87306Sustainable and inclusive virtual collaborationClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UK**Vision** COVID-19 has reshaped how the world works. A sustained shift to virtual working creates an opportunity for a post-pandemic recovery that is more sustainable and inclusive: Eliminate carbon associated with day-to-day commuting and journeys taken (often by air) for meetings and workshops * Make home working a viable and respected alternative, increasing gender equality and access to those living with a disability. This in no way detracts from the need to make physical workplaces more accessible * Reduce workplace bias toward minorities and women * Help UK professional services and events firms operate successfully in a virtual environment to provide a source of competitive advantage (in alignment with the ISCF Next Generation Services Challenge) This project will extend the Axis digital collaboration platform to: * Extend coverage of meeting and workshop types to maximise reduction in business travel (and carbon) by making virtual at least as good as face-to-face * Support virtual collaboration that uses analytics and decision science to increase inclusion and remove bias * Maximise workshop and meeting accessibility for those living with disabilities enabling those disadvantaged by the physical workplace to gain an equal voice and set of opportunities * Provide free sets of workshop templates designed specifically to support SMEs and corporates to innovate around sustainable and inclusive growth **Innovation** In a world of remote working, video conferencing is invaluable for simple meetings, but it does not allow for structured collaborative thinking and decision-making. It doesn't ensure that every voice is heard, and decisions are made free from bias. Axis can. We now need to take the Axis platform further and faster, with an emphasis on driving sustainable and inclusive growth. We've teamed up with three mission-driven organisations: Private Goodness (workplace equality, human rights and sustainability), Unida (gender equality) and Purple Goat (disability equality) and Accenture (one of the world's leading professional services firms, serving over 75% of the Fortune 500 with over 500,000 employees) to co-develop the Axis platform with the latest web-based technologies for immersive collaboration and analytics-enabled decision-making. We will extend the platform to build Axis' core sources of differentiation vs. the current state of the art (digital whiteboarding solutions including Teams Whiteboard, Mural and Miro). A re-build of the front end in order to enhance usability and accessibility; * Implement React Hooks, improving how component and application state can be managed * Enhance the use of GSAP and canvases to deliver complex meeting agenda setup where in-workshop data flows can be intuitively configured * Ensure accessibility combining enhanced perceivability and understandability (for instance making sure that everything has properties for alternative texts) and accessibility optimised navigation, so that regardless of circumstance, device or location anyone can participate effectively Develop a needs-based template library and redefined run screens to enhance effective collaboration. A switch to container-based infrastructure, using AWS' EKS Kubernetes to enable more rapid delivery of new features and increase scalability and resilience.