探花直播 of Cambridge - Strategic Partnerships Office

探花直播art of partnerships

skbf2 — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:44:23 +0000

Tammy Dougan on why it's so important that universities work with industry to get fundamental science out of the lab and into the real world.

Impact through collaboration: the importance of strategic partnerships

skbf2 — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 11:28:37 +0000

Every successful global business is founded on innovation. But as a company grows, it has to turn its once disruptive thinking into a codified set of structures and processes capable of keeping thousands of employees聽 pointing in roughly the same direction. These mechanisms do an excellent job of delivering continuity but they are not always conducive to innovation.

For large companies, Cambridge can supply some of that new thinking and positive disruption. 聽Complementary capabilities 鈥� our blue-sky, longer-term thinking combined with a business鈥檚 ability to get things done 鈥� mean that we can do things together that we can鈥檛 achieve on our own. Indeed, it is only through collaboration that we can address some of the world鈥檚 most pressing challenges and bring about positive economic and societal change.

However, we need to be mindful that those same differences that make our partnerships so fruitful can also lead to frustrations on both sides, if not carefully managed.

Orchestrated engagement

One of the challenges of working with Cambridge is our breadth and scale. With more than 150 Faculties and Departments, nearly 12,000 staff and more than 22,000 students not to mention 31 independent Colleges, the opportunities for businesses to engage with us are plentiful.

Sometimes, we are told, too plentiful. We know the 探花直播 is complicated 鈥� but it鈥檚 not just us. Almost all large companies also have labyrinthine organisational structures. Trying to bring the right people together at the right time can take patience and persistence. 聽

There can also be tensions around expectations and outcomes. Academics are measured by the quality and quantity of their publications.聽 Firms seeking to achieve competitive advantage from these relationships don鈥檛鈥� understandably 鈥� always want to broadcast their findings to their competitors. Developing the right intellectual property framework which gives each party sufficient rewards is, therefore, a precondition of a successful partnership.

It is also the case that curiosity-led research does not always result in an outcome which has a direct commercial application. That can be a source of frustration if it has not been understood at the outset.

To help overcome these hurdles, our Strategic Partnerships Office plus a small army of knowledge exchange professionals dotted around the 探花直播 are on hand to facilitate collaboration. Having dedicated relationship managers on both sides of the partnership can also be helpful in keeping聽the lines of communication running smoothly and efficiently. Anna Dalglish, Data Science Partnerships Lead at Aviva, attributes the success of its collaboration with Cambridge to having people in those roles: 鈥淗aving a partnership lead on both sides has meant we can get things done really quickly.鈥澛�

Our partnerships are built around three broad areas:

Research and innovation: Ways to engage include research collaborations ranging from large multidisciplinary collaborations with senior academics to sponsoring a PhD. Firms can also join one of our industry clubs (and benefit from collaborating with other companies in a non-competitive or pre-competitive environment) or by sharing workspaces to promote the exchange of ideas and build productive relationships. Relocating a team (or in AstraZeneca鈥檚 case, its global headquarters) to Cambridge can also help with both of these things as well as聽connecting organisations with promising spin-outs and start-ups across our flourishing innovation ecosystem.聽聽

Talent: Access to a talent pool of Cambridge graduates (and postgraduates) and the opportunity to recruit the next generation of leaders and innovators is usually near the top of any strategic partner鈥檚 wish list. They can do this through Careers Services events, hosting student projects and funding PhDs and postgraduate training. Cambridge can also help companies develop their own in-house talent through a programme of bespoke and open executive and professional development programmes.

Services: Businesses may also benefit from a range of professional support services that can help them, for example, license a particular technology or research tool, access labs and equipment or find investment opportunities. 聽

"More than the sum of our parts"

Businesses can engage with the 探花直播 in a very focused way by, for example, working with an individual academic or licensing a聽technology through Cambridge Enterprise. And that's great. But in order to do achieve significant聽and sustained impact,聽longer-term strategic partnerships have a critical role to play. Broader collaborations are also of interest to, and hence often funded by, government which wants to see its investment in the research base lead to home-grown business success and the social and economic benefits that arise from it.

A great example of how a long-term relationship can build on its success is the 探花直播鈥檚 collaboration with Rolls-Royce which has, over 40 odd years, resulted in breakthrough after breakthrough. Mark Jefferies, Chief of 探花直播 Research Liaison at Rolls-Royce, says that its distinct model of university collaboration "means that we can create a core of activity around a particular specialism and by sharing knowledge and expertise with a trusted partner, together we are able to achieve considerably more than the sum of our parts.鈥�

These collaborations聽are also very聽important for individual researchers. In a recent article about another longstanding 探花直播 partnership, I was struck by a remark made by Helena Rannikmae, a PhD student funded by AstraZeneca, who explained how having an industrial sponsor has enriched her research: 鈥淚 definitely think my PhD would have less impact without AstraZeneca鈥檚 input. They really pushed me both in terms of the underlying biology and in thinking about its long-term application.鈥澛�

If these partnerships are to succeed, they have to deliver real benefits to both sides. For our business partners, it鈥檚 ultimately about achieving and sustaining competitive advantage. From the 探花直播鈥檚 perspective, they give academics an opportunity to put their research into practice to achieve real impact. Issues arising at the commercial frontline also give rise to interesting research questions and new avenues to explore. Students and postdocs can benefit from funding, industrial experience and career opportunities through collaborations, projects and placements. Even if they choose to pursue a career elsewhere, they will have seen first-hand how business works and acquired some immensely valuable skills along the way.

Collaboration and COVID

We can鈥檛 talk about strategic partnerships without mentioning COVID-19. 探花直播pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives 鈥� and our collaborations are no exception. Different sectors, of course, have been impacted in different ways. But all of us have had to adapt to new聽way of working and learn to deal with considerable uncertainty. This has presented some significant challenges 鈥� but also some opportunities. 聽It has also raised interesting and important questions about priorities as we (eventually) emerge from our current situation. Managing risk is clearly high on everyone鈥檚 agenda but so is the mental health and wellbeing of a workforce under intense and sustained pressure and the need to keep a focus on carbon zero commitments.

Right now we are all experiencing disruption on a massive scale and there is no doubt that further challenges lie ahead. Together, universities and businesses have a vital role to play in tackling the immediate crisis but also in laying the foundations of our long-term recovery.聽聽聽

Professor Andy Neely, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations

Photo: Professor Cecilia Mascolo and Dr Fahim Kawsar, Founding Director of Pervasive Systems Research at Nokia Bell Labs in Cambridge聽

Professor Cecilia Mascolo and Dr Fahim Kawsar, Founding Director of Pervasive Systems Research at Nokia Bell Labs in Cambridge

探花直播Cambridge Cluster: lessons from the pandemic?

skbf2 — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 12:21:59 +0000

In response to COVID-19, we have seen some extraordinary examples of rapid and agile collaboration across the Cambridge Cluster. How can we capitalise on these experiences to do things better and faster in the future?

I recently introduced Beyond the pandemic, a new series of opinion pieces from Cambridge researchers on how the coronavirus is forcing us all to rethink what we do and how we do it and to ask if 鈥� amidst the devastation and uncertainty - there are any positive lessons to be learnt.

I have been thinking about this from the perspective of the Cambridge innovation ecosystem and its response to the pandemic. 探花直播cluster has always been characterised by its ability to embrace change. One of the reasons for this, I believe, is its dispersed but deceptively coherent nature. It is a kaleidoscope of activity with people and organisations coming together in different patterns and combinations to do new things, all within a structured, supportive framework. In 2020 it has demonstrated its ability to slip into new configurations with ease and with remarkable results. I鈥檝e noticed three key 鈥� and connected - dimensions to its response to the pandemic.

Collaboration. COVID-19 created an environment in which new and unexpected alliances were formed to solve problems with collective drive and urgency. We saw this first-hand at the start of the pandemic when GP surgeries, clinics and hospitals were experiencing shortages of PPE.

探花直播探花直播 responded by offering equipment from its own labs. But offers of help immediately arrived from Cambridge鈥檚 friends and alumni around the globe as well as from local companies and schools. Within days, donations of surgical masks, gloves and gowns started to flood in. It quickly became apparent that managing this influx would be a significant task.聽

Homerton, the college closest to Addenbrooke鈥檚 Hospital, offered storage space. Researchers and students from the Institute for Manufacturing applied their knowledge of factory logistics and, using tracking technology developed by 探花直播 spinout, RedBite, created a highly efficient warehousing operation. Staff from the Strategic Partnerships Office took on the task of triaging offers of help as they came in. Students volunteered to process the deliveries. In five days, a brand new logistics hub was up and running.

Speed. This was by no means the only example of rapid mobilisation 鈥� and collaboration. It took just five weeks for Cambridge鈥檚 life sciences community to repurpose a building and set up a state-of-the-art, highly automated COVID-19 testing centre 鈥� a task that could take anything up to two years to plan and deliver in more normal times. Teams from the 探花直播 and our strategic partners AstraZeneca and GSK worked together to achieve this mammoth feat of organisation and commitment. They were, in turn, supported by a whole host of other organisations: construction firms who built a new walkway at short notice and waived their fees for doing so; and manufacturers who developed complex scientific equipment in a fraction of the time it would usually have taken.

Creativity. Early on in the pandemic, it became clear that ventilators were going to play a critical part in patient care. Across the UK, manufacturers of all shapes and size scrambled to adapt their production lines to manufacture modified designs or completely new ones.

But conventional ventilators are expensive to produce and difficult to fix. A team of Cambridge engineers and clinicians saw a need for an affordable version that could be manufactured using readily available components for use in low and middle-income countries. 探花直播project to come up with a new design quickly gained momentum, bringing on board other universities and commercial partners both in the UK and Africa to refine the thinking and develop a prototype. 探花直播ventilator is now on the next stage of its journey with a manufacturer in South Africa preparing for mass production.

Collaboration, speed and creativity are not new: they have always been at the heart of Cambridge鈥檚 dynamic ecosystem. 探花直播pandemic has amplified those characteristics partly through an adrenalin-fuelled but largely unsustainable crisis response but partly as a result of remote working. Swapping face-to-face meetings for Zoom or Teams, while it undoubtedly has its drawbacks, has played a perhaps unexpected role as an enabler of change.

Pre-pandemic, there was an assumption that meeting in person 鈥� where possible 鈥� was the gold standard for communication. But cutting out the need to travel 鈥� even by bicycle across Cambridge - has made it faster and easier to reach people, to form new groups quickly and to coalesce around a shared vision.

It is, of course, important to acknowledge that the pandemic has had 鈥� and will continue to have 鈥� a calamitous effect on many businesses, and on the people who work in them. But if there are some positive lessons to be learnt it is that the experience of these intense collaborations, enabled by remote working, has shown us what can be achieved in a very short space of time. This is something that we can take with us into the future, whatever it may hold.

Professor Andy Neely, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations

Picture credit:聽Jude Palmer/Royal Academy of Engineering

Jude Palmer/Royal Academy of Engineering

Cambridge engineers received a Royal Academy of Engineering President鈥檚 Special Award for Pandemic Service.

Business and Enterprise blog

skbf2 — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 11:49:41 +0000

Building better business partnerships: lessons from our showcase event

Dr Diarmuid O'Brien, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation

Every year we聽host an event for Cambridge鈥檚 key business partners. Diarmuid O'Brien reflects on what we learned about how we can work better together to deliver economic growth and life-changing innovations.

Posted: January 2025

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Consultancy: the unsung hero of university innovation

Amanda Zeffman,聽Head of Consultancy Services and Research Tools,聽Cambridge Enterprise

"Channelling聽the intellectual might of Cambridge鈥檚 diverse disciplines into practical solutions and innovations".聽Cambridge Enterprise's Amanda Zeffman makes the case for consultancy as an effective way of building partnerships and achieving impact.

Posted: March 2024

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Reflections on COP28

Dr Manar Alsaif, Energy Sector Lead, Strategic Partnerships Office

Reflecting on COP28, Manar Alsaif finds reasons to be optimistic, not least in the focus on 'transdisciplinarity' to drive change, bringing together not only different research specialisms but also fostering collaboration with stakeholders from the private and public sectors and with the communities at the front line of the climate emergency.

Posted: December 2023

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Cambridge Grand Challenges: driving innovation

Dr Konstantina Stamati, Director, Cambridge Grand Challenges

A fresh pair of eyes on a problem can help an organisation think differently about the challenges they face. Konstantina Stamati explains how Cambridge Grand Challenges connects the best academic minds with corporate partners and the public sector to come up with innovative solutions.

Posted: May 2022

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Harnessing the power of innovation: the 探花直播鈥檚 Impulse programme

Yupar Myint, Head of Impulse Programme

Innovation is critical for a company's long-term survival. Yupar Myint explains why all organisations need entrepreneurs and how the 探花直播's Impulse Programme helps company executives develop the critical thinking and drive they need to bring about change.

Posted: February 2022

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Making things happen: why knowledge exchange is so important

Claire McGlynn, Head of Impact Acceleration, Research Strategy Office

探花直播 knowledge exchange professional, Claire McGlynn, on the rewards of helping businesses and universities identify and nurture synergies between them to achieve things neither could do on their own.

Posted: November 2021

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Supporting neurodiversity in the workplace: an insider鈥檚 perspective on a ThinkLab project

Dante McGrath, Department of Engineering

PhD candidate Dante McGrath reflects on his experience of a 探花直播 of Cambridge ThinkLab project and how it is helping insurance company Aviva create a more neurodiverse workforce.

Posted: October 2021

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Joining the dots

Dr Kathryn Chapman, Deputy Director of the Milner Therapeutic Institute and 探花直播 Relationship Manager for AstraZeneca

Kathryn Chapman introduces Connect: Health Tech, a new online community of researchers, businesses and healthcare providers which aims to bring the future of medicine one step closer.

Posted: May 2021

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Spotlight on healthcare

Dr Rui Mauricio, Healthcare Sector Manager, Strategic Partnerships Office

Cambridge - the 探花直播 and the wider ecosystem - has an important role to play in ensuring that the UK鈥檚 capabilities in life sciences continue to deliver economic, social and health benefits. But we can only do that by working with others. Rui Mauricio sets out his priorities for developing productive healthcare partnerships.

Posted: May 2021

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Innovating during a crisis: lessons for university-industry partnerships in a post-COVID world

Tomas Ulrichsen, Director, UCI Policy Evidence Unit, 探花直播 of Cambridge

If we are to 'build back better', the UK is going to need a robust system of universities working in close partnership with the private and public sectors. Tomas Ulrichsen reports on how universities' innovation activities have been affected by the pandemic and argues that we must do more to support university-industry collaborations to drive the national recovery.

Posted: March 2021

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Creative thinking: helping students and employers make good choices

Jenny Blakesley, Director, 探花直播 Careers Service

探花直播探花直播 Careers Service helps students to make those tough career decisions. It also, explains Jenny Blakesley, encourages recruiters to be authentic and to think laterally about where to find the talent they need.

Posted: February 2021

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Collaboration in action: the AstraZeneca-Cambridge Science Symposium

Dr Kathryn Chapman, Deputy Director of the Milner Therapeutic Institute and 探花直播 Relationship Manager for AstraZeneca

More than 1500 researchers, scientists and clinicians from the 探花直播 and AstraZeneca came together over Zoom to share knowledge and spark new ideas for future collaborations. Kathryn Chapman explains why that's important for us all.

Posted: December 2020

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探花直播four secrets of a successful partnership

Dr Catherine Hasted, Head of Business Partnerships, Strategic Partnerships Office

What make a successful business-university partnership? Catherine Hasted suggests it's four things: a long-term focus, a willingness to engage widely, a shared vision and an ability to make serendipity happen.

Posted: November 2020

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Impact through collaboration: the importance of strategic partnerships

Professor Andy Neely, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations

By working together, businesses and universities can make a difference at a global scale. Andy Neely explains why long-term strategic partnerships are so important and how Cambridge has put in place mechanisms to make sure they run smoothly.

Posted: November 2020

聽

探花直播Cambridge Cluster: lessons from the pandemic?

Professor Andy Neely, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations

Collaboration, creativity and speed have characterised the Cambridge Cluster's response to COVID-19. Andy Neely considers some notable local successes and asks what lessons we can learn from them.

Posted: September 2020

Cambridge and Nanjing break ground on 'smart cities' Centre

plc32 — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 04:03:44 +0000

Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen J Toope joined Zhang Jinghua, Party Secretary of Nanjing City Party Committee and Nanjing Deputy Mayor Jiang Yuejian to turn the first soil at the site where the Centre's dedicated building will rise in Nanjing's Jiangbei New Area.

探花直播Cambridge 探花直播-Nanjing Centre of Technology and Innovation will establish a home for joint research and innovation in collaboration with the Chinese government, industry and China's global research universities that is dedicated to the future of creating 'smart' cities.

"Here in Nanjing, an ancient city and former imperial capital, we are embarking on a unique enterprise," Vice-Chancellor聽Toope聽said at the groundbreaking ceremony. " 探花直播innovations emerging from this Centre will enable the development of 'smart'聽cities in which sensors can enable sustainable lifestyles, improve healthcare, limit pollution and make efficient use of energy."

Cambridge and its Chinese partners聽will share revenue derived from the聽commercialisation聽of Intellectual Property (IP) developed at the Centre. It is the 探花直播鈥檚 first overseas enterprise at this scale.

Funded by the Nanjing Municipality for its first five years, the project will have its own dedicated building as a pilot urban development based on high levels of technological innovation.

At the heart of the new Centre鈥檚 activities will be research into technologies that support a modern聽21st聽century city with integrated IT, health care and building management. Innovations emerging from the Centre will enable the development of 'smart'聽cities in which sensors 鈥� applied at the individual level and all the way through to the level of large infrastructure 鈥� will enable sustainable lifestyles.

As well as supporting health and wellbeing in new cities, the new Centre will help deliver efficient energy use through its academic and entrepreneurial activities.

探花直播agreement between Cambridge and Nanjing will fund positions in Nanjing, both academic and management, and will allow Cambridge-based academics to engage with specific, long-term projects in Nanjing. It will also support the establishment of a professorship, based in Cambridge, with responsibility as the Centre鈥檚 Academic Director.

探花直播project has been driven by Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Engineering, although it is hoped that there will be opportunities to widen participation to other departments and Schools. IP聽generated by research funded through the Centre will be licensed for commercialisation by Cambridge 探花直播鈥檚 innovation branch, Cambridge Enterprise.

探花直播Centre will seek to demonstrate the power of collaboration with China鈥檚 universities, industry, government and other partners to conduct the kind of academic research of excellence today that will make life better for the city dwellers of tomorrow.

One of the two initial projects already approved is to create a high resolution scanner that can provide a low-cost easily accessible method for examining difficult areas of the body, such as bent spines, without using large and expensive CT scans.

That聽project will be led by Cambridge Engineering Department Professor Richard Prager, in collaboration with China's Southeast 探花直播 and established local ultrasonic manufacturer Vinno.

A second identified project led by Principal Investigator Professor Toni Vidal-Puig from Cambridge鈥檚 Clinical Biochemistry Department, will study the associated complications of increased obesity in China.

Both themes are closely linked to the focus area of local partner, NIHA (Nanjing International Healthcare Area).聽聽

探花直播Vice-Chancellor was聽joined at the groundbreaking ceremony by representatives from partners Nanjing 探花直播, Southeast 探花直播, Peking 探花直播. Tsinghua 探花直播, Fudan 探花直播 and Zheijiang 探花直播 as well as the Academic Director of Cambridge 探花直播-Nanjing Centre, Professor Daping Chu of Cambridge's Electrical Engineering Department, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International Relations Eilis Ferran.

探花直播探花直播 of Cambridge and聽the聽Nanjing Municipal Government have聽broken聽ground on the聽Cambridge 探花直播-Nanjing Centre of Technology and Innovation.

Here in Nanjing, an ancient city and former imperial capital, we are embarking on a unique enterprise.

Vice-Chancellor Stephen J Toope

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright 漏探花直播 of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified.聽 All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways 鈥� as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Cambridge and Nanjing launch strategic collaboration

ag236 — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Professor Stephen Toope, the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Vice-Chancellor, today signed an agreement to formalise a strategic partnership with the Nanjing Municipal Government.

探花直播creation of the Cambridge 探花直播-Nanjing Centre of Technology and Innovation will entail the establishment of a joint research centre and the sharing of revenue derived from the commercialisation of intellectual property. It is the 探花直播鈥檚 first overseas enterprise at this scale.

Funded by Nanjing Municipality for five years in the first instance, the project will have its own dedicated building in Nanjing鈥檚 Jiangbei New Area 鈥� a pilot urban development based on high levels of technological innovation.

At the heart of the new Centre鈥檚 activities will be research into technologies that support a modern 21^st聽century city with integrated IT, health care and building management. Innovations emerging from the Centre will enable the development of 'smart'聽cities in which sensors 鈥� applied at the individual level and all the way through to the level of large infrastructure 鈥� will enable sustainable lifestyles.

As well as supporting health and wellbeing in new cities, the new Centre will help deliver efficient energy use through its academic and entrepreneurial activities.

探花直播agreement will fund positions in Nanjing, both academic and management, and will allow Cambridge-based academics to engage with specific, long-term projects in Nanjing. It will also support the establishment of a professorship, based in Cambridge, with responsibility as the Centre鈥檚 Academic Director.

探花直播project has been driven by Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Engineering, although it is hoped that there will be opportunities to widen participation to other departments and Schools. IP generated by research funded through the Centre will be licensed for commercialisation by the 探花直播鈥檚 innovation branch, Cambridge Enterprise.

Speaking just before the official signing of the agreement, held at the British embassy in Beijing, Professor聽Toope said: 鈥淭his is only the most recent example of our collaboration with Chinese partners 鈥� but it is by far the most ambitious to date. And it is very exciting indeed.鈥�

鈥淲e see it as an essential part of Cambridge鈥檚 contribution to society to tackle some of the great world problems. But we cannot do this on our own. There is a proverb: 鈥榊ou cannot clap with just one hand鈥�. To me this means that we can only accomplish great things by working together 鈥� which is what we will be doing with Nanjing.鈥�

Mr. Luo Qun, a member of the Standing Committee of Nanjing's Municipal Party Committee, and聽Deputy Party Secretary of the Party Committee of Jiangbei New Area, added:聽"We sincerely hope that both sides will rely on this new Centre to push the world's technological frontiers聽and to promote the integration of science, technology, industry and financial innovation."

探花直播Vice-Chancellor was聽joined by Professor Sir Mark Welland, Head聽of the 探花直播's Electrical Engineering Division and Master of St Catharine's College. 探花直播signing of the agreement was witnessed by H.E.聽Dame Barbara Woodward, the United Kingdom's ambassador to China.

Knowledge and development

探花直播launch of the Cambridge 探花直播-Nanjing聽Centre of Technology and Innovation came only a few days after the Vice-Chancellor addressed the annual China Development Forum, in Beijing.

Speaking on the subject of 'Knowledge Capital and development for all', Professor聽Toope said: "Of all the intangible assets that underpin our knowledge capital, the most precious is people. It is聽people who generate the new ideas; it is people who ask the searching questions, and collect the relevant data to answer them; it is people who make the discoveries; it is people who bring those discoveries to the market, and create the intellectual property.聽探花直播conclusion I draw from this is that, for countries and institutions wishing to expand their knowledge capital, the single most important investment is in their human capital."

He singled out聽equality and diversity as essential to the sustainability of knowledge-based capital, before concluding:聽鈥�'Knowledge itself is power'聽is a famous line attributed to one of Cambridge鈥檚 most famous graduates 鈥� 17th聽century philosopher Francis Bacon. 探花直播question before us 鈥� particularly those of us in universities 鈥� is how we build and deploy and share all that knowledge for the greater good."

探花直播new joint centre will support innovative research into smart聽cities and fully integrated urban environments.

We see it as an essential part of Cambridge鈥檚 contribution to society to tackle some of the great world problems. But we cannot do this on our own. We can only accomplish great things by working together 鈥� which is what we will be doing with Nanjing.

Prof Stephen Toope

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Max Planck Cambridge Centre launched

ag236 — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 09:00:00 +0000

Researchers from Germany鈥檚 Max Planck Society (MPS) met with 探花直播 of Cambridge counterparts on Tuesday 6 March for the formal launch of the Max Planck Cambridge Centre for Ethics, Economy and Social Change.

探花直播launch event, held at Cambridge鈥檚 Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, was attended by Professor Martin Stratmann, President of the MPS, and by Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the 探花直播 of Cambridge.

探花直播new Centre began its operations in July 2017. One of its aims was to deepen researchers鈥� knowledge of social change by complementing the Cambridge Anthropology Department鈥檚 expertise in the anthropology of ethics with research conducted at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religion and Ethnic Diversity, G枚ttingen, and economic anthropology research conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle.

探花直播Centre is the latest of the MPS鈥檚 international partnerships. It is funded jointly by the 探花直播 of Cambridge (including the Isaac Newton Trust) and the MPS, and has an initial budget of 拢2 million. 探花直播funding will allow six postdoctoral fellows will undertake field research at sites around the world. Over the coming four years, public lectures, workshops and larger conferences will be hosted both in Cambridge and the two German locations. It is expected that the Centre will, in the future, expand its activities to offer positions for visiting scholars, and to make the Centre a hub for further initiatives beyond the life-span of the initial projects.

Speaking at the launch event, Professor James Laidlaw, Head of the Department of Social Anthropology and co-director of the new Centre, said:

鈥淭his new Max-Cam Centre is the most ambitious and important of a number of initiatives the newly restored Department is embarking upon. It is an attempt鈥� to show that ethical values and practice are just as pervasive in economic life as they are in religion, or the family鈥� Morality is as crucial to explaining when people behave badly as it is to explaining when they behave well; as crucial to understanding how they cope with adversity as it is to understanding the ambitions they pursue. This is especially important when those hopes and ambitions are radically different from our own: when people鈥檚 values seem to us to be perverse, shallow, distorted, or plain incomprehensible.鈥�

Fellow co-director Professor Chris Hann, of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology at Halle, described the new Centre as an opportunity to renew the moral sciences, and expressed his hope that, in the wake of Brexit, the new Centre will demonstrate the value of continued European collaboration in science and society:

鈥淲hen we prepared the proposal over two years ago, few observers anywhere imagined that citizens of the UK would vote in a referendum to leave the European Union... In this uncertain climate, we would be very happy if the launch of our modest Centre can be a catalyst for further collaboration between the Max Planck Society and this great 探花直播.鈥�

Addressing this point, Professor Martin Stratmann said: 鈥淚 am delighted that, in this period of uncertainty caused by Brexit, we have established another highly visible collaboration with top British scientists鈥�.

He added: 鈥淲ithout any doubt, in today鈥檚 globalized world, the dynamics between ethics, religion and economy have reached an unprecedented complexity. This makes the research of the new Max Planck Cambridge Centre very relevant for our times. This cooperation brings together the complementary skills of outstanding scientists of the Max Planck Society and the 探花直播 of Cambridge.鈥�

Bringing the launch event to a close, Professor Stephen Toope remarked: 鈥� 探花直播more incomprehensible the world about us seems, the more we need to employ our anthropological imagination to appreciate its depth and diversity. This new joint venture with the Max Planck Society helps us do just that.鈥澛�

Go to the Max Planck 鈥� Cambridge Centre for Ethics, Economy and Social Change's website

探花直播collaborative venture聽will offer聽insights into the links between ethics and social change

探花直播more incomprehensible the world about us seems, the more we need to employ our anthropological imagination to appreciate its depth and diversity. This new joint venture with the Max Planck Society helps us do just that.

Prof Stephen Toope

Martin Stratmann, President of the Max Planck Society, and Professor Stephen J Toope, Vice-Chancellor

Six research projects currently underway at the Max Planck Cambridge Centre for Ethics, Economy and Social Change

Patrice Ladwig is studying the influence of economic modernisation聽on Buddhist rites of passage聽in urban Laos 聽By focusing on funerals and ordinations into monastic life, he explores how the ritual and moral economy that connects monasteries and laypeople has been affected by economic growth, and how increasing wealth, but also social inequalities are expressed and negotiated in rituals.
Johannes Lenhard聽is working towards an anthropology of the international venture capital industry with field research in London, Berlin, New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong. 探花直播focus of his project will be on the values and ethics behind the investors鈥� decisions:聽Why do VCs support certain startups - for instance Uber, AirBnB and Transferwise -聽and not others? What kind of a (better) future do investors want to create?聽
Anna-Riikka Kauppinen聽is studying the emergence of new banks led by Ghanaian capital owners in Accra. With a focus on networks of institutional and personal exchange between banks and Charismatic Pentecostal churches, which have become major focal points of urban life in West Africa, the project聽will聽generate novel approaches to the study of African capitalism.聽
Patrick McKearney is developing a comparative anthropology of cognitive disability through fieldwork on Christian NGOs that support these individuals in situations of economic change and development. He will focus on the strategies these organisations develop as they seek to change the role these individuals play in social life, and the practical consequences their ethical projects have on the lives of some of the most dependent in different social settings.
Samuel Williams will study the social and economic significance of gold in Turkey over recent decades of market-driven development. Working closely with Turkish goldsmiths in Istanbul and London who help intermediate the scrap gold trade through Turkey between Europe and the Middle East, he will investigate the range of families, businesses, and other organisations that draw on this gold and why it is of value to them.
Rachel E. Smith will conduct research in Vanuatu on moral and ritual economies in contexts of social change, particularly in the context of the production of kava (a narcotic beverage) for the domestic and a burgeoning export market. She will focus on how ethical, ritual and spiritual practices and values mediate social and economic change.

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Cambridge and Indian partners launch collaboration to transform India鈥檚 "Green Revolution鈥�

ag236 — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 09:58:15 +0000

探花直播adoption of modern methods and new technologies in agriculture that propelled India to self-sufficiency in grain production in the second half of the 20th century is known as the country鈥檚鈥淕reen Revolution鈥�. It allowed India to overcome poor agricultural productivity, especially in regions like the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, although it relied on overuse of water, fertilisers and pesticides.

Today, climate change, continuing population growth and the rapid process of urbanisation have put added pressure on India鈥檚 ability to feed its population. TIGR2ESS 鈥� an acronym for 鈥淭ransforming India鈥檚 Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable food Supplies鈥� 鈥� is a 拢7.8 million programme funded by the UK Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) to develop more resilient, equal and diverse food systems in India. It aims to define the requirements for a second more sustainable Green Revolution, and to deliver this through a suite of research programmes, training workshops and educational activities

探花直播TIGR2ESS launch event took place in the context of a three-day workshop that brought together all the UK and India partners to discuss and finalise a plan for the programme鈥檚 effective implementation.

TIGR虏ESS will support 14 postdoctoral researchers employed at partner research institutions and universities across India, as well as eight post-doctoral research associates from collaborating institutions in the UK

探花直播programme will create 3-year research opportunities for a total of 22 early-career researchers in the UK and India, and also promote academic exchanges at all levels in laboratories across India and the UK.

One of TIGR虏ESS鈥� objectives is to foster mutually beneficial knowledge exchange and collaborative research through workshops in Cambridge and India. In addition, it will deliver a programme of outreach, education and entrepreneurship. In doing so, TIGR虏ESS will help strengthen Indian research capacity in key areas of the food system, and will contribute to the development of smart agriculture in India.

At the heart of the TIGR2ESS proposal are a series of Flagship Projects tackling fundamental research questions, and addressing the associated social issues facing farmers in the context of increasing urbanisation and climate change.

Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the 探花直播 of Cambridge, said: 鈥淭IGR虏ESS will inform best practice in crop development and growth. It will allow greater genetic understanding of crop resilience to drought and disease. It will contribute to more effective use of scarce water supplies. It will build capacity and foster education.鈥�

鈥淚t will empower women and entrepreneurs, and encourage innovation along the food supply chain. It will create opportunities for early-career researchers, and in doing so will contribute to India鈥檚 efforts to ensure it is able to meet the needs of its growing population. I am delighted that Cambridge is a part of this extraordinary initiative.鈥�

Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary of India鈥檚 Department of Science and Technology and Department of Biotechnology, added: 鈥�"India is a diverse country, and negotiating this diversity is the key to developing any interventions. 探花直播TIGR虏ESS programme takes into account this diversity, and that will define its success. We need to take a holistic view at the nexus between agriculture, environment, water, climate, energy and health. Assessing the impact of technology applications or interventions in a larger setting is very important."

Presenting TIGR虏ESS, the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Professor Howard Griffiths, the programme鈥檚 principal investigator, said: 鈥淭his unprecedented programme of joint activities will enable capacity building both in the UK and India, and shape the policy needed to define a second Green Revolution for India.鈥�

鈥淭IGR虏ESS will address the challenges identified by our colleagues in India, and translate research outcomes to build agriculture systems that support sustainable livelihoods, enhancing the well-being and health of rural communities with a particular focus on improving the opportunities for equality, female empowerment and youth employment, and market-led entrepreneurial opportunities.鈥�

Daniel Shah, Director, Research Councils UK (RCUK) India, said 鈥淭IGR虏ESS is a great example of the UK and the Indian research teams partnering to address issues around food security and agriculture systems. This initiative also aligns with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi鈥檚 vision to double farmers鈥� income by 2020."

Researchers met in New Delhi today to formalise the launch of a programme that aims to jointly address some of India鈥檚 most pressing food security challenges.

This unprecedented programme of joint activities will enable capacity building both in the UK and India, and shape the policy needed to define a second Green Revolution for India.

Prof Howard Griffiths

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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