Innovation Management and Policy Inaugural Lecture

The Innovation Management and Policy division will be hosting a special lecture on September 16th as part of a cross-school AMBS inaugural lecture series this summer.

The lectures provide an opportunity for new or recently promoted Professors to celebrate their achievements, and present an overview of their own contribution to their field of cutting-edge research and highlight the latest developments in a particular discipline.

Andrew James, Professor of Innovation Management and Policy, will give a talk on “The Challenge of Grand Challenges for Innovation Management and Policy”.

In the last two decades, grand societal challenges such as climate change, global hunger and an ageing society have become a focus of government funding and collaborative research between businesses, universities and charitable organisations. There are persistent calls for more management scholars to join global efforts to understand and solve these Grand Challenges.

In his lecture, Professor James will examine the challenges of Grand Challenges for businesses, universities and individual academics.

“In the last two decades, the idea of grand societal challenges has emerged as an important theme in framing science, technology and innovation policy, mobilising organisational actors and influencing research priorities in some scientific fields. I will draw on my own research to examine the origin of the idea of Grand Challenges; what the Grand Challenges approach can learn from mission-oriented research efforts in fields such as defence and agriculture; and the opportunities and barriers for firms, universities and individual academics who seek to collaborate on research to address grand societal challenges like climate change”.