During this event, we discussed Nesta’s blueprint for using innovation policy to build a fairer, more resilient economy after Covid-19. Over the coming months, Nesta will be exploring how innovation can help create a resilient and inclusive economy post COVID-19, and the windows of opportunity for lasting change. See the full Innovation after Lockdown report here.

Innovation will be vital to Britain’s economic recovery. But unless we change the way innovation is funded and supported, recovery will leave too many people and places behind. The second event of our series on innovation after Covid-19 drew on the analysis in our recent report The Missing £4 Billion and presented Nesta’s proposals for how innovation policy can become more place sensitive, more focused on spreading innovation to the wider economy and more prepared to steer innovation for the public benefit. 

We were joined by a panel of experts to explore how such an approach might enable politicians and policymakers to improve the productivity and resilience of lagging sectors and firms, better address regional inequality and ensure new technologies better serve the public interest. As well as analysing the report’s specific recommendations to policymakers, the panel tackled broader questions including:

• How can we use innovation to improve the resilience and productivity of foundational sectors like social care?  
• How might support for innovation be used to spur regional development?
• How can we create an innovation system that better preempts and addresses the risks posed by emerging technologies?