Fine quotation from Freddie Williams, Electrical Engineering Prof at The University of Manchester, about the development, with Tom Kilburn, of world's 1st stored programme computer, in 1948, commercialised by Ferranti in 1951.
Value of interdisciplinary collaboration & rapid commercialisation...

UK shadow chancellor’s regional productivity agenda could be driven by devolving parts of R&D funding or creating new kinds of institutions, experts tell John Morgan
timeshighereducation.com/news/labour-ti…

Not widely enough appreciated how much the UK is being left behind in the deployment of industrial robots.
Half a million new robots in factories across the world;
2,534 in the UK - fewer than Thailand.
(source ifr.org/ifr-press-rele…)

One place that's looking at its best, after the deluge of the last few months.
(Ludchurch, more visited than it used to be, still magical).

📢 Great to see this paper in print. Rick Delbridge Elvira Uyarra 🐝 David Waite Robert Huggins, Kevin Morgan and I explore lessons on inclusive innovation policy through city-region approaches in Cardiff, Glasgow and Manchester.
Available now (open access) at link.springer.com/article/10.100…

Lilian Edwards Here's data on cumulative investment in transport & R&D by region
I work in Manchester, so painfully aware of poor state of northern transport infrastructure.
But I think spatial imbalance in UK R&D spending matters too, for reasons given in detail here:
nesta.org.uk/report/the-mis…

Great to see strong endorsement of 'Innovation Accelerator' pilots for locally led collaborative innovation funding in 3 city-regions from @innovateUK & the Science Minister.
The current programme ends March 2025 - important to guarantee continuity now, & extend to other cities.

Agree with Richard Jones that Rachel Reeves Mais Lecture sets out new directions for #science and #innovation policy that require bigger #institutional changes than is broadly understood, especially to drive #knowledge diffusion across the economy. The Productivity Institute

On the implications of Rachel Reeves's Mais Lecture for science and innovation policy - my blogpost
softmachines.org/wordpress/?p=2…

On the implications of Rachel Reeves's Mais Lecture for science and innovation policy - my blogpost
softmachines.org/wordpress/?p=2…

'Optical fibres and the paradox of innovation' - blogpost version of my thread touching on the invention of optical fibres (in Essex), their importance in the world economy, & the disappearance of corporate laboratories in the 90's & 00's.
softmachines.org/wordpress/?p=2…

Late to write down thoughts on the Mais lecture – largely because of discussing related topics of growth, sustainability and resilience in excellent conferences held by Bennett Institute for Public Policy and Royal Economic Society. Here they are, with links to relevant research...
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpol…

Richard Jones I worked at STL Harlow on the pilot production of optical fibre in the late 70s. The process was a Byzantine mix of chemistry, physics & craft skill. If we hit 3km without defect or breakage it was cause for celebration. Had no idea of the future impact of our work at the time!

A foundational paper for modern world - the invention of optical fibres
Without them, no internet, no on-demand video, no globalisation/dispersed supply chains
This won a Nobel Prize for Charles Kao, a HK Chinese scientist then working in STL in Essex, a now defunct corporate lab