Accelerating the UK’s Industrial Strategy: Driving Growth and Resilience, will bring together leaders from government, industry, and academia to explore how the UK can strengthen its competitiveness in high-value sectors. The programme will feature discussions on the UK’s industrial strategy and what is needed next, alongside insights from CSEP’s latest research. Sector-specific sessions will focus on HealthTech, automotive, and aeronautics, highlighting regulatory needs as a critical enabler of growth. Further sessions will address the fine chemicals, cybersecurity, and tidal power sector, with an overarching importance of building low-cost, reliable, secure, and smart infrastructure for the UK. A dedicated Workshop will examine common cross-cutting themes emerging across sectors to support acceleration of the UK’s Industrial Strategy, with CSEP observations on exports, energy costs, regulation, sectoral linkages, and national champions, followed by an open discussion with participants on additional themes.
This event will serve as a platform for dialogue and collaboration, addressing both sector-specific opportunities and cross-cutting challenges to support the UK’s long-term economic growth.
Agenda
09:30 – Join
10:00 – Welcome from Professor Hugh Brady, President of Imperial College London
10:05 – Introduction to CSEP by CSEP Director, Nigel Steward
10:15 – A fireside chat with Michael Clark, Deputy Director for Future Industries and Resilient Economy within Department for Business and Trade’s Industrial Strategy Unit
10:45 – Presentations and panel discussions on CSEP’s latest work:
Cyber Security: protecting the cyberworld and growing into the cyber-physical world to create and protect new UK growth (Chaired by Rupert Shute)
- Dr Simon Shiu, Visiting Professor of Cyber Security at the University of Bristol (Presentation lead)
- Andrew Elliot, Director of Cyber Security at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
- Verona Johnstone-Hulse, Government Affairs Lead at NCC Group
- Aurorah Smith, former Global Director of Commercial Strategy and Growth – Cybersecurity at BT, now Founder of Uncharted Brands (specialising in cybersecurity marketing and commercial strategy)
Aeronautics: opportunities in the transition to net-zero aviation (Chaired by James Barlow)
- Professor Rafael Palacios, Professor in Computational Aeroelasticity – Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College (Presentation lead)
- Professor Laura Mainini, Chair in Aerospace Computational Design and Associate Director of the Brahmal Institute of Sustainable Aviation at Imperial College
- Jim Albaugh, former President and Chief Executive Officer at Boeing Commercial Airplanes
- Mark Higson, Chief Operating Officer at Vertical Aerospace
HealthTech: strategy execution and exports (Chaired by Nigel Steward)
- James Moore, the Bagrit and RAEng Chair in Medical Device Design, Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College (Presentation lead)
- Richard Devereaux Phillips, Executive Director of Policy and Partnerships at the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI)
- Sean Redmond, President of Silicon Catalyst Europe
12:15 – A presentation on the role of the Regulatory Innovation Office in accelerating growth in future high-value sectors by RIO Chair the Rt Hon Lord David Willetts
12:45 – Lunch
13:45 – Latest CSEP work continued
Fine Chemicals: a key supplier to the UK’s high value-add BioPharma sector (Chaired by James Barlow)
- Professor Nilay Shah, Professor of Process Systems Engineer at Imperial College (Presentation lead)
- Sharon Todd, Chief Executive of SCI
- Nishma Patel, Policy Director at the Chemical Industry Association
Automotive: opportunities arising from disruption in the automotive sector – a UK perspective (Chaired by Rupert Shute)
- Dr Joachim Taiber, Advanced Research Fellow in Mobility at CSEP and Managing Director at the International Alliance for Mobility Testing and Standardisation (IAMTS) (Presentation lead)
- Professor Robert Shorten, Head of Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College
- Professor Siddhartha Khastgir, Head of Safe Autonomy at WMG University of Warwick and Future Leaders Fellow at the UKRI
- Sean Redmond, President of Silicon Catalyst Europe
14:45 – Break
15:15 – CSEP work continued
Tidal Power: can it play a role in reducing UK electricity costs and be a source of export growth? (Chaired by Nigel Steward)
- Dr Tilly Collins, Senior Teaching Fellow, Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College (Presentation lead)
- Dr Iain Staffel, Reading in Sustainable Energy at Imperial College
- Sue Bartlett-Reed, Executive Director at the Marine Energy Council
- Jim Conybeare-Cross, Founder at Tidal Technologies Ltd
15:45 – Closing remarks and reflections from Nigel Steward, Director of CSEP
16:00 – 19:00 – Networking