27 November 2019 Collaboration in an uncertain world The role of science and innovation in addressing complex challenges 2 Samira Ahmed introducing the Huxley Summit 2018 Contents 3 4 Agenda The Huxley Summit 2019 will bring 6 Welcome together 300 business leaders, scientists, 8 Collaboration is key policy-makers and opinion-formers on Wednesday 27 November at the Royal 10 Profit vs purpose Institution 12 Speakers Rapidly evolving social, environmental and economic 17 Sponsors & Partners conditions – underpinned by technological and scientific innovation – are disrupting and reshaping every aspect 19 New Voices of society. As the world becomes ever increasingly 20 Attendees interconnected, the Summit will look at how we understand the complex impacts of science and technology. A film crew and photographer will be present at the Huxley Summit. If you do 2019 saw ‘climate emergencies’ declared in countries across not wish to be filmed or photographed, the world, as the risks of inaction became impossible to please speak to a member of the BSA team at the Summit. ignore. Societies have questioned the neutrality of technology, as calls for tighter regulation have reverberated around the globe. In changing times, how can you build trusted and sustainable ways of working across sectors and nations? In the face of these issues can citizens, organisations and nations challenge ‘business as usual’ to help shape the future? We encourage attendees to use Twitter during the Summit, and we recommend you use the hashtag #HuxleySummit to follow the conversation. We will be using Slido on the day to undertake polls and collect comments. We encourage all attendees to visit www.sli.do/huxley. The Huxley Summit is organised and managed by the British Wifi: Name: Ri-Public - Password: Cavendish Science Association All content and information correct at the time of going to print. All materials used in the production of this programme are biodegradable. Images credit: Diana Novikova. 4 Agenda 10.00 Registration and coffee 11.00 Chapter 1: From climate change to climate emergency For many years scientific reports have indicated that systemic change on a global scale is needed to avoid climate breakdown. While targeted attempts to reduce the impacts of climate change around electric vehicles and solar panels have caught public and media attention, international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol have compelled leaders to mitigate the systemic climate change risks facing the planet. What is the role for UK business and government in using its global reach to make a significant impact? Welcome: Dr Shaun Fitzgerald & Lord David Willetts Panel: Dr Tamsin Edwards, Kamal Ahmed, Richard Kirkman, Baroness Bryony Worthington 12.30 Lunchtime roundtables 14.00 Chapter 2: Part A: Collaborating in a world not designed for you What are the barriers for collaboration across organisations, sectors and nations on complex issues? How can we enable successful collaboration by overcoming some of the biases facing underrepresented groups across business, policy, science and the media? Panel: Sayeh Ghanbari, Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Dame Inga Beale Part B: Who should lead the way on technology regulation? Technologies such as 5G, AI, and cryptocurrency are continuing to advance at an astonishing speed and public trust in social media companies is falling almost as quickly (Edelman Trust Barometer 2018). This pace of change is redefining the status quo for science, businesses, and policy makers. Tech-driven change is happening so rapidly, and in so many different sectors, that the risks of unintended consequences and public backlashes are higher than ever before – and efforts to regulate the uses of technology and data have produced both successes and challenges. How can leaders on technology regulation respond to the diverse needs and behaviours of society? Panel: Daniel Dyball, Priya Guha, Frederike Kaltheuner, Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones 5 15.20 Coffee and networking 16.00 Chapter 3: Science and technology shaping the future Science, technology and innovation have helped create and solve some of our world’s biggest challenges, and have driven partnerships between nations, sectors and organisations. What are the collaborations and innovations that will respond to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and shape a healthier, fairer future? How can leaders in the UK drive progress, and what can we learn from our past? Interview with Mathieu Flamini Panel: Lord David Willetts, Baroness Rosie Boycott, Veera Johnson, Professor Faith Osier, Pierre Paslier 17.30 Drinks reception 6 Welcome Rt Hon. the Lord David Willetts Chair of the Huxley Summit Advisory Board I warmly welcome you to the British Science follow China’s approach to regulatory power. Association’s annual Huxley Summit. Now The question for us today is not whether in its fourth year, the Summit provides a collaboration is important (like motherhood vital opportunity to gather business leaders, and apple pie, most people agree that it is scientists, policy makers and opinion formers important), but what type of cooperation to discuss the scientific and social challenges across organisations, sectors and nations is of our times. required to tackle complex, multi-disciplinary Our first Summit was held in November 2016, issues. on the eve of the ‘Trump election’. When None of the major challenges facing global we started programming this year’s event, society – climate change, neuro-degenerative we did not plan for it to take place amidst a disease, energy security, technology General Election campaign. regulation – can be tackled by one discipline, As a recovering politician, I find it fitting one section of society, or one nation alone. that our theme is ‘collaboration in an The UK – exemplified by all of us here at the uncertain world’. We must hope that the UK’s Huxley Summit – must ensure that business, protracted, still unresolved, divorce from the policy, science and the media continue to EU does not inflict lasting damage on our work together for the benefit of society. standing on the global stage, or our ability Today we will seek to explore the role that to represent a plurality of views and build science and innovation has to play in tackling consensus. some of these so-called ‘wicked problems’. Beyond the fractured UK political landscape, We will look at the issues of climate change 2019 draws to a close against a backdrop of and technology regulation, and how the trade wars and civil unrest in various corners UK can help drive progress against the UN of the globe – from Hong Kong to Catalonia Sustainable Development Goals. and Lebanon. In designing the Huxley Summit, we’re In the face of the climate emergency, the aiming to deliberately blur boundaries; to world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse encourage you to encounter people, ideas gases is withdrawing from the Paris and viewpoints that differ from your usual Agreement. While, from a global network to day-to-day interactions. Thank you for bring the world closer together, the internet is attending. I hope that you find it a thought- now threatened with fracture across country provoking event. lines, with Russia and Pakistan most likely to 7 Professor Jim Al-Khalili speaking at the Huxley Summit 2018 8 Collaboration is key Gisela Abbam Chair of the British Science Association & Black British Business Person of the Year 2019 In today’s political climate, it can often feel that we live in a divided world with no clear direction of travel. Communities have become disparate and siloed, dialogue is heated and unconstructive, and particularly for us at the moment, here in the UK, ‘business as usual’ has been put on hold because of the uncertainty we are living through. But the challenges of our time won’t wait for politics to settle down. Throughout the world, there are millions, if This isn’t just true for healthcare in a global not billions, of people who don’t have access setting – in the past year, it has been to the most basic needs, including food, clean impossible to ignore the huge resurgence of water and basic healthcare. And even those interest in, and urgency around, conservation who do have access to these supplies are left and wildlife protection. A few weeks ago, to live on the fringes of extreme poverty. This Collins Dictionary revealed that their 2019 is not acceptable. Word of the Year is “Climate Strike”. I have dedicated my career to achieving The devastating impacts of man-made better wellness outcomes for people across climate change are happening now – the globe through collaborative healthcare, in remember the worldwide, record-breaking roles at GE Healthcare and Abt Associates. In temperatures that brought countries to a 2016, my team and I successfully negotiated stand-still just this summer, with places like a policy with the World Trade Organization France seeing unprecedented highs of 46°C. which eliminated tariffs on key medical Issues like these touch the lives of everyone devices, increasing access for patients in 80 on the planet and are as varied as the people countries. we share our world with. On the surface, I look at healthcare through a policy lens, humankind’s differences may seem like a cooperating with clinicians, governments roadblock for progress, with our multitude and companies all around the world. of ideas, cultures, and motivations making Collaboration is the driving force behind this, a Scottish farmer feel worlds away from a and only by working across not only different Bengalese factory worker, and an American sectors, but also global boundaries, can we business mogul seem like an alien creature hope to solve these issues. compared to an Arctic Inuit. 9 But in the words of the late MP Jo Cox, “we We have a joint responsibility to work are far more united and have far more in together and act on the challenges we all common with each other than things that face, regardless of background or identity.