WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:04.412 --> 00:00:06.272 Dallas Campbell: Hello and welcome to Outer Orbit. 00:00:06.682 --> 00:00:09.722 In these short little bonus episodes, we're going to be continuing the 00:00:09.732 --> 00:00:14.432 conversation from our main episode, focusing in on a particular topic 00:00:14.432 --> 00:00:18.862 or a particular point of view and today we are back with Amy Peace. 00:00:18.912 --> 00:00:23.752 She's the Innovation Lead for Circular Economy at Innovate UK to 00:00:23.752 --> 00:00:28.647 explore the importance of building a strong, innovation ecosystem in the 00:00:28.647 --> 00:00:32.287 UK and supporting the development of UK businesses to create a 00:00:32.287 --> 00:00:35.127 thriving future for our economy. 00:00:35.644 --> 00:00:41.262 Maybe you could start with telling our listeners what Innovate UK is. 00:00:41.422 --> 00:00:46.032 Amy Peace: Yeah, so Innovate UK, people often know us for being 00:00:46.032 --> 00:00:48.132 the government innovation agency. 00:00:48.132 --> 00:00:52.500 So essentially a lot of people get grants from Innovate UK for doing innovation 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:56.270 activities, but hopefully by the end of this, you'll realise there's probably 00:00:56.270 --> 00:00:59.380 quite a bit more to innovate than just, please, can we have some money? 00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:00.400 We'd like to do something innovative. 00:01:01.402 --> 00:01:05.462 so we are part of the broader UKRI, UK Research and Innovation. 00:01:05.984 --> 00:01:10.907 So along with all the research councils, which do primarily academic focused 00:01:11.377 --> 00:01:15.297 funding, we do the bit which has always got to have a business lead to it. 00:01:15.976 --> 00:01:20.806 Some of the things we do are all about, as I say, getting government money to 00:01:20.806 --> 00:01:24.616 businesses, but also sometimes it's about leveraging other people's money. 00:01:24.626 --> 00:01:29.685 So we have kind of this mantra of inspire, involve, invest 00:01:29.995 --> 00:01:31.705 is kind of the Innovate way. 00:01:31.775 --> 00:01:32.315 Dallas Campbell: So, okay. 00:01:32.315 --> 00:01:34.005 So inspire, involve, invest. 00:01:34.015 --> 00:01:37.925 So inspire to make the opportunity visible and compelling. 00:01:37.925 --> 00:01:41.065 So who are you making the opportunity visible and compelling to? 00:01:41.391 --> 00:01:44.921 Amy Peace: Yeah so obviously we get some businesses who are 00:01:44.921 --> 00:01:46.771 absolutely innovation focused. 00:01:46.781 --> 00:01:50.711 So you can imagine quite a lot of spin outs from university who have literally 00:01:50.711 --> 00:01:53.471 just come out, we've got a great idea, we think it's going to change the 00:01:53.471 --> 00:01:55.731 world, please can you help us grow? 00:01:56.111 --> 00:02:00.501 And actually sort of take an idea into actually becoming something tangible. 00:02:00.989 --> 00:02:03.177 But also you get, you know, you've got to acknowledge 00:02:03.207 --> 00:02:04.487 what's the starting point here? 00:02:04.667 --> 00:02:06.847 We've got a lot of businesses that have been here around here for a 00:02:06.847 --> 00:02:12.867 long time, we've got an ecosystem of places, people, society, organisations 00:02:13.487 --> 00:02:17.847 and actually inspiring the right people to think of where are the 00:02:17.847 --> 00:02:19.577 innovative things we need to do? 00:02:19.597 --> 00:02:24.107 How can we improve our businesses, the place and other organisations? 00:02:24.642 --> 00:02:28.652 And sometimes it's then how do we get the people who've got the ideas matched up to 00:02:28.662 --> 00:02:32.002 the people who've got the opportunities or the problems that need solving? 00:02:32.012 --> 00:02:33.372 Dallas Campbell: So it's a bit of matchmaking as well. 00:02:33.655 --> 00:02:35.185 Amy Peace: Yeah, there's definitely a bit of that in there. 00:02:35.185 --> 00:02:39.375 In fact, we've got a bit of Innovate called Innovate UK Business Connect. 00:02:39.515 --> 00:02:41.705 It used to be called the Knowledge Transfer Network for... 00:02:41.875 --> 00:02:42.415 Dallas Campbell: I remember. 00:02:42.505 --> 00:02:43.145 Amy Peace: ...for a while. 00:02:43.595 --> 00:02:47.145 So yeah their prime aim is connecting innovators, academia 00:02:47.205 --> 00:02:48.735 and others in that space. 00:02:48.765 --> 00:02:51.345 Dallas Campbell: Give us a couple of, you talked about, you know, dynamic 00:02:51.365 --> 00:02:54.615 people just left college and they're all excited about changing the world. 00:02:54.845 --> 00:02:56.675 Give us some examples of projects. 00:02:57.040 --> 00:02:58.290 Amy Peace: Oh, we've had so many exciting ones. 00:02:58.290 --> 00:03:01.050 I mean, in the space where I operate, so circular economy, it 00:03:01.050 --> 00:03:03.090 covers so many different sectors. 00:03:03.230 --> 00:03:06.140 So, some of those are really interesting things. 00:03:06.200 --> 00:03:08.500 I've been just looking, I'm trying to think, what are some of the 00:03:08.500 --> 00:03:09.590 things in just this last week or so? 00:03:09.590 --> 00:03:14.860 So we've got one project, which is looking at eye safe lasers and you 00:03:14.860 --> 00:03:18.900 think, okay, lasers, eye safe, well, we were going there, but, if you think 00:03:18.910 --> 00:03:23.177 about all this stuff and machinery we've got in the world, and normally 00:03:23.177 --> 00:03:27.457 when things get sort of end of life and things, it's quite a bit of an onerous 00:03:27.497 --> 00:03:30.867 procedure to sort of clean things up or try and sort of recycle them. 00:03:30.877 --> 00:03:33.817 So in circularity, we always want to try and get to what we call 00:03:33.817 --> 00:03:35.427 the higher levels of circularity. 00:03:35.427 --> 00:03:38.387 So keeping things in operation for as long as possible, sort 00:03:38.387 --> 00:03:39.977 of remanufacturing, repair. 00:03:40.797 --> 00:03:42.507 Now lasers have been around for ages. 00:03:42.797 --> 00:03:45.887 Everyone loves a good laser, for cleaning and getting rid 00:03:45.887 --> 00:03:47.327 of dirt and grime off things. 00:03:47.377 --> 00:03:51.217 But if you accidentally shine it in your eyes, they have a small 00:03:51.217 --> 00:03:54.457 problem of actually altering our eyesight and being quite dangerous. 00:03:54.527 --> 00:03:55.147 Dallas Campbell: Don't want to do that. 00:03:55.601 --> 00:03:58.224 Amy Peace: So yeah, some of the lasers that are used for cleaning at the 00:03:58.224 --> 00:04:01.224 moment, like if you're within, I think it's like a kilometer and a half of 00:04:01.294 --> 00:04:03.554 them, they're considered to be a danger. 00:04:03.594 --> 00:04:06.214 So they have to be done in very controlled environments. 00:04:06.425 --> 00:04:10.915 Whereas we've got this project with Woodrow Scientific who are a fascinating 00:04:10.985 --> 00:04:14.015 little SME there who first sort of developed this laser just in sort of a 00:04:14.155 --> 00:04:18.315 standalone device to say, well, actually if we operate a different wavelength 00:04:18.315 --> 00:04:22.020 and some other bits of safety technology in there, we can have something that's 00:04:22.020 --> 00:04:27.082 handheld and you can take to places where Actually, you can do things in situ, 00:04:27.122 --> 00:04:32.272 like, so you can take bits of machinery and clean it there in the plant, you 00:04:32.272 --> 00:04:35.752 could sort of get a building or a bridge and actually take it out there and clean 00:04:35.762 --> 00:04:40.532 things and it's fascinating to see this thing work, but our project we're doing 00:04:40.532 --> 00:04:43.402 at the moment, that they've just sort of finished, I've been looking, well, 00:04:43.402 --> 00:04:47.972 how do we combine it with robotics and visualisation techniques to go, that's 00:04:47.972 --> 00:04:52.722 all very well if a human's operating it, but how do we put a random object that 00:04:52.722 --> 00:04:56.652 needs cleaning almost down a conveyor belt and it to know what it is and what 00:04:56.802 --> 00:05:01.142 path the laser should take around it for cleaning and make it a bit more automated. 00:05:01.662 --> 00:05:03.982 Dallas Campbell: And so, is it a bit of everything? 00:05:04.312 --> 00:05:05.472 I mean, it's just 00:05:05.610 --> 00:05:08.207 Amy Peace: Lasers, robots, crazy cameras. 00:05:08.207 --> 00:05:09.992 Dallas Campbell: Just anything that's going to make the world better. 00:05:10.277 --> 00:05:13.597 Amy Peace: Yeah, and one of my colleagues likes to talk about kind of this stacked 00:05:13.627 --> 00:05:17.397 technology and I think that's where some of the more interesting things we get here 00:05:17.397 --> 00:05:21.287 are, where we just say, we're not just trying to fix one problem or tick one box. 00:05:21.287 --> 00:05:27.227 It's what if you combine the need for sustainability with digitalisation, 00:05:27.247 --> 00:05:31.807 with the latest materials technology, with the latest things in visualisation? 00:05:32.047 --> 00:05:36.017 And that's where you get some of the really interesting innovations, but you 00:05:36.017 --> 00:05:39.387 often then need to get people who've not worked together before, getting 00:05:39.387 --> 00:05:40.737 to know each other and that's, yeah. 00:05:41.108 --> 00:05:44.188 Dallas Campbell: Give us a little view of what the sort of priorities are 00:05:44.188 --> 00:05:47.825 coming up for over the next decade or so for you guys, what's the... 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:48.520 Amy Peace: Yeah. 00:05:48.520 --> 00:05:51.470 So those who want to go into the real depths of it, we do have a 00:05:51.500 --> 00:05:55.660 plan for action, which sort of gave the outlook sort of going forward 00:05:55.660 --> 00:05:57.080 a bit into where we're going to be. 00:05:57.450 --> 00:06:01.590 We also, within our, I sit within a materials and manufacturing team, we 00:06:01.590 --> 00:06:06.440 did a vision document going out to 2050, which is not an industrial strategy. 00:06:06.470 --> 00:06:10.245 It's a very much a where could we, should we be in that space? 00:06:10.545 --> 00:06:14.325 And then looking at those sort of pathways of how do you get there? 00:06:14.745 --> 00:06:18.105 Because obviously some of the priorities are things we've been talking about 00:06:18.105 --> 00:06:23.045 in the podcast around net zero, our favorite buzzword, but equally, you 00:06:23.045 --> 00:06:25.065 can't just get to net zero in isolation. 00:06:25.297 --> 00:06:29.617 A lot of the things where we're looking in circularity might not be 00:06:29.627 --> 00:06:33.417 for carbon purposes, you might be doing it for resilience purposes. 00:06:33.547 --> 00:06:37.597 We want to save resources because it's really hard to get them, because we saw 00:06:37.697 --> 00:06:42.397 in the pandemic, a lot of our supply chains sort of fell down, not even when 00:06:42.775 --> 00:06:46.085 shipping tankers were getting stuck in canals, you know, there was also 00:06:46.085 --> 00:06:49.795 sort of just, if a particular country suddenly closes all its borders, you 00:06:50.095 --> 00:06:53.465 It has this sort of knock on effect around the world of where you realise 00:06:53.485 --> 00:06:55.635 how connected our manufacturing is. 00:06:56.045 --> 00:07:00.235 So if you can try and sort of say that, well, we still want to be a global 00:07:00.235 --> 00:07:05.225 manufacturing nation, but we want to be able to be sure that actually, 00:07:05.225 --> 00:07:06.635 we've got a bit more security on that. 00:07:06.635 --> 00:07:09.335 We're not sending valuable stuff away just because we can't be bothered 00:07:09.355 --> 00:07:11.985 to do something with it, you know, we're keeping valuable things there. 00:07:12.095 --> 00:07:16.985 So resilience is one of the topics, and being advanced and technology, sort of 00:07:16.985 --> 00:07:21.405 in things like digitalisation is still in there as well, because some of these sort 00:07:21.405 --> 00:07:25.975 of benchmarks of technologies, lots of sort of inspiring ideas come off them, but 00:07:25.975 --> 00:07:29.155 they're kind of the cross cutting things that need to be sort of implemented. 00:07:29.625 --> 00:07:31.425 Dallas Campbell: If I have a brilliant idea, can I send it to you? 00:07:31.578 --> 00:07:35.098 Amy Peace: I mean, some people do, but we have a very open and transparent 00:07:35.128 --> 00:07:36.938 operation for getting funding. 00:07:36.938 --> 00:07:40.532 So yeah, most of our sort of funding people come out are these open 00:07:40.532 --> 00:07:42.112 competitions that we have open. 00:07:42.582 --> 00:07:46.162 So a lot of people will be aware of our smart program and that's 00:07:46.162 --> 00:07:50.042 literally any innovation idea within these sort of various terms 00:07:50.067 --> 00:07:53.497 and conditions in small print can be applied for on a rolling basis. 00:07:54.417 --> 00:07:58.187 But then we have more thematic programs and we've, for the last few years 00:07:58.207 --> 00:08:02.077 been running these industrial strategy challenge funds and that's where we take 00:08:02.077 --> 00:08:06.047 a much more thematic view of what are some of the really big problems that 00:08:06.047 --> 00:08:10.667 we want to get tangible outputs for and tackled within a set amount of time. 00:08:11.137 --> 00:08:15.687 So an example there was smart, sustainable plastic packaging, which was, you know, 00:08:15.797 --> 00:08:19.857 obviously trying to tackle the issue of sort of ocean and pollution associated 00:08:19.907 --> 00:08:24.820 with, plastics and have a look at, not just how do we recycle that plastic 00:08:24.850 --> 00:08:29.506 better, but again, those hierarchies of a circular economy and saying, how do we get 00:08:29.506 --> 00:08:32.816 much more reuse, communities and society? 00:08:33.066 --> 00:08:35.316 Dallas Campbell: The best innovation I always find, I work sometimes 00:08:35.346 --> 00:08:38.296 with a group called Teen Tech and we're going to schools and that we 00:08:38.296 --> 00:08:41.616 do competitions and they come up with brilliant, innovative ideas. 00:08:41.916 --> 00:08:45.916 A lot of plastic bottles and oceans comes up, but they always have like 00:08:45.916 --> 00:08:49.555 amazing ideas for things, the 10 year old brain is that's where you want to. 00:08:49.555 --> 00:08:53.355 Amy Peace: It's absolutely fascinating things you kind of get from that although 00:08:53.395 --> 00:08:58.115 I suppose one of the issues we sometimes get is when sort of people see the things 00:08:58.115 --> 00:09:01.495 that are headlines and kind of sometimes just jump to the sort of first idea 00:09:01.495 --> 00:09:03.675 of, Oh, ocean plastics is a problem. 00:09:03.735 --> 00:09:07.365 Oh, if only we made everything out of bottles, then we could be sustainable. 00:09:07.375 --> 00:09:12.175 So, you know, there's a lot of industries like in textiles and clothing and 00:09:12.375 --> 00:09:15.515 furniture and other places, you'll see them making big sustainability 00:09:15.545 --> 00:09:18.975 claims because we're made out of a hundred plastic bottles or similar. 00:09:19.810 --> 00:09:24.740 The problem with that is, in order to make the bottle industry sustainable, they want 00:09:24.760 --> 00:09:29.320 the bottles back and actually, the best thing you can do with a PET bottle is make 00:09:29.320 --> 00:09:34.780 it into another one and in some ways, it can be a bit of a get out of jail card in 00:09:34.780 --> 00:09:39.420 sort of saying, Oh, we'll just use that waste in order to make our product from. 00:09:39.420 --> 00:09:43.970 So we do need to be a little bit careful and again, thinking are we actually being 00:09:43.970 --> 00:09:48.150 more sustainable or are we just using something that sounds more sustainable. 00:09:48.180 --> 00:09:48.525 Dallas Campbell: Yeah, got it. 00:09:48.615 --> 00:09:53.249 Hey, listen, Amy, thank you so much for coming on and for illuminating us. 00:09:53.442 --> 00:09:54.702 It's inspiring stuff. 00:09:54.732 --> 00:09:59.432 Your, whoever came up with your Inspire, Involve, Invest little catchphrase, 00:09:59.462 --> 00:10:01.202 they got it pretty bang on, I think. 00:10:01.887 --> 00:10:03.897 Amy Peace: Yeah, there's an awful lot of stuff going there. 00:10:03.897 --> 00:10:08.047 So I'd say if anyone hasn't engaged with Innovate before, if you 00:10:08.047 --> 00:10:11.587 just sort of Google Innovate UK Business Connect, as I say, the bit 00:10:11.587 --> 00:10:15.397 that used to be KTN, they have a newsletter, which you can sign up to. 00:10:15.437 --> 00:10:19.707 So you can say which sort of topics you're interested in, because say even 00:10:19.707 --> 00:10:23.547 if you're not specifically looking for a grant, we also have like loans programmes, 00:10:23.567 --> 00:10:26.627 we do things like knowledge transfer partnerships where you get people from 00:10:26.627 --> 00:10:30.447 academia, being able to work in your business and then there's a load of sort 00:10:30.447 --> 00:10:35.187 of things matching with private investors or just helping you get your idea out. 00:10:35.247 --> 00:10:39.677 So do sign up for that because, I'm sure there's plenty of other ways that Innovate 00:10:39.677 --> 00:10:42.637 can help you that, as I say, it's not just about, please, can we have some money? 00:10:43.302 --> 00:10:43.992 Dallas Campbell: Thank you very much. 00:10:43.992 --> 00:10:44.412 Thank you. 00:10:45.047 --> 00:10:45.317 Amy Peace: Pleasure. 00:10:45.647 --> 00:10:49.167 Dallas Campbell: To hear future episodes of In Orbit, don't forget, subscribe on 00:10:49.167 --> 00:10:53.737 your favourite podcast app, and to find out more about how space is empowering 00:10:53.797 --> 00:10:58.467 industries in between episodes, you can visit the Catapult website, or 00:10:58.507 --> 00:10:59.977 you can join them on social media.