s an interesting finding.  Matthew Stead: It’s like onshore as well. I mean, cows and sheep love to stand in the shade of a wind turbine, so they like to hang around. They scratch themselves on the, on the, the stair. You know, they, they rub themselves on the bolt covers. You know, they try and eat stuff. Goats, goats are particularly bad.  Allen Hall: Goats are really aggressive on wind farms for finding wires. Absolutely. An- anything to eat.  Yolanda Padron: Raccoons.  Allen Hall: Yes. Raccoons.  Yolanda Padron: Snakes.  Allen Hall: The snakes do hide out in the shade. That is one thing you gotta be careful about is, uh, especially in Texas, of kicking over a rock and finding a snake, so make a lot of noise when you’re walking in Texas. That’s the plan. That wraps up another episode of the Uptime: Wind Energy podcast. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you found some value in today’s conversation, [00:28:00] please leave us a review. It really helps other wind energy professionals discover the show. So for Rosie, Yolanda, and Matthew, I’m Allen Hall, and I’ll see you here next week on the Uptime: Wind Energy podcast.

What happens to your photos, videos, and digital memories when you die? If you're storing them with Apple, Google, or any of the major tech platforms, the answer may surprise, and disturb, you. This week, Faye sits down with Charlotte Ridley, founder and CEO of Memorify Technologies, for one of the most personal and purpose-driven founder stories the Cambridge Tech Podcast has featured. It's a conversation about grief, parenthood, AI, wellbeing, and the very human need to feel connected to the moments that shape us.Charlotte's story begins in 2021, when her father passed away unexpectedly while she was four months pregnant. In the time that followed, she found herself battling Apple and Google for access to his digital memories, and losing. The experience didn't just break her heart. It planted the seed for an entirely new category of technology.Memorify is an AI-powered memory platform - "the home for your digital memories." The app monitors your camera roll with your permission, identifies meaningful photos and moments, curates the best of them, and writes rich narrative summaries of your experiences. Memories are then stored securely, with guaranteed access for up to 100 years after death. Memorify is private, intentional, and rooted in authenticity everything social media has moved away from.Three failed Innovate UK grant applications before winning the fourth, for ethical and impactful novel AI. The pre-seed round was oversubscribed - raising over £420,000 against an initial target of £200,000 - backed by Sheffield Angels, Anglia Capital Group, and FundmyPitch. Memorify is also supported by the London Stock Exchange Group and Innovate UK's high-growth business programme. The seed round opens in early September 2026."Humanity has never documented so much of its life, yet never felt so disconnected from its memories."Listen to the full episode on the Cambridge Tech Podcast and subscribe for weekly updates on the region's most exciting founders and innovations - available on all major platforms.Headline sponsor Holden PolestarProduced by Cambridge TV#CamTechPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What would it take for Oxford to truly unlock its potential as a global innovation hub and what keeps getting in the way?In this Oxford+ In Brief mini episode, host Susannah de Jager puts four quick-fire questions to Dr Holly Reeve, co-founder and CEO of HydRegen. Holly shares what success looks like if Hydregen reaches commercial scale manufacturing, why Oxford's chemistry department has become a breeding ground for spin-outs, and why she wishes the barriers between universities and startups were far lower than they are today.With a new super cluster board forming across the Oxford–Cambridge arc and initiatives like Equinox and OX Tech Week working to connect the ecosystem, Holly argues the direction of travel is encouraging. But she is clear that the real bottleneck is not facilities or funding structures: it is the failure to invest strategically in the people behind the science. Dr Holly Reeve: Holly Reeve is the co-founder and CEO of HydRegen, an Oxford University spin-out developing bio-based catalysts to replace precious metals in chemical manufacturing. She holds a MChem and DPhil in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Oxford, where she worked on the HydRegen technologies from inception in Professor Kylie Vincent's research group. Holly has raised over £1.3 million in early-stage funding from Innovate UK and investors, secured a further £2.6 million led by Clean Growth Fund, and grown the company to 15 people. She is a Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Technology prize winner and a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub's Shott Scale Up Accelerator. In June 2025, HydRegen announced a strategic collaboration with James Robinson Speciality Ingredients to implement its Bio2Amine™ biocatalyst technology in commercial manufacturing.Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital.Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive ContentOxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston.Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

In this episode Jodie talks to Marzia Zafar, Deputy Director for Digitalisation and Innovation at Ofgem, and Laura Sandys CBE, Chair of the Energy Network Innovation Taskforce, about the SIF's new programmatic approach to delivering transformational Innovation in the next five year price control.The programmatic approach has two aspects: Firstly, the Energy Network Innovation Taskforce brought together industry innovation teams and leaders from the energy network sector and beyond. Their role: to identify ambitious, long-term and outcome driven challenges to bring strategic focus to the SIF for the five-year RIIO-3 price control period.Secondly, the introduction of Innovation Delivery Groups to provide a collaboration framework across networks for addressing these Innovation Challenges and ensure accountability to deliver outcomes that reflect customer needs alongside economic growth.Listen to the conversation to find out more.· The identified challenges have been published in the ‘Networks Reimagined: Driving innovation for a future energy system' report - read here· Find out more about the SIF on the Innovate UK Business Connect webpage· Sign up to Innovate UK's regular SIF newsletter

What does it really take to turn a breakthrough in a university lab into a company that could transform how the world makes chemicals?In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Dr Holly Reeve, co-founder and CEO of HydRegen, an Oxford spin-out replacing precious metals in chemical manufacturing with bio-based enzyme catalysts. Holly shares her journey from a farm in rural England to leading a 15-person deep tech company now preparing for manufacturing and raising a Series A.With the global biocatalysis market projected to more than double to USD 10.2 billion by 2033, Hydregen is positioned at the forefront of a sector gaining serious momentum. Holly discusses how she developed leadership skills during her PhD, why the shift from academic to commercial mindset is so difficult, and how she balances curiosity with execution. She also speaks candidly about the challenges of fundraising as a female founder in a sector where women-led deep tech startups still receive only 15% of seed funding.(00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+ (01:22) - Growing Up Curious on a Farm (02:36) - Finding Chemistry at Oxford (04:17) - Inside Kylie Vincent's Research Group (05:17) - Learning to Lead through Delegation (07:16) - Going beyond the Lab to Find Industry (09:00) - Knowing Your Strengths and Building around Them (12:13) - Building Industry Relationships during a PhD (13:43) - Learning to Listen before You Pitch (18:06) - Founding HydRegen (23:57) - Replacing Precious Metals with Bio-based Catalysts (31:19) - Exploration versus Exploitation in Deep Tech Dr Holly Reeve: Holly Reeve is the co-founder and CEO of Hydregen, an Oxford University spin-out developing bio-based catalysts to replace precious metals in chemical manufacturing. She holds a MChem and DPhil in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Oxford, where she worked on the HydRegen technologies from inception in Professor Kylie Vincent's research group. Holly has raised over £1.3 million in early-stage funding from Innovate UK and investors, secured a further £2.6 million led by Clean Growth Fund, and grown the company to 15 people. She is a Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Technology prize winner and a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub's Shott Scale Up Accelerator. In June 2025, HydRegen announced a strategic collaboration with James Robinson Speciality Ingredients to implement its Bio2Amine™ biocatalyst technology in commercial manufacturing.Connect with Holly on LinkedInSusannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital.Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive ContentOxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston.Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

.entry-img img{ display:none !important; } .single .hentry .entry-img{ display:none !important; } https://open.spotify.com/episode/5z9zV5mya9rDz6O8glCfy1 A high-income fractional CFO career is becoming one of the most attractive paths for senior finance leaders who want more control, variety, and upside than a traditional corporate role can offer. As businesses increasingly look for flexible, part-time strategic finance support, the opportunity for experienced CFOs and finance professionals to build profitable portfolio careers has never been greater.  In this episode, Kevin Appleby interviews Rob Nicholls, a fractional CFO, board adviser, and GrowCFO mentor, on how finance leaders can build a high-income, portfolio-style career. Rob draws on his commercially driven background and international experience to explain what a modern fractional CFO really does and how the role can deliver both financial and lifestyle benefits. He shares practical guidance on constructing a high-income fractional CFO portfolio – balancing a mix of clients, leveraging LinkedIn, and using non‑executive roles and mentoring to generate both impact and deal flow. The discussion highlights how deep experience, strategic advisory skills, and deliberate business development combine into a sustainable, long-term fractional CFO career. Key topics covered: How Rob built a high-value fractional CFO and board advisory portfolio across multiple SMEs, drawing on a career that spans finance, operations, sales, and supply chain. Why LinkedIn is central to his business development, including disciplined daily activity that generates around 30 conversations a day and compounds into long-term opportunity. The role of mentoring and advisory work (Innovate UK, university engagements, startup ecosystems) in building reputation, leverage, and future client pipelines. How being industry-agnostic yet commercially focused allows Rob to mentor founders, senior finance executives, and career-changers while remaining anchored in value creation. The impact of technology and AI on CFO work, including tools to streamline board reporting while reinforcing the need for real-world experience and judgment. Why non-executive roles and multiple income streams are powerful components of a resilient, high-income fractional CFO career. Links Rob Nicholls on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn GrowCFO Mentoring Timestamps:  00:00 – Intro to Rob and fractional CFO background 02:10 – From traditional finance to value creation focus 03:33 – Portfolio lifestyle and managing multiple clients 04:25 – LinkedIn strategy and pipeline building 09:37 – Mentoring, startups, and ecosystem leverage 12:15 – Who Rob mentors and career transitions 15:19 – Technology, AI, and modern CFO work 18:59 – Non-exec roles and board careers for CFOs 23:40 – Future plans and fractional startup in biz dev Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast, you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favorite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Spotify and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way, you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. Join GrowCFO as a free member today and participate in our regular networking events and webinars. Premium members can also access our extensive training center and CFO Digital Toolkit. You can enroll in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programs here. You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net

Host: Tom Angus, Director of Conferences, Decarb ConnectGuest: Oskar Schortz, Co-Founder & CCO, GyroPlant In partnership with Urban Future Lab Every hydroponic farm in the world depends on growing substrates - the rockwool, coco coir, or peat that plants grow in and almost all of it ends up in landfill after a single use. It's a supply chain problem hiding in plain sight, embedded in one of the world's most critical industrial sectors.  In this episode of our mini-series in collaboration with Urban Future Lab, Tom is joined by Oskar Schortz is the Co-Founder and CCO of GyroPlant. They discuss how a small UK deep tech company is engineering its way out of that problem entirely, and what it means for the carbon footprint of controlled environment agriculture at commercial scale. GyroPlant, a materials and systems innovation company that has developed the GyroCup — a reusable, food-grade silicone growing vessel designed to last up to 10 years and replace disposable substrates across hydroponic and vertical farming operations. They're working with over 200 companies across multiple continents, including a formal Innovate UK project with Dole plc, and has participated in trade missions to Singapore and the UAE through Innovate UK's Global Incubator Programme.  What you'll take away:Understand what controlled environment agriculture actually is, and why GyroPlant is best understood as a materials and systems company rather than a farming or food businessWhy GyroPlant pivoted from designing whole growing systems to focusing specifically on the substrate problem and what they saw on farms that made that the priorityWhat substrates are, why every hydroponic farm currently depends on them, and why they represent a major sustainability liability in the food production supply chainHow the GyroCup works in practice and what the switchover from single-use growing media actually looks like for a commercial farmWhere the claimed 90% carbon saving versus the next best substrate option actually comes from - manufacturing, shipping, waste disposal, or all threeHow aware large food businesses are of the carbon footprint inside their growing media and whether they're being asked to account for itWhether the indoor farming sector's recent high-profile collapses create headwinds for GyroPlant or whether they actually accelerate demand as farms look to cut costsThe single most important environmental cost that large-scale growers are probably not measuring right nowShow Links:Connect with Oskar Schortz, CCO & Co-Founder of GyroPlantVisit the GyroPlant website to find out moreFollow GyroPlant on LinkedInOur strategic partner, Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon, is a non-profit innovation hub for best-in-class climatetech startups with a focus on clean energy and sustainable urban infrastructure solutions. Check out other episodes of the Decarb Connect podcast and suggest a future guest.Connect with Tom Angus, Director of Conferences of Decarb ConnectLearn more about Decarb ConnectOur global membership platform, events and facilitated introductions support leaders driving industrial and energy innovation. Our clients include the most energy-intensive industrials from cement, metals and mining, glass, ceramics, chemicals, O&G and many more along with technology disruptors, investors and advisors. We have summits coming up in Houston, London, Hamburg, Boston and Toronto and the opportunity to find the biggest brains in energy and carbon management – your future collaborators. For year-round introductions and meaningful insights, get in touch about your membership of the Decarbonisation Leaders Network – so many benefits, hundreds of people equally focused on decarbonisation – find out more and talk with Jack Figg, Community Director.

Welcome back to Upside, where Dan Bowyer of SuperSeed and Lomax Ward of Outsized Ventures, joined by Harry Destecroix, MBE, of SCVC unpack the forces shaping European venture, deep tech and capital.This week's conversation reflects a system shifting: Europe is writing bigger checks, physical AI is moving into focus, and the economics of AI are starting to change.The question is no longer where innovation happens.It is where value accrues.The stack isn't just scaling. It is being contested.What's covered:00:00 Intro and the week's themes02:00 Europe's €15B fund-of-funds and the capital gap08:00 Seed vs growth: where Europe is actually underfunded14:00 Bezos' $100B physical AI strategy20:00 Roll-ups vs rebuilds in the industrial economy25:00 China's token model and the cost collapse of AI31:00 Security, sovereignty and model choice36:00 Innovate UK and founder-led policy41:00 Capex vs revenue: the emerging imbalance47:00 Predictions and market direction52:00 Deals of the week

Climate change means that more extreme weather is going to hit Great Britain. It is vital that we do our best to understand and predict the risks to build resilience in the energy sector.Nicolas Wallet, energy systems innovation lead at SIF, caught up with James Daniel, Alanna Gluck, and Amit Bhave, to find out more about the work of their Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo+), beta project.CReDO+, led by UK Power Networks, is developing a tool that will bring data and expert knowledge together to help networks and regulators see where resilience spending will make the biggest difference for energy customers.Find out more about the SIF on the Innovate UK Business Connect Website Sign up to Innovate UK's regular SIF newsletter

This CEO Is Using Ocean Waves To Generate Power – Meet Inna Braverman Founder & CEO of Eco Wave Power $WAVEGuest: Inna Braverman, Founder & CEO of Eco Wave Power (NASDAQ: WAVE)Company: Eco Wave Power (NASDAQ: WAVE)Websitehttps://www.ecowavepower.com/Inna's BioInna Braverman founded Eco Wave Power at the age of 24, pioneering innovative wave energy technology. Under her leadership, the company installed the first grid-connected wave energy array in Israel, has secured a significant project pipeline of 404.7 MW, and is expanding globally. In July 2021, she led Eco Wave Power's IPO on Nasdaq Capital Market (WAVE), marking a major milestone for the company and the wave energy sector.Recognized as a global leader in renewable energy, Inna has been named one of the “Females Changing the World” by Wired Magazine and one of the “Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company. She is also a recipient of the United Nations Global Climate Action Award.For Inna, clean energy is personal. Born two weeks before the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, she suffered respiratory arrest due to pollution. Her mother, a nurse, saved her life with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This second chance inspired her to dedicate her life to developing a clean and safe method of electricity generation.Company BioEco Wave Power Global (NASDAQ: WAVE) is a pioneering onshore wave energy company that transforms the power of ocean and sea waves into clean, reliable, and cost-efficient electricity through its patented, intelligent technology.With a mission to accelerate the global transition to renewable energy, Eco Wave Power developed and operates Israel's first grid-connected wave energy power station, recognized as a “Pioneering Technology” by the Israeli Ministry of Energy and co-funded by EDF Renewables IL. In the United States, the company recently launched the first-ever onshore wave energy pilot station at the Port of Los Angeles, in collaboration with Shell Marine Renewable Energy (Shell MRE)Eco Wave Power is expanding rapidly worldwide, with upcoming projects in Portugal, Taiwan, and India, representing a robust project pipeline of 404.7 MW under development. The company has received international recognition and support from organizations including the European Union Regional Development Fund, Innovate UK, and the EU Horizon 2020 program, and was honored with the United Nations Global Climate Action Award.Eco Wave Power's American Depositary Shares (ADSs) are traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol “WAVE.”

Andreas Munk Holm opens the episode by introducing Charles Dunn, Principal at SV Health Investors, and Ruth McKernan, CBE and Operating Partner at SV Health, former CEO of Innovate UK. SV Health is a transatlantic healthcare specialist with a focus on company creation and full-spectrum biotech investing. Notable wins include the exit of SV-created EyeBio to Merck & Co for up to $3bn including $1.3bn upfront, and the recent launch of SV's newest company creation Driag Therapeutics, a UK-based neuropsychiatry company, which recently announced its $140m Series A financing.SV Health's approach blends early-stage company creation with later-stage venture investment. Charles emphasizes that this structure allows:Diversified risk for LPs: Early-stage opportunities carry higher risk but higher upside; later-stage investments provide more stability.Learning across stages: Experience in late-stage investing informs early-stage decision-making, and vice versa.Flexible company formation: SV Health creates companies across different development stages, sometimes even after Phase 1 data exists, as with Draig Therapeutics.

Planning grazing by guesswork is costly; planning it with field‑level satellite insight is a game‑changer. We sit down with Chris Knight of Agribot to unpack how AI, radar, and atmosphere forecasting can measure pasture growth, cut labour, and help UK dairy farms make better, faster decisions.Chris shares his journey from space and defence systems into agriculture, and why the most powerful shift is modelling each field on its own behaviour. Instead of relying on generic equations and perfect weather data, Agribot blends discrete atmospheric states with optical and radar satellites to read how your sward actually grows over time. Cloud cover isn't a show‑stopper, because radar sees structure through the gloom. The result is consistent, frequent insight: near‑term dry matter estimates and multi‑week scenarios that flag above‑ or below‑average growth so you can adjust rotations, fertiliser plans, and buffer feeding before the pinch hits.We also get honest about “accuracy.” Plate meters are useful, but they're not a gold standard. The win here is consistency and context: a system you can calibrate to your farm that shows change early and keeps watching every field. That opens a bigger conversation about metrics. Should we keep chasing kilos of DM per hectare, or shift towards usable grazing days, megajoules per hectare, or even expected milk from pasture? Different systems need different lenses, and the same data can support them all. What matters is turning complex signals into decisions that raise milk from forage, protect margins, and reduce stress.There's a wider story too. With labour tight and weeks long, measurement is the job that slips. Tools that save half a day a week without sacrificing control can lift farmer welfare as much as farm performance. Chris's team has kept the work mission‑led with support from Innovate UK and Horizon Europe, proving models before monetising and partnering with early adopters to refine accuracy. If you've wondered whether satellites can truly help you manage grass in a cloudy country, this conversation gives you the how, the why, and the next steps.Enjoyed this? Follow and subscribe, share it with a mate who still plate‑meters every paddock, and leave a quick review so more dairy folks can find the show.Send us a textFor more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast. ChewintheCud Ltd is also on Facebook & LinkedIn. You can email us directly at podcast@chewinthecud.com

In this episode, Vicki chats with Amy Langfield, co-founder of Grow with Iris — a fortified, plant-based drink for children aged 12 months to 4 years. What started as one mum's search for a safe, nutritious alternative for her allergic daughter has grown into a business helping families all over the UK.Amy opens up about:

By Adam Turteltaub Why did the AI do that? It's a simple and common question, but the answer is often opaque, with people referring to black boxes, algorithms and other words that only those in the know tend to understand. Allesia Falsone, a non-executive director of Innovate UK, says that's a problem.  In cases where AI has run amok, the fallout is often worse because the company is unable to explain why the AI made the decision it made and what data it was relying on. AI, she argues, needs to be explainable to regulators and the public.  That way all sides can understand what the AI is doing (or has done) and why. To create more explainable AI, she recommends the creation of a dashboard showing the factors that influence the decisions made.  In addition, teams need to track changes made to the model over time. By doing so, when the regulator or public asks why something happened, the organization can respond quickly and clearly. In addition, by embracing a more transparent process, and involving compliance early, organizations can head off potential AI issues early in the process. Listen is to hear her explain the virtues of explainability.

A down cow should never mean panic. We sit down with Dorset tenant farmer James Yeatman and Synergy Farm Health's research lead, vet Rachel Hayton, to unpack a farmer-built “cow ambulance” that turns a stressful emergency into a calm, repeatable procedure. Born from love for cows and sharpened by hard lessons—and yes, a tough Panorama broadcast—this system pairs a purpose-built, rounded-edge, rubber-lined bucket with a simple reel and straps, then anchors it all with a nine-step training method any well-briefed team can follow.We trace the journey from improvised bucket-rolls and hip lifter misuse to a standard that reduces bruising, cuts secondary injuries, and lowers antibiotic use. James explains the practical design choices: a visible green cross, dedicated storage so nothing goes missing, and a steering-wheel reel for safer operation. Rachel brings the clinical lens and the data: with Innovate UK support, 15 farms logged outcomes from more than a hundred recoveries, revealing fewer people needed, less disruption, and better cow comfort when recovery was realistic. The big picture is compelling—improved welfare, stronger staff safety, and a more professional public image when phones and auditors are watching.We also talk about culture change. Filming real loadings and critiquing them wasn't easy, but it accelerated learning across farms. The online training (lifetime access with the kit) helps new staff build confidence fast, and the team is developing guidance on acceptable hip lifter use, nursing, and prevention—because getting off concrete early and onto sure footing can be the difference between standing and giving up. At around £4,995 delivered in mainland UK, the system can pay for itself by saving just a few cows and avoiding injuries, while giving your team a safer, calmer way to work.Ready to professionalise down cow care on your unit, reduce risk, and protect trust in British dairy? Follow, share, and leave a review so more farm teams can find this conversation—and tell us: what's the one change that most improved cow recovery on your farm?Send us a textFor more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast. ChewintheCud Ltd is also on Facebook & LinkedIn. You can email us directly at podcast@chewinthecud.com

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Matias Carpio, co-founder of Onlyscience – a soon-to-launch SaaS platform on a mission to make advanced marketing analytics accessible to agencies of all sizes. Onlyscience is building an AI-powered analytics tool that enables marketing agencies to quantify and optimise campaign performance – all without needing a technical background. The platform, which includes a storytelling layer for actionable insights, aims to help agencies move beyond spreadsheets and guesswork with a simplified yet powerful solution. Though the business is currently pre-revenue, the team has spent the last 18 months developing the product and recently secured investment – including a highly competitive Innovate UK grant – as they prepare for launch in August 2025. Kevin and Matias dive into the journey so far, discussing the challenges of being a solo founder, the nuances of building and communicating a clear value proposition, and why self-care and continual learning are essential parts of startup life.

Join Jim and Laura for a two-part series diving into the future of consumer-led energy flexibility, through the lens of the SIF-funded Crowdflex project. The project explores how households can play an active role in balancing the electricity grid—whether by shifting when they use power or by making their electric vehicles available for smart, automated control.In part one, SIF Policy Lead Jim Wrigley sits down with Cathy Fraser, Head of Market Requirements at the National Energy System Operator (NESO). Together, they unpack why domestic flexibility matters, and how projects like Crowdflex are helping to build confidence in it as a reliable way to keep the grid in balance.For more details, check out NESO's press release on the Winter trial results, and explore the full set of reports on the Crowdflex webpage. In part two, Jim will be joined by project partners OVO and Ohme to discuss their roles within Crowdflex and to provide further insights into the customer perspective. For more on the Strategic Innovation Fund: www.ofgem.gov.uk/sif See the SIF programme page on Innovate UK's Business Connect website Sign up to the SIF newsletter for regular updates on SIF news and events

In this episode, we visit KU Leuven in Belgium to explore GLIOMATCH, a groundbreaking European research initiative working to improve outcomes for adults and children with glioblastoma through collaboration across neurosurgery, oncology, immunology, and spatial omics. We speak with the experts leading this innovative work. Frederik De Smet, Professor and GLIOMATCH Project Coordinator at KU Leuven, outlines the vision for the project and how it brings together multiple disciplines to tackle one of the most challenging forms of cancer. Steven De Vleeschouwer, MD, PhD, Neurosurgeon and expert in immunotherapy trials, shares how surgical intervention plays a key role not only in treatment but also in advancing research. Paul M. Clement, MD, Medical Oncologist specializing in adult neuro-oncology, discusses the complexities of post-surgical care and how GLIOMATCH is helping improve decision-making. Sandra Jacobs, MD, Pediatric Neuro-Oncologist, highlights the unique challenges in treating children and the need for tailored research approaches. Thierry Voet, PhD, Chair of the Leuven Institute for Single-Cell Omics, explains how cutting-edge spatial omics is transforming our understanding of glioblastoma biology. Abhishek D. Garg, PhD, Tumor Immunology Specialist, shares how data science and deep immune profiling are driving new insights into overcoming immunotherapy resistance. GLIOMATCH is a testament to the power of collaboration in pushing the boundaries of glioblastoma research and offering hope for patients and families worldwide. This work is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This work is also supported by Innovate UK [grant number 10113516] and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under the contract number 23.00607. Learn more at www.gliomatch.eu This episode is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for guidance specific to your health or treatment plan.

In this episode, Alex Stolz speaks with Guy Gadney, CEO and founder of Charismatic.ai, about how generative AI is being used not just to assist, but to co-create stories in bold new ways. Charismatic — a spin-out from a major UK R&D consortium with Channel 4 and Aardman — has developed a platform that enables creators to develop structured, consistent narratives from the seed of an idea, with real-time iteration and animated playthroughs. The result? A system that's making storytelling more accessible, scalable, and personalized than ever before. We explore how this technology could unlock new opportunities for storytellers globally, from neurodiverse creators to grassroots communities, and what the rise of microdramas — short, serialized, mobile-native stories — means for audience engagement, monetization, and the next wave of creator-owned IP. Guy also shares his candid views on AI, authenticity, and why creators must act now to ensure the future of content is not just automated — but equitable. About Guy Gadney Guy is CEO and Founder of Charismatic.ai which is at the forefront of Creative AI. He has run three start-ups as well as working for international media and telco organisations. With Charismatic.ai, Guy is transforming the use of AI in film, television and video games, focusing on the power of good storytelling and bridging the gap between the creative and technology industries. He has produced Emmy and BAFTA-nominated digital productions, and interactive narratives for Warner Bros, Dreamworks, Sky and the BBC, as well as the award-winning AI game adaptation of John Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes. Guy is on Innovate UK's BridgeAI Advisory Board, a Trustee of Sheffield Doc Fest, on the Board of Oxford's Story Museum, and a co-founder of The Collaborative AI Consortium in 2019, researching the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Creative Industries.​ You can find out more about Charasmatic AI at www.charasmatic.ai. www.futureoffilm.live 2025

The UK Investor Magazine was delighted to be joined by Kevin Limn, CEO of Adsure Services, to delve into the company's TIAA Insight AI tool.Learn more about Adsure Services here.TIAA Insight is Adsure Services' proprietary artificial intelligence tool designed to improve operational efficiency within their subsidiary, TIAA Ltd, which provides internal audit and business assurance services.The AI tool is built using a closed-source large language model trained exclusively on TIAA's own data rather than open internet sources, ensuring privacy and security for their government-funded clients, including emergency services, educational institutions, and housing associations.The tool forms part of Adsure's strategy to strengthen its position as the preferred provider to the UK public sector through technological advancement.Developed with an Innovate UK grant in 2023, TIAA Insight will first enhance internal processes before Adsure potentially explores licensing the software to external parties. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In healthcare, some of the most meaningful innovations happen when the right people are brought together in the right place. True progress depends on systems and infrastructure designed to connect ideas, people, and expertise across sectors. Citylabs 4.0, now open in the heart of Manchester's Knowledge Quarter on the Oxford Road Corridor, was built with exactly that goal in mind. Bringing the NHS, academia, and life sciences organisations into close, purposeful proximity, providing a structural foundation for collaboration at scale. In this special live recording of the pharmaphorum podcast, developed in association with Bruntwood SciTech, Bruntwood SciTech's CSO Dr Kath Mackay, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust T's Dr Katherine Boylan, and Dr Gillian Dalgliesh from QIAGEN join Deep Dive editor Eloise McLennan onstage at the opening of Citylabs 4.0 to discuss innovation in life sciences and the role of Greater Manchester in accelerating research, industry collaboration, and real-world evidence generation. Join us as we examine how this deliberate integration of healthcare stakeholders in Manchester is establishing new standards for collaboration and advancing patient outcomes through structured knowledge exchange. About the interviewees Dr Kath Mackay Kath Mackay is Chief Scientific Officer of Bruntwood SciTech - a JV between leading property developer Bruntwood, Legal & General, and Greater Manchester Pension Fund - the UK's leading creator and developer of innovation districts driving growth of the UK science and technology sector.  She has a keen interest in growing businesses and infrastructure within the sector, ensuring the UK is the best place to establish and scale a science and tech organisation.   Dr Mackay joined Bruntwood SciTech from the executive board of Innovate UK where she led the team responsible for growing businesses working in the biomedical, health, agriculture, and food sectors, creating and delivering a £800m portfolio of infrastructure, Catapults, grant and loan investments. She is also non-executive director of the Northern Health Science Alliance, the North of England's health partnership, and an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. Dr Katherine Boylan Katherine is Director of Innovation at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), a position she has held since April 2020. This role involves overseeing innovation activities within MFT, as part of the wider Research and Innovation function. Innovation at MFT supports the whole pipeline from ideation, through to evidence generation, and ultimate implementation. She has been a member of the NICE Medical Technologies Advisory Committee since September 2020. Prior to this position, Dr Boylan worked in the University of Manchester for a number of years, most recently as Operations Director for the MRC funded Molecular Pathology Node, and the Trust-funded Diagnostics and Technology Accelerator. Dr Gillian L Dalgliesh, PhD Global Technical lead, Precision Diagnostics Gillian Dalgliesh has worked for QIAGEN for nine years and is based at their Manchester site, which is the global centre of excellence for molecular diagnostic development. QIAGEN partner with many drug companies to develop companion diagnostic (CDx) tests that enable clinical trials and subsequently launches of novel precision medicines. In recent years they have seen a real move beyond oncology into other disease areas such as immune, neurological and metabolic disorders. Dr Dalgliesh's role as global technical lead allows her to leverage her oncology precision medicine experience across the portfolio to bring precision diagnostic products to more patients. She has built her experience in precision medicine/oncology through not only her QIAGEN role but also through seven years working in precision medicine in AstraZeneca and prior to that working as part of the cancer genome project at the Sanger institute. Dr Dalgliesh is also an honorary senior lecturer at University of Manchester where she coordinates and delivers lectures for a QIAGEN sponsored BSc final year elective module ‘The Role of Diagnostics in Medicine'. This is part of a wider outreach role with the University and our NHS hospital. Through these roles she is keen to impact the local UK science community. About Bruntwood SciTech Bruntwood SciTech is the UK's largest dedicated property platform serving the growth of the nation's knowledge economy to become a global science and technology superpower. It is also the leading developer of city-wide innovation ecosystems and specialist environments, helping companies - particularly those in the science and technology sectors - to form, scale and grow A joint venture between Bruntwood, Legal & General and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF), Bruntwood SciTech provides high quality office and laboratory space and tailored business support, offering unrivalled access to finance, talent and markets, an extensive clinical, academic and public partner network and a sector-specialist community of more than 1100 companies. Bruntwood SciTech is experienced in creating and developing strategic partnerships with UK regional cities, universities and NHS Trusts to drive economic growth. Its unique structure and funding vehicle more easily deploys long-term patient capital in innovation infrastructure, ensuring local economic benefit and growth. Valued at £1.5bn, Bruntwood SciTech has a portfolio of 5.2m sq ft across 11 campus locations and 31 city centre innovation hubs in Manchester, Cheshire, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge and London. It has plans to create a £5bn portfolio by 2033 and has a 2.3m sq ft secured development pipeline. Its campus locations include Alderley Park in Cheshire; West Village in Leeds; Innovation Birmingham; Birmingham Health Innovation Campus in partnership with the University of Birmingham; Melbourn Science Park in Cambridgeshire; Liverpool Science Park as a shareholder in Sciontec Liverpool; White City Deep Tech Campus in partnership with Imperial College London; and a cluster in the heart of Manchester's Oxford Road Corridor knowledge quarter - Manchester Science Park, Citylabs in partnership with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), Circle Square - a joint venture with Vita Group; and the £1.7bn JV partnership with The University of Manchester - Sister, formerly known as IDManchester. Its city centre innovation hubs include Bloc, Bond, 111 Piccadilly, Pall Mall and Manchester One in Manchester; Platform in Leeds; Cornerblock and Centre City in Birmingham; and The Plaza in Liverpool. Website / Twitter / LinkedIn / Instagram

This week on Everything About Hydrogen we have Kyle Arnold, the Managing Director of HyHAUL Mobility Ltd (HML). The company is leading the largest roll out of hydrogen Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) refueling infrastructure in the United Kingdom, operating along the M4 with 30 trucks by Q2 2026, supported by funding from the UK Department for Transport (DfT) Zero Emission Road Freight Transport (ZERFT). ZERFT has been subsequently rebranded as Zero Emissions HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrations (ZEHID). HML plans to eventually deploy over 300 fuel cell trucks totaling 44 tonnes of gross weight, by 2030. Kyle previously developed, built and operated hydrogen refuelling infrastructure across the UK and Europe, notably the Tyseley refuelling site in Birmingham, the largest in Europe.About HML:HyHAUL is an ambitious initiative to establish the UK's first dedicated hydrogen mobility corridor, setting a new benchmark in sustainable transport by proving the feasibility and scalability of hydrogen in heavy-duty freight operations.By leveraging hydrogen's potential to power zero-emission vehicles, HyHAUL directly addresses the decarbonisation of the most challenging and emission-intensive duty cycles in road transport. This pioneering effort supports the UK's broader commitment to achieving net-zero emissions.About Kyle Arnold:HML Managing Director with over 20 years' experience in project management, innovative engineering, and delivering First-Of-A-kind (FOAK) hydrogen projects across the UK, EU, and beyond. Throughout his career, he's had the privilege of leading talented teams to ensure these groundbreaking projects are delivered safely, efficiently, and effectively. He's worked closely with local and national governments and collaborated with some of the world's most recognizable companies to drive innovation and make net-zero ambitions a reality. At the heart of everything he does, is a commitment to safety, sustainability, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the green hydrogen space.--Links:HML - https://hyhaul.co.uk/DfT and Innovate UK - https://www.cittimagazine.co.uk/news/infrastructure/dft-and-innovate-uk-programme-to-create-54-new-zero-emission-hgv-infrastructure-hubs-across-the-uk.html

The UK Digital Twin Centre has officially opened in Belfast, marking a major milestone in the UK's digital innovation landscape. Delivered by Digital Catapult and funded by the Belfast Region City Deal and Innovate UK, the project is set to drive the next wave of industrial transformation by accelerating the adoption of digital twin technology across the UK's critical sectors, projected to reach £62million in GVA for the economy over the next decade. A Digital Twin is a dynamic virtual representation ('twin') of a physical asset, process, or system, bridging the physical and digital worlds. They turn data into real-time insights that can optimise performance, reduce costs, and predict outcomes before they happen. Since funding for the project was announced, Digital Catapult has brought together industry and innovators to identify adoption barriers and strategic interventions. At the Centre's opening, the project's co-investing industry partners - Artemis Technologies, Spirit AeroSystems, and Thales UK - utilised the cutting-edge facilities, including the 360-degree immersive space and advanced technology lab, to demonstrate how digital twins are helping to solve complex operational challenges. These early-stage use cases emphasise the power of cross-sector collaboration to create scalable, practical solutions while building expertise that can be shared across industries, ultimately improving product design, building supply chain resilience, and decarbonising operations. Programmes delivered by the UK Digital Twin Centre will help businesses across the UK to demystify, demonstrate, and deploy digital twins. With expert support, test environments and tools to experiment and validate, combined with shared learnings from industry use cases, it offers a practical route to adoption. The Centre has convened capabilities across digital twins six enabling technology areas - intelligence, data services, immersive and UX, cyber-physical systems, integration, and security - to make this emerging technology more accessible and interoperable across sectors and suppliers. "The UK Digital Twin Centre marks a major step for Belfast, driving innovation in high-growth sectors like advanced manufacturing," said the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Micky Murray. "Through the Belfast Region City Deal and with Digital Catapult's UK-wide reach, we're connecting our SMEs to a powerful network, unlocking access to new markets, collaboration opportunities, and cutting-edge technologies. This will boost local businesses, create high-skilled jobs, and drive real economic impact for the region." The Centre's first six-month Accelerator Programme, now open for pre-application expressions of interest, will support partnerships between tech SMEs and industry to fast-track digital twin adoption in maritime, aerospace, and defence. Alongside Innovate UK funding, participants will also gain access to mentorship, workshops, and specialist support to develop proofs of concept for enabling technologies - such as IoT, data integration, and simulation tools - bringing their solutions closer to real-world deployment. "The UK Digital Twin Centre brings together our technical expertise, facilities, and networks to unlock the power of deep technologies,' said Susan Bowen, CEO of Digital Catapult. "By connecting industries with cutting-edge technology through our programmes, we are enabling businesses to harness the full potential of digital twins-driving operational efficiencies, advancing sustainability, and sharpening the competitive edge of UK businesses." Dean Cook, Executive Director for Place and Global?at Innovate UK, added, "Seeing real-world use cases coming to life at the UK Digital Twin Centre is a powerful demonstration of how digital twins can deliver tangible advances for UK industry. These cutting-edge tools will solve complex business challenges in aerospace, maritime, and defence. "It's a testament to how we are leveraging the strengths of local inno...

A new project which enables farmers to optimise the use of livestock manure and nutrients while reducing costs and environmental impact is underway following a collaboration of industry experts. The project, called 'Nutrient Utilisation and Recovery through Supercritical Extraction', or NURSE, is led by collaborators including Kairos Carbon Limited (lead), Cranfield University, Royal Agricultural University and the UK Agri-Tech Centre and is part of Defra's Farming Innovation Programme, delivered in partnership with Innovate UK. Nutrient Utilisation and Recovery through Supercritical Extraction to help environment It aims to develop an advanced hydrothermal technology to process livestock wastes - to recover the valuable nutrients they contain - producing carbon-negative, non-leaching fertiliser, while separating the carbon for permanent sequestration. The UK produces approximately 140 million tonnes of livestock waste annually, most of which is spread on farmland. The work of the project will help to reduce emissions by stripping out any carbon before fertiliser is applied to the land. Less than 50% of applied nutrients, such as phosphorus, are taken up by crops when livestock waste is spread on land. Meanwhile, farmers' fertiliser costs are increasing while fertiliser resources, such as phosphorus, are being depleted. By formulating non-leaching fertiliser, which enables more of the nutrients to actually be absorbed by plants, the project aims to keep farmers' costs down and reduce waste of resources. It is vital that farmers are given new tools to recover and reuse valuable nutrients, whilst also reducing their environmental impacts. What are the wider impacts? The technology directly benefits farmers and their impacts through recovering critical materials from livestock waste in condensed form for targeted use as low-leaching, sustainable fertiliser, reducing costs and improving yields. It also allows for better management and processing of waste, the destruction of organic pollutants and the extraction of carbon for capture and storage, all while being energy-neutral. These benefits directly meet UK requirements to improve the management of the tonnes of livestock waste produced, most of which is in England. Kairos' analysis demonstrates they can profitably achieve UK-wide coverage of livestock waste sources. Kairos aims to reduce emissions from UK agriculture as well as prevent pollutants and nutrients from entering water sources. It also aims to prevent air pollution from livestock waste and many other sources of agricultural pollution. In addition, Kairos' technology will support creation and safeguarding of hundreds of skilled jobs across its supply chain including farming and agronomy, such as protecting rural communities, and chemical engineering, such as fabrication and maintenance. The technology can expand to additional industries such as sewage sludge, municipal waste and hazardous chemicals, removing more emissions, pollution and making more nutrients available for agriculture. Megha Raghavan, CEO of Kairos Carbon Limited, said: "It is critical that we find ways to turn wet organic wastes from a problem into a resource. "This technology has the potential to prevent environmental contamination, fight nutrient depletion and remove billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making it a powerful tool in the fight against climate change." Dr Stuart Wagland, Reader in Energy and Environmental Chemistry at Cranfield University, said: "Developing novel thermochemical processes to manage challenging wet wastes, dealing with emerging contaminants and recovering nutrients will have a significant impact across the UK and we are excited to be involved in this project." Dr Karen Rial-Lovera, Associate Professor in Agriculture and Dean of Agricultural Science and Practice at the Royal Agricultural University, said: "This innovation seeks to support our growing need for sustainable nutrient management in agri...

A project that aims to use kelp extracts to manage nutrients more efficiently is underway with a partnership of experts funded by Innovate UK. The project, 'Assessing Sugar Kelp Extracts as a Nutrient Management Tool' (or SKE-NMT), is in its early stages and is led by Algapelago Marine Ltd in collaboration with project partners The James Hutton Institute, Atlantic Mariculture Ltd and the UK Agri-Tech Centre. This project responds to the need for more efficient nutrient management in agriculture by adopting a biological approach, valuing the importance of microbial and fungal communities in the breakdown, cycling and retention of nutrients in soil. Through application of seaweed biostimulants under reduced mineral fertiliser application, this project aims to confirm new nutrient management options through stimulating plant responses and promoting healthy soil biology. Kelp extracts to manage nutrients more efficiently Seaweed supplements (due to their uniquely rich profile of fibres, micronutrients and bioactive components) enhance the growth of specific microbiota in soil, which leads to a cascade of biological functions with beneficial impacts for productivity, resistance to abiotic stress and resistance to pathogens. This approach is relevant across a wide range of crop types including broadacre, horticulture and top fruit. As such, use of seaweed biostimulants meet multiple biotic and abiotic challenges to transition to more sustainable and resilient farming systems. This will unlock further research opportunities to explore larger-scale field trials to confirm the ability of kelp biostimulants to improve Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE). How does it work? Rhizosphere microbiota is a collection of microorganisms that live in the soil and around plant roots and plays an essential role in the degradation of organic matter, nutrient retention and recycling. Previous work has shown seaweed extract application improves microbial diversity and community structure and benefits crop yield and quality. The SKE-NMT project builds on an ongoing Innovate UK project, called 'Optimising Low Energy Extraction of Kelp for Soil and Livestock Nutrition', and is assessing the ability of biostimulants and livestock feed additives, again derived from sugar kelp using a novel low energy extraction method, to influence feed efficiency and improve soil health. The seaweed extracts are novel, firstly because cultivated sugar kelp (a type of brown alga native to UK coastal waters) is a new species in the seaweed extract industry with a unique biochemical profile. Secondly, these extracts are produced using a novel low-energy fermentation and extraction process. Cultivated kelp offers a sustainable and scalable alternative to wild harvested marine biomass. However, the potential of novel cultivated seaweed biomass, particularly in applications like biostimulants, remains underexplored. This project aims to establish an innovative supply chain where cultivated seaweed biomass serves as a cornerstone, significantly contributing to the global transition toward sustainable agricultural practices. The new SKE-NMT project will quantify the ability of these low energy seaweed extracts to improve nutrient use efficiency in stringently designed crop trials. This will explore yield responses under reduced nitrate and phosphate conditions and correlate improved uptake of Nitrogen and Phosphorus under fertiliser limitation with impacts on microbial diversity and community structure. The project will combine the development of new technologies (novel seaweed extracts) with further means to improve nutrient use efficiency in arable and horticultural systems. Wider impacts Conventional nutrient management systems depend on high mineral fertiliser inputs, leading to high input costs and environmental issues. Incorporation of seaweed supplements can improve NUE with significant implications for carbon emissions and soil fertility. This project tests the hypothesis th...

Business Growth Toolkit – a series from The Standards Show - developed in collaboration with Innovate UK Business Growth.Innovate UK is the UK's innovation agency. And Innovate UK Business Growth is the agencies national business growth and scaling service. It helps thousands of businesses sharpen their commercial strategies, realise the maximum value from their intellectual property (IP), raise game changing investment, and take their businesses onto the global stage every year, through tailored, one-to-one support.The series looks at the relationship between standards and some key business issues, with particular relevance for SMEs.In this episode of the series, Victoria Milne speaks to Andrew Stanton and Andrew Philips about the relationship between IP, innovation management and standards. And how organizations can use the standard ISO 56005 to effectively manage their IP within their innovation processes.Series | Business Growth ToolkitFind out more about the issues raised in this episodeIUKEDGEtoolkit@bsigroup.com Business Growth Toolkit Get involved with standardsGet in touch with The Standards Showeducation@bsigroup.comsend a voice messageFind and follow on social mediaX @StandardsShowInstagram @thestandardsshowLinkedIn | The Standards Show

To kick off 2025, we're talking "business angels": the people who take big bets investing their personal wealth into startups at their earliest stages, and without whom most companies would never get off the ground.So, how do you actually become an angel investor? How much money do you need to commit? How many investments should you be making? And how can the UK and Europe lay the groundwork for a more representative next generation of investors?Amy poses these questions to Jenny Tooth, a veteran angel who's also executive chair of the UK Business Angels Association, representing over 15k investors nationwide. Jenny shares insights from her work on Innovate UK's emerging tech steering board and her new initiative, WomenInvestEU, aimed at creating a more inclusive early-stage investment landscape.

An innovative project that uses birdsong as a key to unlocking the secrets of wildlife has been launched in a collaboration between the UK Agri-Tech Centre and Chirrup.ai. Chirrup.ai launched the groundbreaking technology to make nature monitoring simpler and cheaper, making it an affordable solution for measuring and managing biodiversity. The project, 'ChirrupNano', with funding from Innovate UK, uses birdsong to monitor wildlife previously unseen in nature reserves and back garden bird counts. The next-generation bio-recorder is slimline, self-locating, remotely deployed, and designed and built right here in the UK. It's delivered straight to the farm and can be deployed in sun and shade, in remote fields, and woodland - wherever it's needed. Chirrup's AI already recognises over 100 species from Great Britain and Ireland. It is already getting major retraining to recognise all the important species that the UK's pioneering non-governmental organisations have drawn to our attention, thanks to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), The Wildlife Trusts and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT). The redesigned website app lets farms compare their species lists to others, to standard benchmarks, and even their past performance. This empowers them to make more informed decisions about sustainable practices, leading to a richer, healthier ecosystem - such as increased plant diversity, better soil, and fewer pests. Birds are ecological barometers; they're everywhere, super responsive to change and their presence tells a story about the thriving life in the places they occupy - from insects and plants to clean water and the general quality of the ecosystem. With farmland covering a huge 71% of the UK, it is the ideal testing ground for the next-generation Chirrup.ai and farmers are being asked to respond to changing government and food company policies on pro-wildlife production. The ChirrupNano project is about making it easy, fast, and affordable. One hundred farmers were invited to a farmland trial to help refine the next-generation Chirrup.ai, and will also contribute to the future of environmental monitoring in the UK. Hayley Gerry, Project Manager at the UK Agri-Tech Centre, said, "The expanse of knowledge we can gain about biodiversity in an area using the bioacoustics of bird song is extremely impressive. "To enable sustainable farming, we need to encourage multi-species habitats to enrich the areas, which in turn makes the farming of livestock and arable products sustainable," continued Gerry. "In order to do this we need to be able to measure the baseline of the current situation, and that is where this project comes in." Dr Stella Peace, Executive Director for Healthy Living and Agriculture at Innovate UK, said, "These innovations are crucial for safeguarding our natural environment. "By investing in these pioneering projects, we're helping businesses unlock innovations that make life better, ensuring that the UK leads the way in developing sustainable solutions that benefit both our economy and our communities," said Peace. Next steps The project will be put to the test in the spring of 2025 across the UK. An expert ornithologist and ecologists will analyse and validate the results whilst the UK Agri-Tech Centre will help us to link outcomes to agricultural practices. To share the findings. Chirrup.ai will host two exciting events at the end of the project. Chirrup.ai helps farmers and land managers understand their land better. By listening to birds and using smart AI technology, they create tools that track biodiversity, help farms meet environmental goals, and support sustainable agriculture. Their mission is to make it easier for farmers, land managers, food intermediaries, brand companies and retailers to measure, protect, and improve local ecosystems.

Événements - le 7 novembre 2024 au ministère de la recherche et de l'enseignement supérieur à Paris à un séminaire de présentation du programme de “recherche à risque” lancé par l'État fin 2023.Détails dans un post de 14 pages sur https://www.oezratty.net/wordpress/2024/recherche-a-risque/ - Le Laboratoire international CNRS Majulab  organisait son premier Symposium Franco-Singapourien sur le quantique la semaine du 5 au 7 novembre. - Journées Teratec sur les algorithmes et les capteurs quantiques chez EDF à Palaiseau des 13 et 14 novembre (slides)  - Journées du GDR TEQ ont eu lieu à Jussieu des 13 au 15 novembre pour faire le point de la recherche quantique au CNRS et aussi dans les autres ONR comme Inria, avec des intervenants de renom d'autres pays comme David Awschalom de l‘Université de Chicago (lien, book of abstracts). Le prochain GDR TEQ aura lieu à Grenoble fin novembre 2025. - OVHcloud Summit, c'était le 28 novembre et le cloud provider Français fêtait ses 25 ans. Mais surtout Octave Klaba son fondateur annonçait une roadmap quantique sur 6 ans en commençant après 6 émulateurs avec une première QPU à 100 qubits dans le cloud dès 2025 avec Pasqal comme partenaire. Efforts salué par la Secrétaire d'État chargée de l'Intelligence artificielle et du Numérique Clara Chappaz. - le 8 novembre le UK National Quantum Technologies Showcase 2024 par Innovate UK, une journée dédiée aux acteurs du pays qui présentaient leurs solutions. L'événement rassemblait plus de 2000 participants dans un lieu magnifique. Le replay des conférences est disponible. Il y avait beaucoup de startups présentant leur offre dans différents segments du domaine des capteurs quantiques. - L'événement EQTC2024 (European Quantum Technologies Conference) rassemblait du 18 au 20 novembre les acteurs des projets européens quantiques à Lisbonne avec plusieurs centaines de participants. Le tout associait des talks techniques (sur les simulations quantiques, les communications quantiques, l'intégration HPC-QPU, les capteurs, le benchmarking) et plus business ou politiques. Comme sur the European Quantum Declaration (avec la participation d'Eleni Diamanti), sur la formation, le quantique dans la société (avec Raja Yehia représentant la QEI), la standardisation (avec Florent Staley du CEA). - Le second symposium Alain Aspect organisé par Quantonation et Pasqal portait sur le climat. Cela commençait avec un panel animé par Etienne Klein (CEA) avec Alain Aspect et Tim Palmer, un physicien spécialisé dans les questions climatiques. Événement à venir : - Q2B à Santa Clara du 10 au 12 décembre avec un beau programme.   - QEI Workshop à Grenoble du 6 au 10 janvier 2025. Inscriptions (gratuites) : https://qei2025.sciencesconf.org/ - Quantum Computing Scalability Conference 2025Du 2 au 4 avril 2025 à Oxford.https://www.nqcc.ac.uk/scalability-conference-2025/  Actualités : France- Début novembre, Quandela annonçait la mise en place d'une offre de cloud chez Scaleway.  - Le 21 novembre, Pasqal annonçait une nouveauté dans le cadre de son partenariat avec IBM. Pasqal s'intègre dans Qiskit pour créer des workflows de calcul hybride analogique/digital quantique (détails). I - Miles Stoudenmire (Flatiron Institute) et Xavier Waintal (CEA-IRIG) ont publié leur papier sur les limitations de l'algorithme de Grover dans PRXOpening the Black Box inside Grover's Algorithm, Stoudenmire and Waintal, PRX, November 2024. International - Qolab, un nouvelle startup créée au début de l'année 2024. Elle a été lancée entre autres par John Martinis d'UCSB, l'ancien patron du hardware de Google qui avait créé la fameuse expérience Sycamore de 2019 liée à l'annonce de « suprématie quantique ».How to Build a Quantum Supercomputer: Scaling Challenges and Opportunities by Masoud Mohseni, John M. Martinis et al, arXiv, November 2024 (64 pages). - Le lendemain de Qolab, Atom Computing sortait deux preprints sur arXiv, dont l'un avec Microsoft. Le premier papier portait sur la publication de résultats sur les fidélités de leurs qubits qui utilisent le spin de noyaux d'atomes d'ytterbium. Le second concernait la réalisation de qubits logiques avec le même système.High-fidelity universal gates in the 171Yb ground state nuclear spin qubit by J. A. Muniz, B. J. Bloom et al, arXiv, November 2024 (14 pages).Logical computation demonstrated with a neutral atom quantum processor by Ben W. Reichardt, Matthew B. Hastings, Krysta M. Svore, Benjamin J. Bloom et al, Atom Computing, Microsoft, Stanford University, USC, arXiv, November 2024 (17 pages). - D-Wavehttps://thequantuminsider.com/2024/11/06/benchmarking-results-d-waves-4400-qubit-advantage2-processor-can-tackle-materials-science-tasks-25000-times-faster/ - IQM révélait sa nouvelle roadmap le 13 novembre.  - Lors de sa conférence développeurs organisée à Yorktown Heights, IBM révélait de nouveaux éléments incrémentaux. - L'action d'IonQ se porte très bien. Elle a doublé en un mois. Probablement vu que leur carnet de commande est rempli grâce à $70M de projets financés par l'AFRL. Ils mettent le paquet sur l'IA en annonçant prévoir de créer une intelligence de type humaine. Quantum Circuit Components for Cognitive Decision-Making par Dominic Widdows et al, Entropy, Mars 2023 (22 pages) qui met en place un modèle probabiliste de décision qui gère des problèmes comme le dilemme du prisonnier. Voir

Episode 48 - Inge Hunter, Cambridge-based founder of Clue Content, overcame homelessness and now leads a pioneering AI/ML startup, recognised by Innovate UK. Disclaimer: Please note that all information and content on the UK Health Radio Network, all its radio broadcasts and podcasts are provided by the authors, producers, presenters and companies themselves and is only intended as additional information to your general knowledge. As a service to our listeners/readers our programs/content are for general information and entertainment only.  The UK Health Radio Network does not recommend, endorse, or object to the views, products or topics expressed or discussed by show hosts or their guests, authors and interviewees.  We suggest you always consult with your own professional – personal, medical, financial or legal advisor. So please do not delay or disregard any professional – personal, medical, financial or legal advice received due to something you have heard or read on the UK Health Radio Network.

Inge Hunter, based in Cambridge, England, overcame significant adversity, including homelessness after aging out of the foster system, to become a successful entrepreneur. Despite financial struggles during her education, she persevered, earning a degree and later founding multiple businesses. In 2023, she won the Great British Entrepreneur Award for her work in technology. Hunter is the founder of Clue Content, a content creation agency specializing in social media. Her innovative approach includes filming three months' worth of content in just three days, making high-quality production accessible to businesses of all sizes. Clue Content, based in Newmarket, employs 14 staff and collaborates with clients across the UK. Hunter has recently been accepted into the UK government's Innovate UK program, where she is developing AI and machine learning technology, one of only 3% of women to receive funding in this category. Clue Content has also been named a finalist in two categories at the UK StartUp Awards: "Marketing Advertising & PR StartUp of the Year" and "Equity-backed StartUp of the Year." Inge's journey from hardship to entrepreneurial success highlights her resilience, creativity, and dedication to supporting other businesses through content marketing. ---- SOCIALS: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inge.hunter/?hl=en Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@inge.hunter LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ingehunter/ Website: www.ingehunter.co.uk    

A €19.6 million partnership project, which aims to be the stepping stone towards large scale wave energy commercialisation, has received formal go-ahead from the European Union. WEDUSEA is a pioneering collaboration between 14 partners, spanning industry and academia from across the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Spain. It is co-ordinated by the Irish company OceanEnergy. The project is co-funded by the EU Horizon Europe Programme and by Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency. In common with all other Horizon Europe projects, WEDUSEA has undergone a comprehensive independent review by EU appointed external experts following its initial project design period to ensure the technical designs and all plans, budgets and protocols are fully in place and approved. The green light has now been received from the EU and the project can proceed to its next stage. The WEDUSEA project will demonstrate a grid connected 1MW OE35 floating wave energy converter at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) wave energy test site at Billia Croo in Orkney, Scotland. A rigorous technical and environmental demonstration will happen over a two-year period in Atlantic wave conditions. OceanEnergy has developed the OE35, which is the world's largest capacity floating wave energy device. Floating on the ocean's surface, the device incorporates a trapped air volume, with the lower part open to the sea. Wave pressures at the submerged opening cause the water to oscillate and drive the trapped air through a turbine to generate electricity. Electricity generated will be exported to the UK grid via EMEC's subsea cables. Prof Tony Lewis, Chief Technical Officer at OceanEnergy, says: "Wave energy is the world's most valuable renewable resource with around 30TWh of potential annual production waiting to be harnessed. That's almost ten times Europe's annual electricity consumption. However, this potential has yet to be fully realised. The project will demonstrate that wave technology is on a cost reduction trajectory and will thus be a stepping stone to larger commercial array scale up and further industrialisation. We predict that the natural energy of the world's oceans will one day supply much of the grid." The WEDUSEA project has three phases. The first phase is the initial design and build of a device suited to the ocean conditions at EMEC's Billia Croo wave energy test site. This will be followed by the demonstration at the site, lasting two years. The final phase will be commercialisation and dissemination which sees the capitalisation and exploitation of the results. Matthijs Soede from the European Commission said at the start of the project: "WEDUSEA is set to be a major catalyst for the wave energy industry, unlocking the full potential of this exciting renewable technology. Prof Lars Johanning of University of Plymouth says: "The WEDUSEA partnership has worked hard to ensure that all detailed designs and planning are robust, to prove that the project is viable and that the project will be delivered within budget. Now we have received the green light from the EU, it's all systems go!" The wave converter build starts in the second half of 2024 and the demonstration at EMEC is expected to begin in June 2025. More about Irish Tech News Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too. You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here: https://anchor.fm/irish-tech-news If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie now to discuss. Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at Info@IrishTechNews.ie now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience. You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

In this episode of Giant Robots Smashing into Other Giant Robots (On Tour!), hosts Sami Birnbaum and Svenja Schäfer are joined by Karishma Gupta, the Founder and CEO of Eslando Circular Fashion. Eslando is a fashion company dedicated to changing the clothing industry through circular economy principles and textile recycling. Its mission is to simplify recycling and ensure compliance with EU regulations by connecting brands, consumers, and recyclers, fostering transparency and efficiency in the fashion industry. In today's conversation, Karishma delves into her company's innovative Digital Product Passport and how it's revolutionizing the fashion and textile industries. We discuss how her company helps the right material get to the right recycler using data and leveraging AI to map the process. Tune in to explore how the circular economy applies to the fashion industry, the current recycling gaps, what motivates fashion brands to be more sustainable, and how Eslando is reducing the carbon footprint of the textile supply chain! Key Points From This Episode: Background on Karishma and what led her to start a tech company. How recycling in fashion differs from other industries that recycle. An outline of the biggest recycling hurdles facing the fashion industry. The complex range of materials in clothes and the problems they create. Karishma's transition from the fashion industry to founding a tech-based company. Some of the materials in clothes that are endlessly recyclable. Details about the Digital Product Passport and what it offers the supply chain. Benefits and costs of sustainable regulations and solutions for fashion brands. Ways that Eslando is monetizing its various solutions. The value proposition the Digital Product Passport offers consumers. How long it took to create and build a workable prototype. What Karishma has planned for the future of Eslando Circular Fashion. Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: Karishma Gupta on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/karishma248/) Karishma Gupta on X (https://x.com/_karishmagupta) Eslando Circular Fashion (https://www.eslando.com) Innovate UK (https://www.ukri.org/councils/innovate-uk/) Carbon13 (https://carbonthirteen.com) Sami Birnbaum (https://samibirnbaum.com) Sami Birnbaum on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/samibirnbaum/) Svenja Schäfer (svenjaschaefer.com) Svenja Schäfer on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/svenjaschaefer/) Will Larry on X (https://x.com/will23larry) Will Larry on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-larry/) Victoria Guido on X (https://x.com/victori_ousg) Victoria Guido on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorialguido/) thoughtbot (https://thoughtbot.com) thoughtbot on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/) thoughtbot on X (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast (https://podcast.thoughtbot.com/) Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Email (hosts@giantrobots.fm) Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots (https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot)

Siblings and children of people with the rare, neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis are being offered a test in the United Kingdom at no-cost to see if they carry mutations to one of more than 40 genes that would make it likely for them to develop the condition. Sano Genetics developed the test under a grant from Innovate UK. The hope is the effort will expand the understanding of the condition while allowing people who are likely to develop the disease to make informed decisions about their lives. We spoke to Paul Wicks, vice president of neuroscience for Sano, about its test for ALS-related gene mutations, how it works, and why some healthy people might want to take advantage of it.

In today's episode I speak with James Taplin, Lead Technologist for Urban Living at Innovate UK, about the benefits of a place-specific verses a place-agnostic approach in addressing the transition to net zero, and in particular about a £60m government programme called Net Zero Living working with 52 places to collaborate and accelerate the transition to net zero.  James was previously a Sustainability Advisor at Forum for the Future, and has a PhD in Biodiversity and Climate Relationships from the Uni of York He's also a writer of really beautiful and thought provoking posts on instagram and I know that I am not alone in looking forward to reading his first book one of these days. And just so you know, in the interests of full disclosure Liminal are a current delivery partner of NZL and convening the 52 places and leading on the delivery of the Community of Practice together with Urban Foresight and Forum for the Future.We discussed the following: What is Net Zero Living and how did it come about? What are no-regrets Net Zero solutions and how to scale them. What are local authorities on the front line of the net zero transition. About the co-benefits of achieving your needs/goals in a better, net-zero way. How to balance hope and despair when working on climate innovation. Here are a few links to some of the things we discussed: ⁠https://iuk.ktn-uk.org/programme/net-zero-living/⁠  ⁠https://iuk.ktn-uk.org/perspectives/accelerating-net-zero-delivery-unlocking-the-benefits-of-climate-action-in-uk-city-regions/⁠  ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamestaplin/⁠  ⁠www.weareliminal.co/ontheedge ⁠ If you enjoyed this conversation then also check out Episode 52 with Dan Thompson about the Running Out of Time Climate Relay and Episode 51 with Hannah Scott who is the co-founder of the Climate Tech Supercluster.

In today's episode I spoke with Dan Thompson who is the Founder of the Running Out of Time Climate Relay. He has a background as a successful founder and entrepreneur in several start up companies in the media industry including the likes of Renegade Software, he also has experience as an investor in companies including Gamesys and Graze. He is also a lifelong runner and his involvement in running relay races dates back more than a decade going coast to coast in America.  This conversation begins in 2022 when he co-founded the world's first and longest climate relay race called Running Out of Time.  I really liked what he said about millions of us care about climate and nature issues in this country and 83% of people in this country want the government to do more and that councils are one of the most important organisations making the net zero transition happen. Here are links to a few things we discussed: https://running-out-of-time.com/ https://gccs.iza.org/rankings https://www.weareliminal.co/ontheedge https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-thompson-a479/ If you enjoy this episode please check out Episode 51 with Hannah Scott who is the co-founder of the Climate Tech Supercluster. And also look out for episode 53 with James Taplin from Innovate UK about a hugely ambitious and exciting project working with 52 towns and cities on the transition to net zero called Net Zero Living.  ***If you are listening to this episode on 4th July 2024 then listen out for a few different ways to get involved in the final stage of the ⁠Climate Relay⁠ today.***

This water tech start-up turns reverse osmosis into a batch process, which divides the reject by more than two and at half the energy cost. How? Let's find out!More #water insights? Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/ #️⃣ All the Links Mentioned in this Video #️⃣ Salinity Solutions' website: https://salinitysolutions.co.uk/The crowdfunding platform they leveraged: https://www.crowdcube.com/Innovate UK: https://www.ukri.org/councils/innovate-uk/Cornish Lithium: https://cornishlithium.com/SQM Lithium Ventures: https://sqmlitio.cl/acercando-el-capital-de-riesgo-a-los-negocios-tecnologicos-del-futuro-litio-agua-y-electromovilidad/SUEZ signing with Salinity Solutions: https://smartwatermagazine.com/news/university-birmingham/suez-pilot-salinity-solutions-low-energy-reuse-technology-france

Salinity Solutions: An innovative water technology company specializing in batch reverse osmosis. The company focuses on improving the efficiency of conventional reverse osmosis systems, achieving higher water recovery rates while reducing energy consumption and chemical usage. Their technology is particularly applicable in industries facing water scarcity and pollution issues, such as mining, zero liquid discharge (ZLD), and vertical farming.Reverse osmosis (RO) is a widely used technology for water treatment, but it has significant drawbacks, including high energy consumption and waste production. Salinity Solutions, led by Tim Naughton, has developed a batch reverse osmosis process that addresses these issues by improving efficiency, reducing waste, and lowering chemical use. This innovative approach offers a more sustainable solution for water treatment needs.Unique Insights:Batch Process Innovation: Unlike traditional RO, batch reverse osmosis operates in a non-steady state with varying pressures, making it more efficient and easier to manage waste.Market Adaptation: The primary challenge for batch RO is market adoption due to its process innovation rather than new technology. However, it offers significant improvements, making it a viable solution for many applications.Humanitarian Roots: The technology was initially developed for humanitarian aid, utilizing solar energy for remote communities, and has evolved into a commercially viable solution addressing various industrial needs.Key Ideas:Reverse Osmosis Drawbacks: Traditional RO systems are energy-intensive, produce a lot of waste, and use significant amounts of chemicals, which limits their efficiency and sustainability.Batch Reverse Osmosis: Salinity Solutions' innovation involves a batch process that significantly improves efficiency, achieving up to 98% water recovery with half the energy consumption and reduced chemical usage.Market Penetration Challenges: Although batch RO is not a new technology but a process innovation, its market adoption is hindered by the need for industries to adjust to its non-equilibrium operation.Initial Development and Funding: The technology's development began as a volunteer project, leading to a government-funded program that helped commercialize the technology through substantial grants and investments.Crowdfunding Success: Salinity Solutions successfully raised funds through Crowdcube, attracting over 2,000 shareholders and significantly exceeding their initial funding goals.Strategic Partnerships: The company has formed key partnerships, including a joint venture in India for ZLD applications and collaborations with large companies like Suez, enhancing their market presence and credibility.Technology Applications: The batch RO system is versatile, with applications ranging from lithium extraction in mining to phosphate removal in wastewater treatment and water reuse in agriculture.Future Outlook: Salinity Solutions aims to become a leading technology in the desalination sector, with ambitions to use their technology for humanitarian aid projects, particularly in remote and water-stressed regions.Counter-Intuitive Facts:Efficiency Paradox: Achieving 98% water recovery in batch RO is not just 3% better than 95%, but twice as efficient in terms of outcomes.Market Adoption: Despite being a superior process, batch RO faces market adoption challenges because it's a process innovation, not a new technology.Humanitarian Origin: The commercial technology originated from a humanitarian project aimed at providing solar-powered water solutions for remote communities.Full Episode: https://dww.show/how-oxyle-destroys-pfas-with-the-energy-youd-actually-waste/Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In this episode of 'Jimmy's Jobs of the Future,' Science Minister Andrew discusses the role and responsibilities of being the UK's science minister, highlighting the government's commitment to making the UK a science and technology superpower through a record funding of 20 billion pounds for research and innovation. Andrew elaborates on exciting developments in engineering biology and the strength of the UK in life sciences, mentioning the government's investment and vision for engineering biology. He also reflects on his background as the CFO of Sky, his transition into politics, and the importance of integrating business practices into government for better performance and risk management. Andrew advocates for public service and discusses the need for more business leaders in government, as well as the importance of innovation and the UK's position in the global market. 00:00 Intro 00:04 The Role and Vision of a Science Minister 01:51 Exciting Frontiers in Science and Technology 03:53 Transitioning from Business to Politics 06:26 The Challenges and Surprises of Government Work 09:21 Innovate UK and the Future of Innovation 13:09 Reflections on a Varied Career in Government 38:17 The Business Perspective on Upcoming Elections 42:24 Quick Fire Round: Space, Technology, and Personal Preferences Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aston University is working with an engineering company to make industrial gas burners less environmentally damaging. The University has entered a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) with Lanemark Combustion Engineering to enable gas or propane burners users to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing the carbon footprint of gas burners A KTP is a three-way collaboration between a business, an academic partner and a highly qualified researcher, known as a KTP associate. The UK-wide programme helps businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills. Aston University is a sector leading knowledge transfer partnership provider, with 80% of its completed projects being graded as very good or outstanding by Innovate UK, the national body. Warwickshire-based Lanemark has been supplying industrial gas burners to sectors including petrochemical, car plants, breweries and food manufacturers for more than 40 years. The overall aim of the KTP is to help transition burners to use low carbon fuels such as hydrogen or biogas to meet new environmental standards. Lanemark has developed their burner designs over several decades using different software applications. To calculate the impact of using new fuels either alone or in different mixes with propane or natural gas, Lanemark's engineers currently have to transfer data between different software applications which is time consuming and inflexible. Aston University will be sharing its expertise to create a single software package to calculate the impact of using different fuels and to integrate these into existing designs. The programme will analyse factors such as exhaust gases, flame length and heat transfer, and ensure equipment remains agile and competitive in a changing market. Aidan Lewis, technical manager at Lanemark said: "We are a relatively small company in our industry, so it's important that we aren't left behind by some of the bigger players. Having this new software will make us more agile in responding to new regulatory requirements and customer demands, which will keep us in a competitive position." Aston University will provide Lanemark with access to specialist research expertise in areas critical to low-carbon industrial heating systems, including heat transfer, heating systems, and burner design. Lanemark will gain the necessary skills and knowledge to maintain and adapt the software in the future as required, which is tailored to meet the specific needs and expectations of the company's clientele. The company is working with Aston University's Dr Muhammed Imran from the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute and Dr Martin Rudorfer from the School of Computer Science and Digital Technologies. Dr Imran is a senior lecturer in mechanical and design engineering, whose research focuses on developing innovative thermal energy systems and improving the energy performance of existing energy systems. Dr Rudorfer is a lecturer in applied AI and robotics, who has expertise in software engineering and intelligent automation of processes. Together with KTP Associate Dr Tarun Kumar, the research team has been working to understand the requirements of the new software and how it will be used by different people within the company. This has enabled them to build the user interface for the software, which will allow design engineers, sales agents and customers to access the complex engineering that underpins the burner designs. The software is being built within a commonly used computational platform called MATLAB. Lead academic, Dr Muhammad Imran said: "With fundamental research, impact can take a long time, but with a KTP, the outcomes are far more immediate. Not only will this collaborative research help Lanemark commercially, it will also significantly improve the carbon reduction potential for their products. To contribute to that is very satisfying, particularly as we will start to see the impact i...

Business Growth Toolkit – a series from The Standards Show - developed in collaboration with Innovate UK Business Growth.Innovate UK is the UK's innovation agency. And Innovate UK Business Growth is a key part of the agency's deep investment to help innovating businesses grow and scale, supporting them with tailored advice on becoming investment ready, internationalising and managing how they innovate.The series looks at the relationship between standards and some key business issues, with particular relevance for SMEs.In this episode, Matthew speaks to Peter Stirling from deep tech start-up Delta G about how standards for quality management and innovation management are supporting their scaling up journey.Series | Business Growth ToolkitFind out more about the issues raised in this episodestandardsforgrowth@bsigroup.comBusiness Growth Toolkit Get involved with standardsGet in touch with The Standards Showeducation@bsigroup.comsend a voice messageFind and follow on social mediaX @StandardsShowInstagram @thestandardsshowLinkedIn | The Standards Show

Business Growth Toolkit – a series from The Standards Show - developed in collaboration with Innovate UK Business Growth.Innovate UK is the UK's innovation agency. And Innovate UK Business Growth is a key part of the agency's deep investment to help innovating businesses grow and scale, supporting them with tailored advice on becoming investment ready, internationalising and managing how they innovate.The series looks at the relationship between standards and some key business issues, with particular relevance for SMEs.In this episode, Matthew speaks to Nichola Bates from Boeing's Aerospace Xelerated and Martin Oughton from Plyable about managing collaboration between small and large organizations.Series | Business Growth ToolkitFind out more about the issues raised in this episodeIUKEDGEtoolkit@bsigroup.com Business Growth Toolkit Get involved with standardsGet in touch with The Standards Showeducation@bsigroup.comsend a voice messageFind and follow on social mediaX @StandardsShowInstagram @thestandardsshowLinkedIn | The Standards Show

E-scooters provoke a 'Marmite' love or hate response in many of us. Still being piloted across UK cities, they straddle an uncertain legislative space, with concerns around safety not far from the headlines. Yet there are other important questions raised by this still-emergent form of transport. In this episode, we speak with Dr Daniel Oviedo about the multifaceted dimensions of transport-related social exclusion: from affordability, to fear, discrimination and more. We discuss the conditions that may allow or prohibit people from using E-scooters – a form of transport important to social development, connection, and Daniel argues wellbeing. We explore how working with researchers from sociology, behaviour change, sustainable transport and industrial engineering – and various stakeholders with local authorities, TFL, and Innovate UK, helped to conceptualise a more inclusive policy approach for E-scooters. Daniel Oviedo is an Associate Professor at UCL's Bartlett Development and Planning Unit. He specialises in the social, economic, and spatial analysis of inequalities related to urban transport and policy evaluation, with projects situated across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, as well as here in the UK. For the podcast transcript, details of our other podcasts and activities visit: http://tinyurl.com/mubmxu4n Date of episode recording: 2024-01-25T00:00:00Z Duration: 00:25:28 Language of episode: English Presenter: Lili Golmohammadi Guests: Daniel Oviedo Producer: Matt Aucott, Cerys Bradley

Business Growth Toolkit – a series from The Standards Show - developed in collaboration with Innovate UK EDGE.Innovate UK is the UK's innovation agency. And Innovate UK EDGE is a key part of the agency's deep investment to help innovating businesses grow and scale, supporting them with tailored advice on becoming investment ready, internationalising and managing how they innovate.The series looks at the relationship between standards and some key business issues, with particular relevance for SMEs.In this episode of the series Matthew speaks to Adrian Miller from The Institute of Collaborative Working about ISO 44001 – the international standard for collaborative business relationships.Series | Business Growth ToolkitFind out moreIUKEDGEtoolkit@bsigroup.com Business Growth Toolkit Get involved with standardsFind and follow The Standards Show on social mediaX @standardsshowInstagram @thestandardsshow Get in touch with The Standards ShowSend a voice messageeducation@bsigroup.comSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsSubscribe to The Standards ShowCheck out the websitethe-standards-show

Today, we're happy to be joined by Edwina Johnson, Head of Global at Alloy, leading company strategy to expand their product into key markets worldwide and launch a GTM team in the UK/EMEA.Previously Head of Global at Alloy, leading company strategy to expand our product into key markets worldwide and launch a GTM team in the UK/EMEA. Before that, COO at Alloy in NYC, taking the team from Seed to Series C and $1.55B valuation. Edwina is also an active angel investor, primarily through Ada Ventures, under the Economic Empowerment thesis, a mentor through Innovate UK's Women in Innovation program, and an Expert in Residence for Sie Ventures. We invite you to listen to this discussion below for some wonderful stories; besides the actionable advice, you can have a sneak peek at the below.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, Founder of Rubber Cheese.Download the Rubber Cheese 2023 Visitor Attraction Website Report - the annual benchmark statistics for the attractions sector.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcastCompetition ends on 29th March 2024. The winner will be contacted via Twitter.  Show references: David Green | LinkedInhttps://www.blenheimpalace.com/Head of Innovation at Blenheim PalaceDavid Green is responsible for driving innovation at Blenheim to deliver value from the implementation of novel business methods and new concepts. His role involves building a culture of continual improvement and innovation, bringing together and contextualising novel datasets through a data and IoT network infrastructure, and identifying opportunities to enhance customer experiences.David leads the research and development at Blenheim, cultivating university partnerships, that helps fuse specialised knowledge with Blenheim's diverse landscape and practical challenges. Moreover, he initiated the Innovation and Continual Improvement network, fostering collaboration among sector leads to share expertise and address common challenges. Joseph Paul | LinkedInhttps://vennersys.co.uk/Associate Director – Key Account ManagerWith 10 years of experience in SaaS Account Management and 6 years at Vennersys, Joe works closely with visitor attractions to optimise system performance and internal processes. He acts as a conduit between attraction managers and Vennersys, helping facilitate constructive communication to further develop and improve Vennersys' own services based on customer needs or industry trends.In his personal life, Joe can either be found playing hockey for his local club or taking long, refreshing walks in the hills and fields near his home. Transcriptions:  Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip The Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson. On today's episode I speak with David Green, Head of Innovation at Blenheim Palace and Joseph Paul, Associate Director - Key Account Manager at Vennersys.We're talking about data - but not just the importance of it (we all know that right?). David and Joe share the exciting data and AI reporting systems that Blenheim have created, allowing them to predict, and not just report on past performance. This is a really interesting episode and if you're been a little bit put off or a little bit scared about AI up until this point, this might be the episode that changes your mind.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on all the usual channels by searching Skip The Queue. Kelly Molson: David, Joe, it is lovely to have you both on the podcast today. Thank you for joining me on Skip the Queue. David Green: It's great to be here. Joseph Paul: Thanks for having us. Kelly Molson: That sounded very positive, guys. Thanks. Feel the enthusiasm. David Green: Let's see how the first question goes, shall we? Kelly Molson: Listen, everyone worries about these icebreaker questions. It's just we're just in a pub, in a coffee shop having a little chat. That's all it is. Right, I want to know. We'll start with you, Joe. What was the last thing you binge watched on your streaming service of choice? Joseph Paul: Gosh, that's a very good question. The last series we binge watch was a series called Bodies on Netflix, which is about a murder that happens in four different time periods and four detectives are trying to solve the murder. Very good if you haven't watched it.  Kelly Molson: I have seen this and Joe, it hurt my head a little bit.Joseph Paul: Yeah. It is hard to keep track of some of the plots through the different times, but there's a very good ending worth watching if you haven't, David? David Green:  I don't think I have. I didn't get a chance to watch TV. Kelly Molson: So same question to you, David. That's a really good series as well, Joe. I thoroughly enjoyed that, although it did hurt the backwards forwards bit a little bit, was a bit mind blowing. Same question to you, David. What was the last thing that you binge watched? David Green: Well, the last thing I probably binge watched was probably Breaking Bad. That just sort of shows you how long ago it was. I binge watched anything, but I'm desperate to watch it again. It was so good. I was just hooked on the first episode. I just loved every single minute of that. Kelly Molson: Have you seen that, Joe? Joseph Paul: Yes. Very good series. Probably one of the best of all time. And the question back would be, have you watched Better Call Saul? David Green: Yeah, but I didn't find it as good. I say I didn't find as good. It was still great. I'm very fussy in the Greenhouse song. Kelly Molson: I feel like I'm the only person in the whole world who's not watched Breaking Bad, which is this is quite controversial, isn't it? Everybody says that I would love it and I should watch it, but I feel overwhelmed that there's so many series to it and it would take up all of my TV viewing time for months and months. It would be the only thing that I could probably watch for the entire year and that feels too much. Joseph Paul: It's well worth it. Absolutely. You should do it.Kelly Molson: Dedicate 2024 as the year for Breaking Bad. David Green: I'm going to own up. I've not watched a single episode of The Crown either and some of it was filmed at Blenheim. So I'm really embarrassed to admit that on this podcast.Kelly Molson: That is a statement in a half, David. See, this is why I do the icebreakers. You never know what dirt you're going to get out. David, we're going to start with you with this one. What is the one food or drink that you cannot eat and you can't even think about without feeling a little bit queasy? David Green: That's cheese pastry straight away. I remember when I was at school, we had a home economics club. I remember making these cheese straws and I took them home and I was so environmentally ill after these cheese straws ever since, I just can't even look at cheese pastry. All these nibbles that people without for drinks can't bear it. Cheese and pastry together is wrong. Kelly Molson: This is really sad. I love a little cheese straw. I feel sad for you that you can't eat a cheese straw, David. I feel sad for you. Joe, what about you? Joseph Paul: I can pretty much eat anything and I'm not overly put off by much. I think the one thing that turns me away from food is horseradish and any sauce. That's probably my only sort of food that I won't go to and puts me off eating anything that has.Kelly Molson: Just horseradish or sauce in general. Are we talking like, sweet chilli dip? No?Joseph Paul: Just horseradish. So anything that has that in it, I will stay away from. But apart from that, I'll pretty much eat anything anyone puts on my plate. David Green: I think you're missing out, Joe. Kelly Molson: Do you know what's probably really nice as well? Is a cheese straw with horseradish.Joseph Paul: But cheese straws are the best. David Green: I'm going to have to leave the room in a minute. We could talk about cheese straw. Kelly Molson: Sorry. All right, let's move on from that. Right, I want to know I was quite kind to those ones. I want to know what your unpopular opinions are. Joe, let's start with you. Joseph Paul: Not sure this is going to go down too well, but my unpopular opinion is Harry Potter is an overrated film series. Kelly Molson: Books or films or both? Joseph Paul: Films, predominantly. Kelly Molson: Wow. I mean, my husband would absolutely agree with you. So I got him to watch the first one and then we got halfway through the second one and he paused it and looked at me and said, "Kelly, I just can't do this. Sorry." And left the room. That was it. Done. Joseph Paul: I can understand. So in our household, we alternate between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. So we compromise. We have a Harry Potter, then a Lord of the Rings, then go through. Kelly Molson: Is your partner Harry Potter, then? Joseph Paul: My wife is very much a Harry Potter fan. Kelly Molson: Interesting. That is quite controversial. How do you feel about that, David? David Green: Very disappointing. Joe, actually. Joseph Paul: Sorry to let you down. David Green: We might have to end this now, Joe.Kelly Molson: This beautiful relationship that we're going to talk about. End over Harry Potter.  David Green: Harry Potter and cheese straws. Kelly Molson: David, same question to you. What is your unpopular opinion? David Green: Didn't think I had any unpopular opinions until I started really thinking about it, but I have to say, my original this is really good either, really was dancing, non professional dancing. I mean, I'm not a dancer, I've got a body of a dad. I am a dad and my wife and my daughter are very good dancers and I think it's just years of standing by a bar at a wedding with that person, go, "Come on, get on the dance floor, come on." And they drag you up and then busting moves is probably the wrong description, but it's just looking around the room on the floor with other people sort of bobbing around awkwardly looking, and all the blokes tipped you looking at each other going, "Oh, get me home." It's that awkwardness, I find really difficult and I'm going to be cheeky. And another one, because I just remembered that concerts is another one, so you spend a fortune going to a concert. David Green: I took my daughter once to Ariana Grande and I'd just been dragged to Arctic Monkeys and we drove hours and hours to this place and my wife had got Rose lead, I think, which was I needed binoculars to even see the stage. I was absolutely freezing, completely freezing. I didn't dress appropriately, I was dressed in a shirt and tied, typically, because that was Arctic Monkeys. Kelly Molson: You went through a shirt and tied Arctic Monkeys? God said, "Well".David Green: I remember walking down to the bottom of the stadium, I'm freezing, I have to go and get some clothes, and they let me out and I had to buy Arctic Monkeys merchandise and I came up the steps wearing an Arctic Monkeys hoodie. Number one fan to my wife and daughter, absolutely laughing hilariously.  David Green: And I had to listen to the music for 2 hours and then I got home about three in the morning and my wife had promised me dinner out, went to Wild Bean Cafe at 01:00 A.M. on the way home. Kelly Molson: What a treat.David Green: Dancing and concert. Laura just sneaking next to one in. Kelly Molson: Well, no, I love this. I mean, it's like an elongation of it, isn't it? They go hand in hand.  I would be that person at a wedding, they're trying to get you on the dancefloor. Which made me start laughing and then I lost it. Shirt and tie at an Arctic Monkeys gig. What were you thinking? David Green: I don't know. Kelly Molson: I think that's my favourite unpopular opinion yet. Amazing. Thank you both for sharing. Shall we talk about some serious stuff? David Green: Have you cried on a podcast before?Kelly Molson: Before I've had a cry, I've definitely had a cry on the podcast, but a cry of laughter, I'm not sure that's really got me today. Right, serious stuff. We're going to talk about data today, which is very serious stuff. We all know the importance of data. We've talked about data hundreds and hundreds of times in various different guyses. On this podcast, however, we're going to talk about reporting today, but with a twist. So reporting is often usually about things that have already happened. We're looking at past visitor numbers, we're looking at how many visitors came and how much they spent in the cafe on a particular day, what the weather was like on a past particular day. So we can predict whether it might be like that this year. Kelly Molson: But Blenheim are doing something completely different with reporting, which, when we had a chat about it prior to this episode, it blew my mind a little bit. And it's such a brilliant case study. You need to share this with the world. Firstly, though, I want you to just, both of us, tell us a little bit about your role and your background. So, Joe, can you start first? Tell us a little bit about your role and how you came into it. Joseph Paul: Yeah, of course. So I've been in the industry for six years now within the visitor attraction industry, working at Vennersys, and my role is a Key Account Manager. So I work closely with our clients throughout the lifetime of their contracts, so making sure they are getting the most out of the system and that sort of return on investment they've put into the software they've purchased. So I've worked closely with David and the Blenheim team for about six years now, and prior to that, I was also in account management as well, within a software business. Kelly Molson: Great. David, over to you. David Green: Variable history with Blenheim. I think next year will be the 30th year when I first walked through the doors. So when I was studying at college, it was my first sort of part time weekend Christmas job, and I was a bubble up for the 11th Duke and Duchess, and that was great. If I got I know stuff. Kelly Molson: I feel like there's a podcast episode on its own about that part of your career. David Green: I'm not sure I could speak too much about that, but I remember when I finished college, my mother said, "What are you going to get a proper job?" And the phone rang and I ended up working at Blenheim. Moved into the clock tower at Blenheim. That was my first flat. It was quite incredible, I have to say. But after leaving when I was 21, I just changed direction. So I became a developer, so I learned to programme and I worked for a little agency in Abingdon for two doctors who were both very bright guys. Yeah, I just put the hours in and learned to programme and really, that probably led to where I am today. I learned very quickly to problem solve and learned very quickly how to develop things. David Green: So when I finally joined Blenheim again, full time enabled me to sort of trial new things very quickly, fail fast. And that kind of led to our first real time reporting platform, which I developed myself. Kelly Molson: Amazing. David Green: This was really a combination of seeing that the business had lots of data and seeing that a lot of the data was inputted in manually. So being able to develop something that could contextualise data in a better way, but get people looking at the data in a much faster way, I think that's where it started from. Kelly Molson: And that is what we're going to talk about today. You've got a really interesting job title. So you're Head of Innovation at Blenheim Palace. Are there many other heads of innovation in the sector? Because there's lots of kind of I mean, ALVA, for instance, brilliant organisation, they do lots of kind of individual meetups. So heads of marketing meetups, CEO meetups, head of visitor service meetups. I haven't seen them do a Head of Innovation meetup yet, so I question how many of you are there? David Green: I don't think there's very many at all, but the title is becoming more and more known, I think, across multiple sectors. And it was really the sort of creation I was Head of Digital at Lent for eight or nine years, and it was really the creation of Dominic Hare, our CEO, who saw the need for research development. The role is really about hunting for problems, and as much as we're well known for our visitor business, we have a thriving land business and a thriving real estate business. And I get to work across those three tiers, which is really exciting, hunting for problems. I get to work with universities, so we have a really strong university partnership, both at Oxford Brookes and the Oxford University. David Green: And this really allows us to bring in the latest research academics into a real world environment to solve problems together. So that's really exciting. But then the sort of second thing I work on as Head of Innovation is live data, so I have a data background, so it meant that very quickly I could bring all of our data into one place to drive greater insight. And then the third tier is looking at sort of customer experience changes. So if anyone sees my post on LinkedIn, you'll see we've brought in a new returnable cup scheme of all of our cups are RFID enabled. So looking at eradicating single use cups right the way through to a transformation project around implementing digital wallets and pulses. David Green: So there's lots of different things right the way through to encouraging our visas to come by green transport, which is very much tied into our 2027 pledge to become carbon neutral. Kelly Molson: That's lovely. Yeah. That's really interesting that you sit across so many different facets and it's not just about data and reporting and digital, really. So what we're going to talk about today is a particular project that you've both been involved in, and I'm going to kind of split this into two, because there's two areas that I kind of want to focus on. I want to hear about what the project is and all of the things and benefits that it's brought to Blenheim, which David's going to talk about. Kelly Molson: And then, Joe, I want to then come over to you and talk about how you kind of made this happen from a supplier perspective and the things that you need to work through together with your client and maybe some of the things that you've had to change and implement to be able to support your client, to do the things that they want to do with your system. So, David, I'm going to start with you. Can you give us kind of an overview of what this project is like, the background to it and then what led to that project happening? David Green: Background is like many organisations in this sector, we have lots and lots of data. Often we report out of proprietary systems, we then contextualise our data very well and I wanted to bring all the information to one area so we could really apply context but also look at in that data. So this sort of built off our first real time reporting platform that were able to get data into the hands of the operations teams, other teams, really quickly. But it wasn't really supportable just by me here at Blenheim. So were looking at one, finding a platform that we could utilise to allow us to get data out to feedball in a much more secure way. I was handling all the visualisations and things and there's better tools for that. So that's one of the reasons. David Green: The second thing is looking at data, I wanted to try out using AI to identify patterns. So what's the correlation between certain data sources? There's one, a group of visitors wearing wet coats. Does that have an impact on the environmental conditions? What's the optimal number of people that retail space to maximise their understand all those sorts of things were unanswered questions. So I engaged one of our Oxford Brookes relationships that we already had and we applied for what's called a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. So a KTP, which is match funded, that's Innovate UK match funded, and I highly recommend them as a starting point. And what that does, it brings in an associate who works full time. David Green: This project was, I think, 32 months, but also you get access to different parts of the university and in our case, we had access to the technical faculty as well as the business faculty. So you've got real experts in the field working with an associate that's embedded here, Lennon, that can help us solve that problem. And we're fortunate enough to win the application and the grant money and then we cloud on. So we called it a Smart Visitor Management System. That's the headline and really the two key subsystems of that was the customer insight and prediction. So we wanted to look at how we could predict business numbers. We know all of the knock on impacts of that in terms of better planning, reducing food waste, all those sorts of things. But then we also want to look at the visitor flow. David Green: So that's almost saying, "Well, where are visitors right now and where are they going to go next?" But they're the two sort of component parts. Kelly Molson: Such a brilliant introduction to AI as well, because I think it is such a current topic right now. And I was at a recent ALVA meeting where there was a phenomenal speaker talking about the implications of AI and the opportunities that it could bring. And I think there was a 50 - 50 split of the audience of 50% of them were terrified about this new technology and what it might potentially mean. And then 50% were really inspired by it and see these huge opportunities from it. But I think this is such a brilliant case study to show how it can be used to your advantage in a very non-scary way. David Green: I think with AI can be scary, but actually it's all about governance at the end of the day. And actually what we're doing is using machine learning to identify the patterns in large data sets to help us be better informed. Kelly Molson: What have been the benefits of implementing this kind of level of data reporting? So what have you been able to do that you couldn't previously do? David Green: Well, predictions is one. So ultimately we all budget. The first thing to probably say is that when we do contextual reporting, normally we access our data from a proprietary system and then bring it into some sort of spreadsheet and then try and tie it into a budget. That's sort of the first thing. It's really getting all of your data sets in a early. So we had budget, we had weather, we had advanced bookings, we had ticketing from different sort of platforms. And the starting point, before we talk too much about end benefits, were developing a data strategy in this centralised concept of a DataHub. So all of our data is in one place, and we're using APIs and direct connections and data signature Vennersys to bring data into one place. David Green: We also looked at platforms, environments, so were looking at Azure, we're a Microsoft business. So actually we decided Azure was the right sort of plan for us and we came up with a very broad strategy that said anything else we procure in the future has to best in class or it talks to the DataHub and often if it's best in class as an API. So you can get that information into one place. So that's the first thing. The joy of using something like Microsoft and other platforms are available, I would say, is to access the power platform. And the Power platform sort of answered the problem around how do we visualise our data, how do we automate some of our data and what data is missing and how can we collect it? David Green: So using things like Power BI and PowerApps, I think was really crucial. Once we had all of our sort of data organised, we had the pandemic and of course, one of the sort of big issues around predicting, certainly when you've got lots of data sets, you're trying to look at patterns in data and your data is finely structured, then you get hit by something like this and where are the patterns? What's changed? The business model completely changed. We were a 10% advanced booking business. Suddenly were either zero or 80 or 100 and then sort of now about 65. So that was a bit of a challenge as well. In terms of then looking at the missing data. And we'll talk a little bit maybe about sort of the centre network and how do we measure things in remote places. David Green: But ultimately the core of this project was the DataHub, the ability to bring everything into one place, ability to push that data out. So answering your question in a long winded way is really about getting the data into hands of people, to allow them to plan better, to be prepared for the day, what is likely to happen today, what are the patterns in that day? And this is where we develop things like a concept of similar day. So a similar day might be one that has similar number of pre bookings, has similar weather. We look at weather in terms of temperature, wind and rain. It might have a similarity in terms of an event day or a weekend or similar budget. And that concept allows us to look forward, which is great. The predictions tend to look at other things. David Green: So we have one naive prediction that looks at previous performance in terms of pre booking to predict forward. And then another one, we have what we call an adaptive prediction, which allows us to look at advanced bookings and then see the change in advanced bookings over time against budget, to then alert us to the fact that we might experience more visitors than expected on that particular day. Kelly Molson: Gosh, that's really powerful, isn't it? Does that mean that your team have access to kind of a dashboard that they can look at any given time and be like, “Okay, we can model next week based on these predictions?”David Green: Data is pretty much everywhere, so we have one really nice thing and we have this. When I built search platform was TV screens across all of our staff areas. We have a ten OD voltwim across Blenheim. Everyone has access to that data. And that could be how traffic is flowing on the driveway. We use ADPR to look at how busy traffic is outside of our park walls. We look at car park capacity. We look at how happy our staff are using what we call a mood metric. So we put those smiley buttons in staff areas to determine how well they think the day is going. So we have access to all of this sort of information, but also then sort of more business reporting through Power BI. David Green: So we have a series of what I've called sort of visual representations of activity, but also sort of data that we can export into Excel. So we do a lot of finance reporting as well through Power BI. Again, all reporting from that single source of the truth, which is the DataHub. And if anyone's going down this route, I always describe it, I call it the product hierarchy. I always describe it as the giant coin sorting machine, which means that we're comparing apples with apples. So if you've got a particular product type, let's say annual park or House park and gardens, or park and gardens, you budget against that item, against adult, child, concession, family, young adult, whatever, you create a product hierarchy that matches that to your actual ticketing sales. David Green: And it doesn't matter then who sells your ticket, you're matching to that same product hierarchy. So think of it as a giant column sourcing machine that then every five minutes builds that single source of the truth in a database, then can be report out either through digital screens locations or Power BI. So, lots of tunes. Kelly Molson: It's incredible that level of access that you can give people now that must have improved how the team feel about their working day. It must have really helped with kind of like team culture and team morale. David Green: Absolutely. One, it's about engaging. Our teams are really important. People are the most important commodity we have at Blenheim. So having a series of management accounts, they never see their impact of engaging our businesses and giving our business a really good time, focusing on that Net Promoter Score, giving them access to that information. So, well done, look at the impact is really important. So, yeah, it's been fairly transformational here at Blenheim. Kelly Molson: Wow. What do you think has been the biggest impact? David Green: I think access to the data, better planning, there's more to do. We're embedding these tools, people that trust these tools. It's no mean feat. So getting good. What's nice to see when things aren't coming through quite right or car park speeds and we say it is, it might be data pipeline that's got awry. People very quickly come to us and say, "It's missing." So, seven days a week our team is sort of monitoring and seeing people use it. Moodmetric is great. Our cleaners now, they clean our facilities based on usage because they can see how many people have used the loo's by using our sensor data. So that's again, it all impacts that Net Promoter Score. And I will say on Net Promoter, love it or hate it, Net Promoter Score is all about looking backwards. David Green: Typically what we try to do is to create the equivalent to on the day. What can we do about it right now? How busy is traffic flowing on a drive? Do we need to open another kiosk? How busy will the cafe get? Will we run out sandwiches? So we've got alerting looking at that comparison to similar day and are we trading above or below that? So again, we can send an alert to say, “Make some more sandwiches or do something else. The loos need a clean.” All of these sorts of things are built into the visitor management system to allow us to really optimise not just the visitor experience, but our staff engagement and experience as well. Kelly Molson: So you've got this really proactive approach to it, which actually makes you reactive on the day because you can move quicker, because you can make easier decisions about things. That's phenomenal. I love that the team have taken real ownership of that as well. I think embedding something like this, it can be quite challenging, right. People don't like change and these things feel a bit scary, but it feels like your team have really engaged with them and taken ownership of the system. David Green: Absolutely. It's no mean feat. Two challenges embedding something new like this. Absolutely. That's change management. The second thing is data pipelines, ensuring all of your sensors and everything is online and working. And when you're dealing with such high volume of data sets coming in, you really need to be absolutely on it. Second to the sort of broader and maybe more granular reporting, one other thing we've devised is a series of KPIs, which pretty much any attraction. David Green: Most might already have a series of KPIs, but KPIs to look forward. So actually in this moment in time, are we trading ahead or behind versus this time last year? So if you start comparing apples with apples at this moment in time, what was RMR's booking? We share these KPIs across the whole site and that could be relation to bookings or even spend per head versus budget spend per head for the next 30 days. David Green: Visually, we put these on all of our digital screens very quickly can identify when we need to do something, be driving that by marketing activity or celebrating success. We've got a very clear picture and that means everyone's along for the ride. Everyone gets access to this information. Kelly Molson: That's absolutely phenomenal. Joe, I'm going to come over to you now because I can only imagine what you were thinking when David came to you and said, "Right, we've got this idea, this is what we want to do." And you're one of the platforms. Vennersys is one of the platforms that has been working with him. I think it's quite a long relationship. Is it? It's about 16 years.Joseph Paul: 16, 17 years now, I think. Long relationship.David Green: Yeah. I was five. How old were you? Joseph Paul: Wasn't conceived yet. Kelly Molson: Wowzers. That is a long relationship. Okay, so I kind of want to know from you, Joe, to make this happen, what have you had to do differently as a supplier? So how have you had to interact with your clients' needs and what steps did you have to go to kind of understand what the outcome was going to be? Joseph Paul: Yeah, so I think firstly that the system has an enormous amount of data in it and I think the first step for us was to understand exactly what Blenheim were looking to get out of the system and plug into the sort of the DataHub that David was talking about. So that kind of comprised of some initial conversations of what they were trying to achieve. And then following that it was all about workshopping and making sure were going to present the data in the format that David and the team at Blenheim Palace required. Joseph Paul: Yeah, I think fundamentally it was just working closely with the team there and getting those requirements in detail and making sure weren't missing anything and really understanding everything they were trying to achieve and pushing that in a simple and easy format for the team to then push into their views and into their KPIs that they required. Really the main focus for us was pushing that data out to David and the team into that DataHub in that format that was easily accessible and sort of manipulated for them. Kelly Molson: I guess there's so much it's understanding what are the key know, what are the variables here, what are the key points that we need to do this and how do we go about doing this for you? Joseph Paul: Absolutely. Because there's a number of options and a number of different ways that data can be pushed to clients. So it's understanding what the best is for that client and their resource because that's also important. Not every attraction has unlimited resource or the expertise in house to sort of obtain that data, but also, even if they can obtain that data, they might not have that sort of resource to then create their own dashboards and create their own reporting tools from a repository. So it's really understanding every kind of asset and every level to that sort of client and then working closely with them to achieve their goal. So it might be more resource from our side or working closely with the expertise that they might have in house. Kelly Molson: Or suggesting that they might need to get extra expertise. So this is something that we talk about in terms of API integration all the time, is that it absolutely can be done with any of the systems that you have. If they have an API, yes, you can integrate it into whatever other system that you want. But who takes ownership of that internally? And do they have the capability and do they have the resource and do they have the capacity to do that? And if that's a no, who can be trained to do those things? And how do we facilitate that as well? Joseph Paul: Yeah, absolutely. And in this case, as David highlighted, he's clearly got the expertise himself and others around him to produce all these fantastic sort of views and dashboards that are displayed all around Blenheim Palace. So in this sort of example with Blenheim Palace, it was all about getting the data to them and making sure it was in a format that they could work with easily. Kelly Molson: And you've worked together, Joe, you said about six years. You've been at Vennersys now, but the organisation has worked with Blenheim for over 16 years, which is testament to the relationship and the product that you have. Has this process that you've been through together, has this changed or strengthened the kind of relationship between supplier and client? Joseph Paul: Yes, I think from our point of view, we like to see it as a partnership. I think David would agree, and we want to be a part of their journey, but also Blenheim and want to be a part of our journey. So we're helping one another to achieve our individual goals as a partnership. So that relationship goes from strength to strength and we continue to have those conversations, whether that's myself or others within the business, to Blenheim and pass around things that we're coming up against in the industry, but also vice versa. So if David's got his ear to the ground and has a suggestion around how our platform could be improved, that's fed back to us. Joseph Paul: And we have that back and forth between client and supplier, but we like to see it as a partnership and work closely with them to achieve their goals and also our goals together.David Green: I don't want to make Joe cry, because I've already made you cry, Kelly, but seriously, over that course of 17 years, and I'm sure lots of people listening to this podcast will realise that it's always challenging working with other suppliers. You have your ups and you have your downs, but we've had way more ups than we've had downs and our business has changed massively. We went through a process of becoming a charity, so suddenly gifted all the admissions was really important and Joe and the team really helped us achieve that. David Green: Vanbrugh was not a very good forward planner in terms of he was a great architect, but actually, we have a single point of entry and to try and gift aid so many visitors, we have a million visitors a year coming to them to try and gift aid such a large number on a driveway is really difficult. So actually, working through that gift aid at the gate process, we're looking at that gift aid opportunity was one of the key projects, really, that we work with Vennersys on. Kelly Molson: But that's where the good things come out of client supplier relationships, is that you're both challenging each other on what the objectives are and what the outcomes potentially could be. So you work in partnership together and then everybody gets the better outcome. When we first spoke about this topic, what I thought was brilliant is that you have such a great case study, you have such a great showcase piece here, both of you, for how you've worked together and what you've been able to develop. I've absolutely said that you need to pitch this as a talk at the Museum and Heritage Show because I think it's an absolutely brilliant topic for it. It's so current and something that other organisations can go away and kind of model on. Kelly Molson: I don't know if you saw, we had Nik Wyness on from the Tank Museum last season who came on and basically just he gives away his kind of process as to how they've developed their YouTube following and how they've developed kind of a sales strategy from it. And it's brilliant. He's great at kind of coming on and going, "Yeah, this is what I did, and this is what we did, and this is the process and here you go. Go and do it." And I think you have an opportunity to do that together, which I think is lovely. David Green: Isn't it nice though, that we don't feel in competition and we can work together? We created what we call The Continually Improvement and Innovation Group which we have lots of members who have joined from all different places, from Chatsworth to Be Lee to Hatfield Outs and so on and all that is a slack channel. It's a six monthly meeting where we all come together and we discuss our challenges. You talked about are there many head of innovations? Well, may not be, but actually sharing our insights and sharing our lessons learned is incredibly important and that's not just Blenheim, lots of other attractions are doing lots of brilliant things as well and we can learn from them. So really exciting, I think, to do that. David Green: And again, very open, I will say, and I'm not going to plug a gift aid company, but there's something called Swift Aid that we're just looking at and wow, can we do retrospective gift aiding? Is it worth lots of money for lots of attractions that have gift aid on their admissions? Yes, it is well worth looking that up. Ultimately they have a database of 8 million centralised gift aid declarations that you can utilise there's commission but it's well worth looking at. If anyone wants information, please just LinkedIn with me and we'll discuss them. Kelly Molson: Oh, I love that. Again, this comes back to what we've always said about how collaborative and open to sharing information this sector is. What we'll do is in the show notes listeners, we will link to both David and Joe's LinkedIn profiles. If you want to connect with them, feel free and then actually David, Joe, if there's anything you want to share that we can add into those as well that would be useful for listeners. Then we'll pop them in there as. Kelly Molson: Actually, David, I've got one more question for you on that Slack channel, which I think is really interesting. It's great that you've set that up. I think those kind of platforms are really good at just facilitating conversation and it's really good to understand what people are doing from a supplier perspective. Do you have suppliers as part of that conversation as well, or is it purely attractions? David Green: I've kept it, I'd say non commercial, but we have invited speakers into the group to come and talk about it. But at the moment it's a closed environment. I think most people are more comfortable having sort of open conversations, but what it's really good at doing is it could be a question about compliance or sustainability or returnable cuts is a good one. It could be varying topics and we can just provide access to the right people here at Blenheim and vice versa, and other organisations if we've got questions. So, yeah, it works, it's growing, it's open, it's not ours, it's everyone's. So if anyone wants to join it, then we'll stick a link at LinkedIn maybe on the plot cups at the end of this. Kelly Molson: Oh, Fab, that's brilliant. Yeah, great. I think that's a really nice way of doing it with suppliers as well. It's difficult, I think Joe and I would probably say all of these conversations are really interesting for us because it helps us understand the challenges that the sector has and it helps us understand how we can make the things that we do so much better. So it's hard sometimes when there's closed environments like that, but the sector does so brilliantly at putting on conferences and organisations that we can all be part of as well. And again, platforms like this where we can come on and share the things that we're doing.Kelly Molson: That brings me back to the last question for you, Joe, is about has this process between the two of you and what you've been able to build together, has that helped Vennersys  as a supplier build out other services that you can then offer to kind of the wider sector? Joseph Paul: Yeah, so I think through this journey we've realised that data is really critical, but we also realised, as we kind of mentioned before, that not everyone has the resource to build their own visualisations of data and linking those to their sort of key performance indicators. So we work with Power BI as well on behalf of our clients, so we can also visualise that data that's within our systems. And that's really to help them get the most out of the data that is in our system, but also in that sort of more real time scenario, rather than having to extract a report, put it that into an Excel and get that information out. Joseph Paul: So that's one service that's kind of come out of that relationship, but also expanding on our sort of open API as well. So additional endpoints so that clients can also extract that data in real time and that continues to grow with other clients as well as we sort of go down that journey with some other clients. So, absolutely. It's helped us sort of open up another avenue which has benefited other clients in the past couple of years, but also moving forward as we sort of expand on it.Kelly Molson: Brilliant. And that's the sign of true partnership, isn't it? There's been some incredible wins for both of you involved and it's brought new opportunities to both of the organisations. Thank you both for coming on and sharing this today. So we always end the podcast with book recommendations from our guests. So I wondered if you've both been able to pick a book that you'd like to share with our listeners today. What have you got for us? Joe, we'll start with you. Joseph Paul: Mine's a little bit out there. David Green: We know it's not Harry Potter, Joe. Kelly Molson: Absolutely not. Joseph Paul: Well, that would be a curveball if I started to plug the Harry Potter series. Hey. So recently, I was in Albania in Tirana and I was on a guided tour. And they were talking about the Ottoman period. And I realised I know nothing about the Ottoman history and I was interested about it more. Joseph Paul: So my in laws purchased a book called Lord Of The Horizons, which is all about the history of the Ottoman empire. So that's my current read at the moment. And if you're into your history and into your sort of empires, it's definitely worth a read. So that's my recommendation. The Lord of Horizons. Kelly Molson: Nice. Joe, we just got a little insight into some of your hobbies there and your likes that we didn't know about. Good. Okay. Thank you. David, what about you? David Green: Mine is The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wallaban. It's an incredible book. Now, I read lots of strategy books, data books. My wife thinks I'm really sad. This book is not any of that. This is about how trees communicate and I was absolutely enthralled with it. So this talks about them like arousal networks, how trees communicate through their roots, the noises and the sounds that trees make when they're struggling, when they're thirsty. It led to a lot of laughter on holiday with my daughter drawing pictures of trees with ears, but trees can actually hear. And from that, I was able to come back and look at one of our land projects where we're building a small solar farm at the moment, actually looking at the sort of benefits to soil health while we're putting solar on sort of fed degraded farmland. David Green: So we're using something called soil ecoacoustics that will allow us to listen to the sound of soil. So listen to soil for ultimately to index how healthy that soil is. So this one book has led to me reading a number of different research papers, cooking up with the universities to then test and trial something completely brilliant around identifying health through acoustics. So book is absolutely brilliant. There's a follow on book, but if you look at Peter Wallabin, he's written a number of books. Absolutely fascinating. Kelly Molson: Okay, wow. One, what an incredible book. I had no idea that trees could hear or talk. That's blown my mind a little bit, especially as someone who's a bit of a tree hugger. I'm not going to lie, I made a statement. I was with a client yesterday and were talking about AI. And I said, sometimes the conversations around AI just make me want to go outside and hug the tree in my back garden, take my shoes and socks off and just put my feet on the grass because I just want to connect with nature again and just get out of a tech world. So there's that. So I'm definitely going to buy that book. But two, how your mind works as well, how that book has taken you on a journey of innovation again into something connected but completely different.David Green: Again, it's really data. So you're welcome. We'll happily show you that site and put some headphones on you and we'll make this public as well, so hopefully we can share the secret sound of soil and other things as well. But really fascinating. Kelly Molson: That to me sounds like a David Attenborough show. Maybe we'll make it another podcast episode at some point. I'd love that. Thank you both for coming on and sharing today. As ever, if you want to win a copy of Joe and David's books, go over to our Twitter account, retweet this episode announcement with the words, I want Joe and David's books and you'll be in with a chance of winning them. Wow. Thank you for sharing. It's been an absolutely insightful podcast. There's lots of things that we're going to put in the show notes for you all. And as Joe and David said, please do. If you've got questions around what they've talked about today, feel free to connect and we'll pop a link to that Slack group in the show notes too, so you can join in with these conversations. Thank you both. David Green: Thank you. Joseph Paul: Thanks, Kelly. Kelly Molson:  Thanks for listening to Skip The Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip the queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast. The 2023 Visitor Attraction Website Report is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsDownload the report now for invaluable insights and actionable recommendations!

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ .   There is a global teacher shortage, and Pauldy Otermans and Dev Aditya, founders of the Otermans Institute, are addressing that with #AI through creating a digital human AI teacher, called Beatrice. Their mission is to upskill 750- million underserved students globally by 2030. Beatrice appears as an on-screen avatar that converses with students. Pauldy is a neuroscientist and psychologist with a PhD in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience from Brunel University. She was named one of the “22 most influential women in the UK of 2022” by Start-Up Magazine UK. Dev is a Young Global Innovator and under 30 Social Entrepreneur, recognized by Innovate UK with research experience at the Alan Turing Institute and Brunel University, London. In the conclusion of the interview they describe how the AI teachers work, and their definitions of Teaching and Learning 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.          

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ .   There is a global teacher shortage, and Pauldy Otermans and Dev Aditya, founders of the Otermans Institute, are addressing that with #AI through creating a digital human AI teacher, called Beatrice. Their mission is to upskill 750- million underserved students globally by 2030. Beatrice appears as an on-screen avatar that converses with students. Pauldy is a neuroscientist and psychologist with a PhD in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience from Brunel University. She was named one of the “22 most influential women in the UK of 2022” by Start-Up Magazine UK. Dev is a Young Global Innovator and under 30 Social Entrepreneur, recognized by Innovate UK with research experience at the Alan Turing Institute and Brunel University, London. In this first half of the interview we talk about the teacher shortage and the socioeconomic consequences of addressing it via an AI teacher. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.          

There must be closer collaboration between industries and more efficient use of resources to achieve more sustainable industry for the future. Industrial symbiosis brings organisations together to find ways to use the waste from one as raw materials for another. In this episode, learn about the benefits of industrial symbiosis, some examples of where it has been successfully applied and why we need to encourage its practice more widely. This episode was sponsored by UKRI's Transforming Foundation Industries Challenge delivered by Innovate UK. This challenge is providing funding and support to create a cleaner, more efficient and more competitive sector that is fit for our future. Find out more by searching ‘Transforming Foundation Industries'. Guests: Dr Anne Velenturf – Senior Research Fellow in Circular Economy – University of Leeds Chris Holcroft – Energy & Environment Lead – Glass Technology Services Thanks to Kolobyte and Alphabot for letting us use their music in the show! If you have questions or feedback please send us emails at materialism.podcast@gmail.com or connect with us on social media: Instagram, Twitter. Materialism Team: Taylor Sparks (co-creator,co-host), Andrew Falkowski (co-creator,editing assistance), Jared Duffy (production, marketing, and editing).

Do we need to worry about extinction from AI?! After 4 jam-packed conversations with some of the biggest thought leaders in the AI space, what better way to conclude our epic series than with someone who can give us the low-down on all things AI ethics. Sara El-Hanfy, Head of AI and Machine Learning at Innovate UK joins Gareth and Kerensa to conclude our A-list line up and discuss the importance of handling AI with care.  From entering the tech space through an unconventional route (proving that it's possible to study a STEM subject at university even without an A-Level in Maths!), Sara has been on a quest to ensure both AI accessibility and safety for businesses nationwide. Being an Advisory Board Member for UK Parliament on the complexities of AI adoption, Sara offers her expert opinion on the ethics of AI tools like ChatGPT and tells us the major AI risks we should all be aware of. This final episode is the perfect conclusion to our TTLP AI Series. After numerous conversations about all of the exciting prospects AI is awarding us, Sara reminds that we must approach this unprecedented technology with a degree of caution. As this series comes to an end, one thing remains certain: even AI experts cannot predict what the future holds.  Time stamps What excites Sara most about the AI revolution? (02:04) What is Innovate UK? (06:00) A day in the life of Sara (07:41) The BridgeAI programme (09:34) Is AI going to overrun your business? (16:45) Breaking tradition to get into tech (19:40) Is using ChatGPT cheating? (28:53) Investing in entrepreneurs (34:47) Is the UK government scared of AI? (39:10) Sara's favourite AI tool (41:00) Advice to her 21-year-old self (42:29) Kerensa's favourite moment of the AI series (41:10)