Made Smarter Network+
Lead Research Organisation:
Loughborough University
Department Name: Business and Economics
Abstract
The Made Smarter Network+ (MSN+) has two primary roles. To:
1. Develop and support the creation of an effective digital innovation ecosystem to accelerate the innovation and diffusion of Industrial Digital Technologies.
2. Ensure that the full range and depth of social and economic science insights are accessed across the Made Smarter challenge and wider UK manufacturing sector
This is an exciting £3.83m, 38 month programme of work that will commence on 1st November 2021 and end on 31st December 2024. The programme is led by the MSN+ co-directors Prof. Jan Godsell (Loughborough University) and Prof. Jill MacBryde (Strathclyde Business School) with support from a dedicated Network Management Team (network, communications and impact managers) and a core research team (from Loughborough, Strathclyde and Sheffield Universities). There are 5 key elements to the programme:
- Commissioned research programme - will provide the opportunity to curate, augment and amplify insights from the ESS to support the diffusion and adoption of IDTs. 5 different funding mechanisms have been adopted to broaden the appeal of the programme and increase participation. These include systematic reviews, small projects, a sandpit, Early Career Researcher (ECR) Fellowship programme, and an impact acceleration fund resulting in18 interdisciplinary projects.
- Knowledge exchange programme - is critical to the diffusion of ideas from the ESS to the policy makers, manufacturers and IDT providers who could benefit from the adoption of IDTs. The comprehensive programme includes a range of activities that amplify the core research programme (international webinars, discovery days, annual conference), provide education and insights (impact workshops, insight days, summer school), support academic publication (special tracks, journal special issue) and enable and amplify the diffusion of ideas (website and curation platform, mentoring programme, access to Emerald impact services).
- Core research programme - compliments the commissioned research programme base by addressing more systemic problems that require a longer term and more in-depth research. It has the additional benefit of providing a common purpose to galvanise the team. Future focused it considers the future of manufacturing ecosystems (Prof. Jan Godsell and Dr Alok Choudray, Lougborough), future of work (Prof. Jill MacBryde and Prof. Colin Lindsay, Strathclyde) and the future of the economy (Prof. Vania Sena and Prof. Philip McCann, Sheffield).
- Impact acceleration programme - there are lots of ESS insights currently in existence, that are not in a form that is easily accessible to policy makers, manufacturers and IDT providers. Researchers often lack the time and skills to turn their work into more accessible outputs. An impact acceleration programme has the dual benefit of building impact capacity within the ESS community whilst making the insights more accessible to end users.
- Storytelling fellowship programme - the ability to use storytelling as a methodology and form of dissemination is a key research skill for economic and social scientists. The storytelling fellowship programme has the dual benefits of building storytelling capacity within the ESS whilst using stories to make insights more accessible to the end users, the network and society at large.
Outputs from the programme are aligned to the Made Smarter business case. Conservatively through the core and commissioned research programmes alone, we deliver 19 new inter-disciplinary collaborations, 30 journal papers and 11 case studies.
1. Develop and support the creation of an effective digital innovation ecosystem to accelerate the innovation and diffusion of Industrial Digital Technologies.
2. Ensure that the full range and depth of social and economic science insights are accessed across the Made Smarter challenge and wider UK manufacturing sector
This is an exciting £3.83m, 38 month programme of work that will commence on 1st November 2021 and end on 31st December 2024. The programme is led by the MSN+ co-directors Prof. Jan Godsell (Loughborough University) and Prof. Jill MacBryde (Strathclyde Business School) with support from a dedicated Network Management Team (network, communications and impact managers) and a core research team (from Loughborough, Strathclyde and Sheffield Universities). There are 5 key elements to the programme:
- Commissioned research programme - will provide the opportunity to curate, augment and amplify insights from the ESS to support the diffusion and adoption of IDTs. 5 different funding mechanisms have been adopted to broaden the appeal of the programme and increase participation. These include systematic reviews, small projects, a sandpit, Early Career Researcher (ECR) Fellowship programme, and an impact acceleration fund resulting in18 interdisciplinary projects.
- Knowledge exchange programme - is critical to the diffusion of ideas from the ESS to the policy makers, manufacturers and IDT providers who could benefit from the adoption of IDTs. The comprehensive programme includes a range of activities that amplify the core research programme (international webinars, discovery days, annual conference), provide education and insights (impact workshops, insight days, summer school), support academic publication (special tracks, journal special issue) and enable and amplify the diffusion of ideas (website and curation platform, mentoring programme, access to Emerald impact services).
- Core research programme - compliments the commissioned research programme base by addressing more systemic problems that require a longer term and more in-depth research. It has the additional benefit of providing a common purpose to galvanise the team. Future focused it considers the future of manufacturing ecosystems (Prof. Jan Godsell and Dr Alok Choudray, Lougborough), future of work (Prof. Jill MacBryde and Prof. Colin Lindsay, Strathclyde) and the future of the economy (Prof. Vania Sena and Prof. Philip McCann, Sheffield).
- Impact acceleration programme - there are lots of ESS insights currently in existence, that are not in a form that is easily accessible to policy makers, manufacturers and IDT providers. Researchers often lack the time and skills to turn their work into more accessible outputs. An impact acceleration programme has the dual benefit of building impact capacity within the ESS community whilst making the insights more accessible to end users.
- Storytelling fellowship programme - the ability to use storytelling as a methodology and form of dissemination is a key research skill for economic and social scientists. The storytelling fellowship programme has the dual benefits of building storytelling capacity within the ESS whilst using stories to make insights more accessible to the end users, the network and society at large.
Outputs from the programme are aligned to the Made Smarter business case. Conservatively through the core and commissioned research programmes alone, we deliver 19 new inter-disciplinary collaborations, 30 journal papers and 11 case studies.
Organisations
- Loughborough University (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Toronto (Collaboration)
- University of Salerno (Collaboration)
- South Yorkshire's Community Foundation (Collaboration)
- Make UK (Collaboration)
- University of Santiago de Compostela (Collaboration)
- Tata Consumer Products Ltd (Project Partner)
- National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (Project Partner)
- MakeUK (Project Partner)
Publications
Arranz C
(2024)
Dynamic Capabilities and Institutional Complexity: Exploring the Impact of Innovation and Financial Support Policies on the Circular Economy
in IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management
| Title | A cyber-security readiness tool. |
| Description | InterAct commissioned research project "RESTRAIN: Socio-cultuRal bEhaviour of end-uSers To specific cybeR-threAts In maNufacturing" led by Veniamin Boiarkin, Professor Muttukrishnan Rajarajan, Professor Rajkumar Roy and Professor Katy Tapper (City, University of London, United Kingdom) - a cyber-security assessment tool has been developed that can be used by organizations to evaluate their cyber-security weaknesses and direct them toward appropriate solutions. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | N/A |
| URL | https://cybertool.co.uk/test |
| Title | Beyond Ownership: Business model innovation - video |
| Description | What factors the drive consumer adoption of digitally enabled products? This project, from InterAct funded researchers, has investigated the assumption that a lack of consumer demand lies behind manufacturers' under investment in Industrial Digital Technology. It focused on domestic washing machines as a widespread product that could be ripe for innovation, and which is under pressure to improve its environmental performance. This research was conducted by Ahmad Beltagui (Aston Business School), Ana Isabel Canhoto, Daniela Castillo, Amireza Alizamani (University of Sussex - Business School), Ramin Behbehani (Brunel Business School) Niraj Kumar (Essex Business School), Maren Schnieder (Anglia Ruskin University). |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | The findings suggest that consumer resistance to digital features stems from a lack of clear perceived benefits. While manufacturers focus on promoting the technological features of their products as a competitive advantage, customers value outcomes and experience offered. Moreover, customers expressed a dislike for refurbished washing machines and scepticism about alternative revenue models as potentially exploitative. Demonstrating value for money and cultivating trust are major challenges. For manufacturers, the key recommendation is to place the customer's experience and expected outcomes (e.g. peace of mind and clean clothes on demand) at the heart of their innovation, rather than emphasise product features. Technology should be harnessed to support delivery of such outcomes and may be enabled through business model innovation. For example, assured maintenance leading to peace of mind can be delivered through a combination of digital technology (condition monitoring, predictive analytics etc) and business model innovation (shared ownership, access-based service etc). |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/11/20/beyond-ownership/ |
| Title | Business model innovation and digital servitization in UK manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises - InterAct DigiServe |
| Description | Microsite, toolkit, video training manual and practitioner webinar. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | This research was conducted by Dr. Dimitrios Dousios and Dr. Antonios Karatzas (University of East Anglia) and was supported by an InterAct Open Funding Call grant. This project explores the application of digital servitization business models in the context of UK Manufacturing Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), by empirically depicting its antecedents and firm-level implications. Following the completion of a large empirical study, the key contextual and organisational factors that determine successful implementation of business models have been identified. The study's key findings suggest that SMEs can achieve high performance through adoption of digital servitization business models, depending on how well each model aligns with the organisation's context and design. To assist the UK Manufacturing community, in addition to the main report, the project's deliverables are accessible to stakeholders through its dedicated microsite, a self-assessment SME toolkit, video training manual and practitioner webinar. |
| URL | https://interact-digiserve.co.uk/ |
| Title | FASHTRAX - online knowledge exchange platform |
| Description | The platform funded by the InterAct Actionable Insights grant aims to be an industry facing, fashion transparency innovation exchange site for the dissemination of Manchester Fashion Institute's research and innovations in the field of digitalising supply chain transparency. The project is led by Dr Hilde Heim, Manchester Metropolitan University. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | This supply chain platform has gained much interest and was selected for additional funding through InterAct's Digital Tool Development Call to create a Digital Product Passport Diagnostic Tool for the FASHTRAX platform. |
| URL | https://fashtrax.mmu.ac.uk |
| Title | Industrial metaverse prototype. |
| Description | A prototype of industrial metaverse. InterAct commissioned researchers from the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge - After completing the conceptual model, researchers purchased 3D glasses, and a set of related tools to develop a prototype. The prototype shows the supply chain of a cocoa manufacturer, and the way how the customer and anybody from the supply chain can get back to production level and control the production conditions. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | N/A |
| Title | Insights from History - video |
| Description | "Insights from History" - video introduction (Systematic Review funded by InterAct) (December 2022) Dr. Ahmad Beltagui, Dr. Brian Sudlow of Aston University Dr. Miying Yang and Glen Jonata.of Cranfield University, and Qinglan Liu of Exeter University. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The video as an output has been added to the impact plan for this project. The video is available on the InterAct website and there has been much interest from the InterAct network. |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2022/12/12/insights-from-history-video-introduction/ |
| Title | Insights from History: technological change in the mining industry - animated explainer (video) |
| Description | 'Insights from History' : technological change in the mining industry - animated explainer (video) (December 2022) (Systematic Review funded by InterAct). By Dr. Ahmad Beltagui, Dr. Brian Sudlow of Aston University Dr. Miying Yang and Glen Jonata.of Cranfield University, and Qinglan Liu of Exeter University. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | This animated explainer has been added as an output to the impact map for the project. The video is available on the Resources section of the InterAct website, and there has been much interest. |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2022/12/12/actionable-insights-from-the-past-what-can-we-learn-from-history... |
| Title | Insights from history: A series of animated videos |
| Description | A series of animated videos to communicate findings from 'Learning from histories: a systematic review of historical industrial transitions' carried out in 2022 and funded by InterAct. Comprising: 'The world belongs to risk takers', 'Ahead of your time, or too soon?', 'Inside the factory outside the box' and 'Strength in numbers'. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | The aim of the research was to identify lessons from history that may help overcome the challenges of industrial digitalization. The research was conducted by Dr. Ahmad Beltagui, Dr. Brian Sudlow (Aston University) and Dr. Miying Yang (Cranfield University). |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRqDj1O4Epyn5YlJM7fpwrlmkNoFA4yIy |
| Title | InterAct Network - Storytelling Fellowship Programme Story Series |
| Description | A series of videos developed by participants of the InterAct Storytelling Fellowship Programme. 'Technology is great' - Ahmad Beltagui 'A family business, a family story' - Allan Discua Cruz 'A Butterfly Dream' - Yang Lu 'Challenging Thoughts' - Amy Ayling 'Digital Dinosaurs' - Susan Lattanzio 'Supplying Information' - Claire Palmer |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Some of the videos were screened at an evening event following the InterAct Annual Conference on 3rd October 2022. Feedback received following the event was very positive and there has been much interest. Three further cohorts have since participated on the Storytelling Fellowship Programme. |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/02/15/storytelling-fellowship-videos/ |
| Title | InterAct's Emergent Theory of Change - video |
| Description | A comprehensive metareview of the research outputs produced by projects funded through InterAct. The review systematically analysed insights from multiple sources, drawing out key lessons for policymakers, businesses, and researchers on how industrial digital technologies (IDTs) are shaping UK manufacturing. Using qualitative coding through NVivo, core themes were identified to provide a cross-cutting analysis of the challenges and opportunities in IDT adoption. This research was conducted by Dr. Jeannie Holstein, Dr. Kate Broadhurst, Dr. Lei Chen, Dr. Elaine Conway, Dr Elena Georgiadou and Dr. Anna Raffoni (Loughborough Business School). |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | The model has created interest within Made Smarter Innovation. |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2025/02/27/interacts-emergent-theory-of-change/ |
| Title | Knowledge spillovers tracker in Advanced Manufacturing |
| Description | The tool allows to track the citations of advanced manufacturing patents by LAs in the UK. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | No impact yet |
| Title | Making investments into digitalisation: the manufacturer's perspective - animated (video) explainer |
| Description | 'Making investments into digitalisation: the manufacturer's perspective' - animated (video) explainer (December 2022) (Systematic Review funded by InterAct). By Dr Andreas Schroeder, Dr Yang Zhao and Dr Daniel Andrews of Aston University. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The explainer video has been added to the impact plan for this project. The video is available in the Resources section of the InterAct website, and there has been much interest. |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2022/12/12/making-investments-into-digitalisation-the-manufacturers-perspec... |
| Title | Open Innovation: A pathway to digitalisation - video |
| Description | An explainer video about how manufacturers can use an Open Innovation approach to effectively partner with industrial digital technology experts to future-proof their business. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Open Innovation (OI) means working with external partners to find solutions to innovation-related problems. It is a distributed innovation process based on purposively managed knowledge flows across organizational boundaries. This InterAct funded work offers new Open Innovation insights, allowing manufacturers to use an Open Innovation approach to effectively partner with industrial digital technology experts to future-proof their business. Both systematic research and anecdotal evidence show that OI has many benefits, such as: Improved time-to-market Access to a wide variety of external knowledge Reduced costs Shared risk This research was conducted by Dr. Andrei Gurca (Queen's University Belfast) and Dr. Kate Broadhurst (Loughborough University). |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/10/16/accelerating-idt-industrial-technology-adoptionin-uk-manufacturi... |
| Title | Perceptions of Manufacturing Video. |
| Description | This video is an output of the InterAct-funded project "How to make manufacturing charming again? It is everything, everywhere, all at once". The research was conducted by Dr. Guendalina Anzolin (IfM, University of Cambridge), Dr. Jennifer Castañeda-Navarrete (IfM, University of Cambridge) and Dr. Dalila Ribaudo (Aston University). |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | N/A |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/12/19/perceptions-of-manufacturing-how-to-make-manufacturing-charming-... |
| Title | Process Oriented Holonic (PrOH) Modelling - A revolutionary approach to change management - video |
| Description | A short video explaining the benefits of, and reasoning behind, the development of the PrOH Modelling methodology, a type of soft systems methodology that is used to enquire into and improve complex systemic organizational process problems. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | This video and the prohmodeller.org website exists for the community of PrOH Modellers. This includes those who wish to use it for academic research projects such as masters dissertation or doctoral theses, those who wish to use it for change projects in their own organizations, or in a consulting capacity in other organizations. This project has valorised the PrOH Modelling Methodology for training, teaching and practice, to achieve a more widespread use and increase its impact outside academia. The research was conducted by Professor Ben Clegg and Dr. Krishna Balthu (Aston University). |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/07/01/proh-modelling/ |
| Title | Productivity, resilience, sustainability and perceptions - video series |
| Description | Short videos to highlight the four key themes of InterAct, and the insights for manufacturing. 'PRODUCTIVITY 'Master change management with PrOH Modelling', RESILIENCE ' Find your future-proofed manufacturing business model', SUSTAINABILITY 'Weathering the storm, sustainable manufacturing futures' and PERCEPTIONS 'Understanding the future manufacturing workforce'. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | A LinkedIn video campaign to complement the InterAct Final Reporting and reach out to a wider stakeholder audience. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRqDj1O4EpymMeVVA0VmI7t39Iqadd_1e |
| Title | The importance of VVT: verification, validation and testing of new products - video |
| Description | A short video about the importance of VVT processes and the potential of the new VVT tool. The development of new digital technology needs extensive verification, validation and testing (VVT). Implementing an effective way of analysing the requirements of different stakeholders, i.e., the customer's voice, regulations and business's voice and how these requirements must be considered often poses a significant challenge. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | This InterAct funded project has developed a systematic method of analysing critical requirements and influences on VVT activity for new technology development and manufacturing. This offers support for the adoption of digital technologies and facilitates collaboration between SMEs and larger companies. The free to use online tool gives you the ability to visually analyse the transition of requirements from risk analysis to prioritisation and the impact of these choices. This research was conducted by Dr. Khadija Tahera (The Open University). |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/04/09/product-vvt/ |
| Description | The original Manufacturing Made Smarter Network + Grant (MMSN+) led to the funding of the Made Smarter Network + (MSN+), externally branded as Interact. Interact has findings from over 30 activities. These are currently being synthesised into meta-insights that will be shared through a policy document. Examples of specific outputs can be found at: https://interact-hub.org/resources/ |
| Exploitation Route | Increase the adoption of digital technologies to improve the productivity, sustainability and resilience of UK manufacturing. |
| Sectors | Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/resources/ |
| Description | Interact has funded over 47 different activities, the findings have been used in a variety of different ways. The findings from a small project at Aston looking at EV manufacturing led to a citation in a government policy document. The work led by Strathclyde looking at the Future of Work has been used to develop blog posts, run workshops and has been the focus of a number of keynote speeches at a range of industry facing conferences. The manufacturing perceptions survey has been well received and will be replicated by Flinders University in Australia. The Future of Manufacturing Ecosystem work stream has developed a methodology for helping manufacturing ecosystems to create the future that they want in 2040. This has been developed through a series of sector specific workshops looking at EV, furniture, apparel and more general future of manufacturing workshops. This has led to follow on requests by specific organisations to use this approach in the development on their strategy. It is also being used in the Midlands Engine to support regional 2040 ecosystem maps for food and med tech. This approach to take an ecosystem approach to the development of the 2040 digital manufacturing strategy, has been developed into an on-line toolkit. It has also been used as part the Interact Global Missions, exploring future of EV in Pune region of India, and Aerospace sector in Malaysia. The Future of the Economy work stream has been developing an app that helps regions to understand their innovation landscape. This has been trialled in SouthYorkshire and is to be expanded to rest of England. It is a powerful tool in supporting regional governments in their decision making. A meta-review of the 47 funded projects has led to an emergent theory of change that can be used to inform the way that human insight can support the adoption of IDTs in UK manufacturing to enable it to be more resilient, productive, sustainable and create good work. This has been summarised in a policy paper. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| Impact Types | Economic Policy & public services |
| Description | Economics + R SYMCA programming sessions, with SYMCA analysts to teach R skills. 5 sessions since 20.6.24 |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Meeting with neighbourhood mapping and citizen/democracy organisers Sheffield |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | SYMCA Policy Forum planning session: higher education and skills |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | SYMCA meeting re. ARIs |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | SYMCA: Exploring Areas of Research Intrerest |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Sheffield City Goals |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Women in manufacturing: the case for a gender-transformative digitalisation |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | YNY CA: Learning from SYMCA data and evidence - show and tell |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Title | Innovation in South Yorkshire |
| Description | This a survey which collects information on innovation in South Yorkshire. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | No impact yet. |
| Description | Active labour market policies and deindustrialization |
| Organisation | University of Santiago de Compostela |
| Country | Spain |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Contributed to an Horizon Research project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Led an Horizon funding application in 2023-2024 |
| Impact | Horizon funding application bid |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Entrepreneurial persistence and ageing |
| Organisation | University of Toronto |
| Country | Canada |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Development of a simulation framework to understand how entrepreneurial persistence is affected by ageing. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Writing up a report summarising the main finding of the model. |
| Impact | Preliminary report on ageing and how entrepreneurship can mitigate the impact of ageing and economic inactivity. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems - Established Partnership with MakeUK |
| Organisation | Make UK |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems - Established Partnerships with MakeUK, Feb 2022 - Regional Study - 'The Midlands as a Factory'. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Supporting the Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems Regional Study - 'The Midlands as a Factory'. |
| Impact | A scenario booklet has been developed. This is currently awaiting authorship. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Innovation Zone in South Yorkshire |
| Organisation | South Yorkshire's Community Foundation |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Developing a framework to evaluate the SY Innovation Zone |
| Collaborator Contribution | We will develop a framework to evaluate the Innovation Zone in SY |
| Impact | No outputs yet. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Mapping local entrepreneurial eco-systems |
| Organisation | University of Salerno |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Collected data on entrepreneurial eco-systems |
| Collaborator Contribution | Helped identify the local contacts |
| Impact | Development of a data-set on local Start-ups in Italy |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Title | Mapping Innovation Spillovers in Manufacturing |
| Description | This a tool which has been developed in Shiny App. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Not yet. |
| Description | 'Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems' Launch Webinar. Launch in collaboration with Make UK and Midlands Engine. 26th May 2022. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This webinar examined the results of a survey of manufacturing firms in the Midlands region and launching the 'Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems' project. This is a joint programme between the InterAct Network led by Professor Jan Godsell (Dean of the School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University), Make UK (represented by Charlotte Horobin) and Midlands Engine (Delma Dwight). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | 'Informing empathy-led change management: Creating a measurable readiness health plan for the adoption of digital technologies in manufacturing' presentation at BIM in Leicester 2024 Conference - 8 February 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Dr. Mersha Aftab (Birmingham City University) and Dr. Iryna Yevseyeva (De Montfort University) presented their InterAct funded project. The BIM in Leicester 2024 event sets out a series of themes for speakers to respond to that are both relevant and timely with the incoming discussions surrounding AI, ; the climate crisis and global BIM. These themes will permit for a series of important discussions surrounding Building Information Modelling in the built environment. Impact - Potentially impacting significant architecture and construction firms trying to adopt BIM as a technology tool within their practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | 'InterAct: New Business Models for Competitive and Sustainable Technological Transformation in Manufacturing & Operations'. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Conference Track - Natalie McDougall, University of Strathclyde - awarded an InterAct Early Career Researcher grant. Track was developed and proposed late 2022 and accepted early 2023. Natalie McDougall received over 20 submissions and worked with a team of 4 reviewers to accept 12. These presented across 3 sessions at R&D Management Conference, Seville in June 2023. The 3 sessions stimulated group discussion with academics and practitioners, sharing knowledge of and asking questions about resource-scarce innovation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | 'What a successful ecosystem requires'. Janet Godsell - Keynote at Make UK/Cityforum 2024 Defence Round Table |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Funding the UK Defence Ecosystem - Capital, Capabilities, Commitments - A Make UK/Cityforum 2024 Defence Round Table - 8 February 2024, London. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | 2023 Webinar Behaviour change in manufacturing in pursuit of sustainability, Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN). ~120 business attendees. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Webinar for KTN talking about behaviour change in manufacturing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://iuk.ktn-uk.org/events/behaviour-change-for-manufacturing-talent-and-business-sustainability/ |
| Description | 30th EurOMA Conference, Leuven - A Systems Lens on Operations. 3 - 5 July 2023. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Supply Chain Risk Management session chaired by Jan Godsell. Jan Godsell then presented 'Logistics service providers' foray into supply chain finance: Developing necessary capabilities' with Sumeer Chakuu and Steven James Day. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | A paradoxical approach to the coopetitive relationships in manufacturing ecosystems - a presentation at EurOMA Sustainable Operations and Supply Chain Forum in Hamburg, March 2024. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Orsolya-Anna Mate from InterAct provided a presentation from InterAct's Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems research stream. The event provided two full days of discussing, networking and learning about sustainability. Forum themed - Rethinking Shared Value Creation through Sustainable Operations and Supply Chains - 4-5 March 2024, Hamburg, Germany. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | AI and gender bias and a networking space for women in manufacturing - Discussion Panel - Manufacturing and Engineering Week - June 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | 50 people attended a discussion panel and networking space to raise awareness about the gender gap in manufacturing and tech and how to address it - panel member Jennifer Castañeda-Navarrete of IfM Engage, University of Cambridge - an InterAct funded researcher. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Adoption of Digital Technologies for Sustainable Manufacturing Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An 'Adoption of Digital Technologies for Sustainable Manufacturing, workshop held on 20 July 2022 at Cranfield University. A workshop to disseminate research findings on the topic as well as exploring the following two themes: Theme 1: How to use digital technologies for sustainable manufacturing? Theme 2: How can manufacturers adopt digital technologies successfully? The workshop was supported by ESRC-InterAct, Royal Society and ESRC-IRC DEX network. Jill MacBryde - Key note speaker - 'InterAct - the human side of Made Smarter'. Keynote speakers - Dr Ahmad Beltagui, Aston University, Dr Miying Yang, Cranfield University, and Dr Brian Sudlow, Aston University 'The adoption of disruptive digital technologies in UK manufacturing: learning from histories' - an InterAct Systematic Review project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Advancing Engaged Practice-Orientated Research - Journal of Operations Management podcast |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Janet Godsell (Dean of Loughborough Business School and InterAct Co-director) features in the Journal of Operations Management's podcast on 'Advancing Engaged Practice-Orientated Research'. In the episode, Jan discusses advancing engaged practice-orientated research with the panel and the importance of this engagement between academia and industry. Jan highlights institutional mechanisms to facilitate this engagement, such as industrial collaborator forums and masters/MBA student projects to encourage low risk collaboration between businesses and academics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/12/10/journal-of-operations-management-podcast/ |
| Description | Architecting New Design Rules for Global Supply Chains in a Changing Geopolitical Landscape - Industrial Cambridge International Manufacturing (CIM) Symposium 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Day 2 of the symposium featuring insightful keynote talks from senior business executives and academic thought leaders. Professor Jan Godsell gave a keynote on InterAct. The keynotes were followed by workshops on the development of Digital-Twin Supply Chains and Control Towers, and leadership response mechanisms for managing disruptions. Parallel academic sessions completed the programme with over 60 international speakers, reflecting the global remit of the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Building supply chain resilience means going beyond reshoring - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Jan Godsell, InterAct Co-director and a specialist in supply chain management explains what's needed to build supply chain resilience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/11/22/building-supply-chain-resilience-means-going-beyond-reshoring/ |
| Description | Business Model Innovation and Digital Servitization in UK Manufacturing SMEs - A webinar. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The research was conducted by Dr. Dimitrios Dousios and Dr. Antonios Karatzas (University of East Anglia) and funded by InterAct. As a primary dissemination activity, the project's first webinar has been delivered in early August 2023 to raise awareness about the project, communicate the study's findings and promote the publication of the main report and its accompanying intellectual outputs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-1CB2f6JzQ |
| Description | CarbonVue & InterAct Webinar - 22nd June 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | This InterAct/Carbonvue event covered the thinking behind the development of CarbonVue, a supply chain digital twin - how productivity and sustainability are interlinked and should be considered going into the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Chaired session 'Future of Global Manufacturing Ecosystems' at 2022 World P&OM online Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Wanrong Zhang of InterAct - chaired the session 'Future of Global Manufacturing Ecosystems' on behalf of Jan Godsell in the 2022 World P&OM online Conference. (25 August 2022). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Changing perceptions of manufacturing - A webinar. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This webinar discussed the findings from an InterAct funded project looking at international perceptions of manufacturing - including how perceptions of manufacturing have evolved in the UK in the last 20 years and how it compares with six other countries. This webinar was hosted by the UK Manufacturing Forum (UKMF). It was introduced and co-hosted by Chris Dungey, Chief Technology Officer, at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and Tim Minshall, Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation & Head of the Institute for Manufacturing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Charging Forward: Electric vehicles and what we can learn about the role of Global Value Chains in sustainable manufacturing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Jun Du, Dr Luciano Battista and Dr. Oleksandr Shepotylo, Aston University academics, explore the role of global value chains in the future of manufacturing, examining the example of critical supply chains and infrastructure in the electric vehicle sector. This work was supported by InterAct. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2025/01/28/charging-forward-electric-vehicles-and-what-we-can-learn-about-t... |
| Description | Charging ahead or falling behind? the UK's preparedness for EU battery regulations - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Dr. Melanie King of Loughborough University outlines the findings of her work examining the impact of EU battery regulation on UK exporters. This research was supported by an InterAct Open Funding Call grant. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/12/08/charging-ahead-or-falling-behind-the-uks-preparedness-for-eu-bat... |
| Description | CoWorking Spaces - a new form of Marshallian Industrial Organisation? Bournemouth University Business School. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A faculty seminar outlining the concept of coworking spaces and their characteristics and in which 25 academics, PhD/MBA students attended which led to questions and discourse. Dissemination of the academic work - an InterAct Open Funding Call project - The research was conducted by Dr. Felicia M Fai, Dr. Mariachiara Barzotto and Professor Phil Tomlinson (University of Bath). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Cranfield event on Digital and Sustainable Supply Chains "The adoption of digital technologies for sustainable manufacturing" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | One day event discussing the impact of digital technologies on manufacturing sustainability. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/events/the-adoption-of-digital-technologies-for-sustainable-manufact... |
| Description | Creating Meaningful Impact - A webinar. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A webinar by Professor Jan Godsell to inform and advise commissioned research funding recipients how to create better impact - 27 July 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Creating the Digital Manufacturing Ecosystem We Want |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Jan Godsell - Speaker - 'Creating the Digital Manufacturing Ecosystem We Want'. Made Smarter Innovation Theatre, Exhibition Centre, Liverpool. (16 November 2022). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Delivering the Digital Future we Want, Together - a presentation at 4th MTA Technical Committee meeting 2023 at NMIS - 23rd November 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Jill MacBryde, InterAct Co-director, gave a presentation on behalf of Jan Godsell. The Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) Technical Committee offers members the opportunity to discuss, review and influence the latest research, development, standards, legislation, events, and any other relevant technical industry information in relation to manufacturing technology. The committee meets quarterly in locations around the UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Delivering the digital future we want, together. Presentation by Janet Godsell. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | InterAct Co-director, Professor Janet Godsell delivered a talk titled 'Delivering the digital future we want, together' to an audience at the Smart Factory Expo in the NEC, Birmingham, Thursday 8th June 2023. This addressed the need for self-sufficiency in critical production, lessons from the manufacturing past and the progress of the Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems workstream. At the same event, Jillian MacBryde chaired a discussion on Women in Manufacturing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/06/15/delivering-the-digital-future-we-want-together/ |
| Description | Digital Future of Manufacturing Ecosystems' Discovery Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The 'Digital Future of Manufacturing Ecosystems' Discovery Day was held at Siemens, Congleton on 7 July 2022, to coincide with National Manufacturing Day. Attendees were from across the academic, manufacturing and digital technology sectors. The purpose of the event was to present the innovative research work in regards to supply chains and digitalisation in the manufacturing environment. Participants were then encouraged to discuss the importance of incorporating new research in industry, developing new ideas and building mutually beneficial relationships. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Digital Transformation as a route to inclusive and innovation manufacturing - webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | InterAct webinar "Digital Transformation as a route to inclusive and innovation manufacturing" with international digital technology provider, LightGuide, December 2024. A webinar focused on digital transformation, inclusion and innovation in manufacturing. The session featured Professor Colin Lindsay from InterAct's 'Future of Work' team and Dr Marisa Smith of the 'Disability Inclusion in Manufacturing' project, alongside LightGuide's Managing Director - EMEA, Marc Baines. The aim of the webinar was to examine the growth of digital solutions in manufacturing and what opportunities they offer organisations willing to embrace change. The group discussed how new technology have the capacity to empower employees, drive productivity and innovation, and diversify the talent pool to expand workforce inclusivity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/12/09/interact-partners-with-lightguide-to-explore-digital-transformat... |
| Description | Digital storytelling: Creating an equitable manufacturing future with AI |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A workshop led by InterAct PhD student Zitao Zhou about the process of storyboard creation and Generative AI. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/event/digital-storytelling-creating-an-equitable-manufacturing-future-with-... |
| Description | Discovery Day at the Festival of Social Science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Festival of Social Science, 2024. Display on Digital Future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Discovery day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The presentation focused on the new Innovation Zone for SY |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | EV Battery Supply Chains - Circular Economy and Resilience Challenges - Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | An InterAct funded project led by Professor Jun Du Professor, Reader Luciano Battista and Dr. Oleksandr Shepotylo (Aston Business School). Held 27 April 2023, Aston Business School, Birmingham. The industry attendants manifested high interest in the topic. Potential collaborations were discussed in the networking sessions. Workshop delivered to academics and industry professionals interested in better understanding the changing landscape of the automotive sector, as it moves towards the new era of electric vehicles. The participants discussed industrial trends and challenges concerning the electrification of the UK automotive sector, the potential of cutting-edge digital technologies to enable the visibility of EV battery supply chains, and the circular economy agenda for the implementation of regenerative EV battery supply chains. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | EV Battery Supply Chains - Trade, Technology and Policy Perspectives - A workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | An InterAct funded project led by Professor Jun Du Professor, Reader Luciano Battista and Dr. Oleksandr Shepotylo (Aston Business School). Workshop delivered to academics and industry professionals. The participants discussed current trends and challenges concerning the electrification of the UK automotive sector and the circular economy agenda for the implementation of regenerative EV battery supply chains. The event will involve short talks from academic and industry experts, a panel debate and networking opportunities to facilitate research collaborations between industry and academia. Date & Venue: 30/05/2023, KPMG Canary Wharf, Cabot Square, Canada Square, London. Prof Jun Du, Project Co-I, was invited to be a keynote speaker at the Automotive Forum of the BPF (British Plastics Federation). This event took place on 6th December 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Electrifying the future - EV Global Value Chains and UK Critical Dependencies - A workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | An InterAct funded project led by Professor Jun Du Professor, Reader Luciano Battista and Dr. Oleksandr Shepotylo (Aston Business School). Workshop delivered to academics and industry professionals. The participants discussed the global shift towards sustainable transportation and how it has driven the rapid growth of the electric vehicle (EV) industry, which has become a critical component of the clean energy transition. Date & Venue: 24/10/2023, Aston Business School, Birmingham. Impact - One industry CEO joined Aston University as Visiting Fellow. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Empowering women in manufacturing: Unlocking the potential of gender-inclusive digitalisation - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Jennifer Castañeda-Navarrete of IfM Engage, University of Cambridge, discusses the challenges faced by women in UK manufacturing, and explores the potential of gender inclusive digital transformation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/09/29/empowering-women-in-manufacturing-unlocking-the-potential-of-gen... |
| Description | Envisioning a Socially Sustainable Future in Digitally-Enabled Manufacturing Ecosystems, Academy of Management (AoM), Chicago |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | InterAct researchers joined academic colleagues from across business, management, and social science at the Academy of Management's 2024 Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. InterAct researchers had the opportunity to present the findings of several papers focused on the human challenges of digitalisation. These included: How will digitalization impact the future of work in global manufacturing? Envisioning a Socially Sustainable Future in Digitally-Enabled Manufacturing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/08/28/interact-aom2024/ |
| Description | Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems - Vitsoe Discovery Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | An InterAct - Vitsoe cobranded Discovery Day to explore insights from Vitsoe and the 'flexibilty' theme of InterAct's Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems research. Held on National Manufacturing Day, 28 September 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Future of Manufacturing Work - Digital Skills for Accelerated Adoption - Conference, MTC, Coventry 30 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by InterAct Co-Director Jill MacBryde - Future of Manufacturing Work - at The National Manufacturing Summit. The two-day event brought together technology experts and manufacturing leaders across a wide range of sectors to learn, discuss, and debate the key talking points and pressing issues that are impacting the UK's future in digital manufacturing. Hosted by the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Coventry. A hybrid event that was run simultaneously live at its leading training and conference centre in Coventry, and online across multiple platforms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Future of Sustainable & Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems - Janet Godsell presentation at Program SCM Executive Sustainability Workshop on 10th May 2023, Holland. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A SCM Executive Workshop ahead of the inNOWvate Supply Chain Event, Netherlands on 10th & 11th May 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Future of Work - Consultation Webinar (10 October 2022). |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On-line session hosted by the InterAct Team at Strathclyde University Business School on the following: The pace of technological change raises many interesting questions for academics, policy makers and employers: How can the sector prepare people to work alongside new technologies, robots, and co-bots? What are the essential skills for future manufacturing workplaces and how can we enable these through training and education? How can advanced technologies help generate and embed new ways of working by opening up career opportunities for otherwise hard-to-reach groups such as women, minorities, older workers and disabled people? An open discussion followed which provided some interesting points to support our understanding of perceptions of manufacturing work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Future of Work - Thought Leadership Dinner |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | An industry - InterAct research event. Discuss and provoke thinking on the 'Perceptions of Manufacturing' Future of Work theme. Held on National Manufacturing Day, 28 September 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Future of Work: 'Being a better employer' - An in-person workshop. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Jill MacBryde (InterAct Co-director) in partnership with Flexibility Works and guest speakers to discuss how to better accommodate flexible working patterns in industry. Held 1 June 2023 at Strathclyde Business School. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Future of the Economy: Discovery Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | An InterAct Core Research in-person event - To discuss the impact and benefits for advanced manufacturing investment zones. Held at AMRC, Factory 2050 Sheffield - 16 November 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Future of the Economy: International Insights Webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A webinar hosted by Professor Vania Sena on 9th June 2023. Guest speaker Sergio Destefanis discussed EU industrial economic strategy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Future workforces: job quality & perceptions of UK manufacturing - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this second article of the 'future workforces' series, Dr Robert Stewart examines recent survey findings on perceptions of manufacturing job appeal. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/05/23/future-workforces-job-quality-perceptions-of-uk-manufacturing/ |
| Description | How can we attract the next generation of young talent into UK digital manufacturing careers by 2040? - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Karl Warner (University of Glasgow), Nicola Bailey (Kings College London), Anna Chatzimichali (University of Bath), Malek El-Qallali (University of Bath), Imtiaz Khan (Cardiff Metropolitan University), and Anastasia Kulichyova (Queens University Belfast) describe how their new project (funded by InterAct Sandpit grant)aims to develop a strategy to inform the rebranding of UK digital manufacturing to attract the next generation of talent into UK digital manufacturing careers by 2040. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/10/02/how-can-we-attract-the-next-generation-of-young-talent-into-uk-d... |
| Description | How co-working spaces can boost local economies - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Mariachiara Barzotto (University of Bath), Felicia Fai (University of Bath), and Phil Tomlinson (University of Bath) describe some findings from their research funded by the InterAct Open Call grant. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/08/01/how-co-working-spaces-can-boost-local-economies/ |
| Description | How coworking spaces can boost local economies, The Conversation. (10/7/23) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A 900 word article for The Conversation on the benefits of coworking spaces for local economies. 9077 readers (as at 7/2/24) Global (57 % USA, 14% UK, 7% Ireland, 4% Ireland, Others 18%) Impact - Wider interest in the research - an InterAct Open Funding Call project - The research was conducted by Dr. Felicia M Fai, Dr. Mariachiara Barzotto and Professor Phil Tomlinson (University of Bath). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/how-co-working-spaces-can-boost-local-economies-208324 |
| Description | How do we create manufacturing ecosystems from supply chains? - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr. Nikolai Kazantsev of IfM offers an introduction to ideas explored in 'From supply chains towards manufacturing ecosystems: A system dynamics model'. This study is supported by an InterAct ECR grant. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/11/15/how-do-we-create-manufacturing-ecosystems-from-supply-chains/ |
| Description | Inaugural meeting of the Leicestershire Manufacturing Network at Loughborough University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This exciting development from the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce expanded the region wide Manufacturing Network into Leicestershire as a whole, bringing together key players from manufacturing, technology, trade bodies and policy. This introductory session focused on the scale of manufacturing challenges for the region. Participants had the opportunity to share business perspectives and hear about insights from research aimed at supporting UK manufacturing, including presentations from Make UK and Generation Next. Attendees had the chance to hear from Loughborough Business School Communications Manager Will Blackshaw and Senior Lecturer Dr Kate Broadhurst about the School and their work as part of the InterAct Network. Dr Broadhurst presented the findings of her team's work examining the potential of 'Open Innovation' for the manufacturing sector. This project aims to create roadmaps outlining best practice for collaborative open innovation, designed to help overcome the challenges of technological development and implementation in industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.lboro.ac.uk/schools/business-school/news/2024/leicestershire-manufacturing-network-launc... |
| Description | Increasing Productivity through the Adoption of Digital Technology - Made Smarter East Midlands and InterAct Technology Transfer Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | As part of Leicester's Innovation Festival, Made Smarter East Midlands partnered with the InterAct Network to host this Technology Transfer Workshop to bring together IDT's and manufacturers to share practical steps/interact expertise on digitalisation. Held 9 February 2024 at Holywell Park Conference Centre, Loughborough. A workshop specifically aimed at SME Manufacturers. There were presentations from Jan Godsell (InterAct), Chris Owen (MS East Midlands), Dr. Dimitrios Dousios and Dr. Antonios Karatzas (University of East Anglia) about their new, free to use 'digital servitization' toolkit (an InterAct funded project) and from four expert technology providers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Industrial metaverse for manufacturing systems: hype or future reality? - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | InterAct commissioned researchers from the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, examine the potential of metaverse technology in the manufacturing sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/09/04/industrial-metaverse-for-manufacturing-systems-a-hype-or-future-... |
| Description | Informing empathy-led change management: Creating a measurable readiness health plan for adopting digital technologies in manufacturing - Presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Fourth International STEAM Conference (17 - 18 October 2023) - Interdisciplinary Workshop. A workshop and conference showcasing an InterAct funded research project 'Informing empathy-led change management: Creating a measurable readiness health plan for adopting digital technologies in manufacturing' - led by Dr. Mersha Aftab (Birmingham City University), Dr. Mey Goh (Loughborough University), Dr. Iryna Yevseyeva (De Montfort University). The International conference and the workshop was attended by research institutes from Europe i.e. Italy, Portugal. Within UK it was attended by research institute in Ireland, and globally the workshop was attended by Mexico City and Canada. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Innovating Profitable Manufacturing Supply Chains with Resilience - webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Webinar - 25 October 2022. InterAct Co-director Janet Godsell, Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Strategy at Loughborough University, and John Burdett, previously Supply Chain Director at Tata Global Beverages. About how: Supply Chains can flex their supply without adding costs by increasing insight into supply capability. Businesses can leverage flexibility through suppliers and partners. Better use of data can create more adaptive Supply Chain Planning through more Intelligent Planning decisions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Innovating and Entrepreneuring - British Craft Based Manufacturing Ventures - A conference. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This event was organised by Dr Anup Karath Nair from the University of Liverpool Management School in partnership with the InterAct Network. Conference held on 21 April 2023 at University of Liverpool School of Law & Social Justice. The event introduced innovative 'next practices' by some of Britain's leading craft-based manufacturing businesses. Keynote speakers included Professor Jillian MacBryde from the University of Strathclyde (InterAct Co-director), Kristian Tapaninaho from Ooni Ltd, Sarah Reast from Timberkits Ltd, and Sarah Watson from The Wentworth Wooden Jigsaw Company Ltd. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/management/conferences-and-events/innovating-and-entrepreneuring/ |
| Description | Insights From History On The New Industrial Revolution |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 'Insights From History On The New Industrial Revolution' Aston University, Birmingham and online (8 November 2022). The event is part of an interdisciplinary research project funded by ESRC under the Made Smarter InterAct Network. This hybrid event presented perspectives from industry, policy and academia on the current industrial challenges. It was an opportunity to reflect and learn how historical cases can help achieve success with digital transformation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | InterAct 'Creating the Future We Want' Celebration & Showcase - 10 - 11 February 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The central theme of the conference surrounded 'what is next?', allowing participants to identify future collaboration interests and work towards new ideas and funding opportunities as a result of their time with InterAct. The first day of the event featured a sandpit session hosted by The Collective. This was an intensive, interactive, and free-thinking environment for groups to develop innovative research ideas for potential future funding. The second day of the event featured a showcase session, allowing the Core and Commissioned Research teams to showcase the outcomes and impacts of their work to colleagues, as well as the funding council Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), senior members of Made Smarter Innovation Challenge and the InterAct Strategic Advisory Board. A media company collected videos of the event, as well as interviewing key InterAct members about their experiences on the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | InterAct Annual Conference 2022 'Creating the digital manufacturing future we want'. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The conference was held on 3rd October 2022 at The IET, Savoy Place, London. The conference provided a roster of world-leading speakers, who shared unique insights and perspectives on their areas of expertise in relation to the theme of 'Creating the digital manufacturing future we want'. Our speakers were drawn from a wide range of backgrounds across industry, policy, think-tanks, and academia. Together they represent a diverse collection of voices that we want to draw into the wider conversation about what it will take to build a future that delivers for everyone. The keynotes were followed by a Storytelling and critical question formulation workshop, a 'Critical questions' panel debate, closing comments and then a Storytelling Programme video screening. All 12 conference speaker recordings and our afternoon workshop sessions have now been made available through the InterAct YouTube channel. Feedback on the sessions was gathered on Vevox. All comments were positive and constructive, and any recommendations would be taken on board for the 2023 conference. As a result of the conference, the InterAct Network has grown considerably. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/01/04/interact-conference-2022/ |
| Description | InterAct Annual Conference 2023 'How do we create the digital manufacturing future we want?' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The conference was held on 3rd October 2023 at The IET, Savoy Place, London. The conference provided a roster of world-leading speakers, who shared unique insights and perspectives on their areas of expertise in relation to the theme of "How do we create the digital manufacturing future we want?" Our speakers were drawn from a wide range of backgrounds across industry, policy, think-tanks, and academia. Together they represent a diverse collection of voices that we want to draw into the wider conversation about what it will take to build a future that delivers for everyone. In the interactive segment of the day, attendees had the opportunity to workshop questions amongst themselves to pose to a panel of experts. The panel, comprising thought leaders from diverse backgrounds, discussed critical themes and issues facing the manufacturing sector. This was followed by closing comments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/01/10/interact-hosts-second-annual-conference/ |
| Description | InterAct Future of Work Mission to Australia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | In November 2024, the InterAct Future of Work team visited Australia for an international evidence-gathering mission to complement research on how we can ensure that digital transformation in manufacturing is aligned with strategies for workplace innovation and employee empowerment, to benefit businesses, people and build the positive future for manufacturing work that we all want. The InterAct team on this mission were Professor Jill MacBryde and Professor Colin Lindsay (Strathclyde Business School) and Dr Avril Thomson (National Manufacturing Institute Scotland). The team engaged with businesses, innovation hubs and research experts (Queensland University of Technology, Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne and Flinders University in Adelaide) on a mission to mine the best evidence on 'what might work' in supporting an innovative and inclusive future for manufacturing. With Flinders University, a roundtable discussion was held with senior policy and business stakeholders, followed by a half-day workshop targeting manufacturing managers and stakeholders. This was titled 'Made Smarter: InterAct-ing with Manufacturing in Australia'. The following blogs are available on the InterAct website. https://interact-hub.org/2024/12/09/interact-future-of-work-mission-to-australia-touches-down-in-brisbane/ https://interact-hub.org/2024/12/10/mission-to-australia-sharing-cutting-edge-research-from-the-factories-of-the-future/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | InterAct Global Conference at at Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India - 21 - 24 October 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | With Symbiosis International University (SIU), Pune region, InterAct organised the 'SIU and InterAct Conference: Exploring the Role of the Pune Region in the 2040 Electric Vehicle Global Ecosystem' from 21 October 2024 to 24 October 2024, comprising: • A roundtable discussion on 'How to Make the Pune Region the Hub of Electric Vehicle Production by 2050'. • Workshop 1 - The Future of Manufacturing Ecosystems - The Role of the Pune Region in the 2040 Electric Vehicle Global Value Chain (GVC)'. • Workshop 2 - 'The Future of Work in the Pune Electric Vehicle Industry'. The conference was attended by about 170 senior-most delegates from the Government, Industry and Academia. Representatives from industry included Kinetic Green, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Kirloskar, John Deere, Dassault Systems, Spark Minda, Skoda Auto, Piaggio EV, Starkenn Technologies, Neilsoft, Raptech Technologies, Varroc, EY, Saj Test Plant, ARAI, ACMA, IESA, MCCIA, NICMAR and many more. The workshops explored potential scenarios for the future of the electric vehicle sector in India, generating valuable insights to inform participants' strategic thinking. InterAct aims to create both local and global impact by exchanging knowledge with international players in the worldwide manufacturing ecosystem. These missions will help to better understand the competitive advantages of other countries, learn from them, and exchange best practices and processes. Providing these insights to UK businesses and policymakers, the project aims to tackle the future challenges of digital transformation across three key areas: ecosystems, economies, and workplaces. Additionally Loughborough University will collaborate with SIU on future research activities. Industry visits were arranged by SIU to Spark Minda, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, and ARAI. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | InterAct Global Conference, Malaysia - 27 - 28 November 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | An InterAct Global conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Hosted in collaboration with National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM) and Ministry of Defence Malaysia (MINDEF) to explore the role of the UK in the future GME, and how the adoption of Industrial Digital Technologies (IDTs) can enable 'the future we want' by 2040 within the global landscape. Two workshops with key senior stakeholders from across the defence aerospace ecosystem were held: Workshop 1 - 'The Future of Manufacturing Ecosystems - The Role of Malaysia in the 2040 Defence Aerospace Global Value Chain (GVC)'. • Visioning the Digital Future We Want. • Enabling the Digital Future We Want. Workshop 2 - 'The Future of Work in the Malaysia Defence Aerospace Industry' • Gen Z in the Labour Market and Employer Messaging and Branding. • Empowering Innovation: Bridging Skills Gaps in the aerospace, defence and space sector. • Future of work scenarios: strategising for building people capabilities in the aerospace, defence and space sector. The mission also involved company visits to Galaxy Aerospace and Airod to understand how digital technologies have been deployed, and the implications for the future economy, work, and manufacturing ecosystem. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/12/09/interact-expands-global-programme-with-research-mission-in-malay... |
| Description | InterAct Global Insight Mission - Singapore |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The first of the InterAct Global Missions took place at the end of June 2024. Jan Godsell, Jill MacBryde, Carolina Marín-Cadavid and Will Blackshaw travelled to Singapore. They visited Augmentus, a robotics technology company enabling digital transformation and implementation for manufacturing companies, Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center and Thermo Fisher Scientific. A Future of Manufacturing Workshop was held. This was led by InterAct, in partnership with Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC), and JTC Corporation, the government agency championing sustainable industrial development in Singapore. InterAct's research outcomes were shared with practitioners from different sectors. Participating companies included 3M, Mitsubishi, Edwards, Kowa Skymech and Halliburton. InterAct highlighted the importance of international collaboration to drive productivity and sustainability in global manufacturing. Carolina Marin-Cadavid (University of Strathclyde) has since shared a blog titled 'Global perspectives: Investing in a people as a competitive advantage' https://interact-hub.org/2024/07/20/global-perspectives-investing-in-a-people-as-a-competitive-advantage/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/07/17/interact-goes-global-with-singapore-research-mission/ |
| Description | InterAct Sandpit Event to 'Develop solutions to accelerate the innovation and diffusion of Industrial Digital Technologies in UK manufacturing' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This sandpit event was held 15 - 17 May 2023 at Burleigh Court Hotel, Loughborough for the purpose of developing innovative research ideas and outline research proposals in collaboration. A diverse group of participants got together for the full three days. They focused on collaborative thinking and discussion in order to develop innovative research ideas and outline research proposals designed to help solve the unmet needs from industry around the creation, diffusion, and adoption of industrial digital technologies in manufacturing, which were presented to a panel at the end of the Sandpit. Following the Sandpit, the outline research projects were assessed by a selection panel and successful groups then invited to submit a full proposal covering their intended activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | InterAct Summer School 2023 'Supporting the innovation and diffusion of Industrial Digital Technologies in UK manufacturing'. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This Summer School was co-hosted by InterAct and Atlantic Technological University, at the ATU Letterkenny, Donegal Campus, Ireland 16-21 July 2023. This residential Summer School aimed to provide the opportunity for up to 30 UK-based early career researchers and doctoral students from the economic and social sciences to come together for five days to connect with peers and develop their academic networks. They would gain insights from leading academics within the InterAct Network, sharing the aims, objectives, and ongoing research projects from within the core workstreams of the 'Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems', 'Future of Work' and 'Future of the Economy'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | InterAct at Innovate UK - Materials and Manufacturing Showcase, St Pauls, London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Celebrating innovation in materials and manufacturing. This event showcased the impact of £1.75 billion investment in materials and manufacturing, offering exclusive access to groundbreaking innovations and high-growth investment opportunities. InterAct shared a stand with MSI People-Led Digitalisation centre to disseminate the outputs of the project work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | InterAct at Innovation Zero 2024, London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | InterAct had a stand at Innovation Zero - 30 April - 1 May 2024. Will Blackshaw, InterAct's Communication Manager, engaged with over 30 company representatives, developed link with Bonham and Brook who will share output offering with manufacturing clients and linked Cyber Culture Tool project with pre-seed investment funders JDBI. Jill MacBryde presented at the Industrial Forum - 'From Human Insight to Human Action' - 30 April 2024. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | InterAct at the Engineering Supply Chain Show/MACH 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In April 2024, InterAct had a stand at the Engineering Supply Chain Show/MACH 2024 where researchers and InterAct staff had the chance to engage with dozens of businesses. MACH24 is one of the UK's largest manufacturing focused trade shows, bringing together over 500 exhibitors - all eager to showcase their latest cutting edge, innovative products and services across many sectors. InterAct Co-director Professor Janet Godsell presented 'Creating the Manufacturing Future we Want: Role of Supply Chain Management' at the Seminar Theatre. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/04/29/interact-delivers-message-of-human-insight-driven-digitalisation... |
| Description | InterAct at the Future of UK Manufacturing Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The 'Future of UK Manufacturing' conference is an event organised by High Value Manufacturing Catapult, EPSRC and the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge, which brings together leaders from academia, government and industry. This year's line up of speakers included: Sarah Sharples, Chief Scientific Advisor for the Department for Transport, Katherine Bennett CBE from the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, Benjamin Nicol from the Advanced Manufacturing team at the Department for Business and Trade, and Professor Jillian MacBryde, InterAct Co-director and Vice-Dean of Strathclyde Business School. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | InterAct at the Manufacturing and Trade Conference, East Midlands Chamber 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Loughborough University hosted the East Midlands Chamber's Manufacturing and Trade Conference in March 2024. The focus the 2024 Conference drew on the Chamber's Manifesto for Growth 2024 to explore four themes - Investment, Innovation, Infrastructure and International Trade. The event comprised a range of keynote speakers, workshops and panel discussions alongside an Expo of more than 30 organisations - including regional businesses, national funding bodies as well as Government departments. The InterAct Network hosted a workshop - Collaborating to adopt and upskill in manufacturing digital technologies. Jan Godsell, Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Strategy, Dean of the Loughborough Business School and InterAct Co-director chaired a panel discussion and Q&A. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/news/2024/march/manufacturing-trade-conference/ |
| Description | InterAct co-hosted international webinar - Navigating uncertainty: How HRM dynamic capabilities contribute to organisational well-being and performance |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An InterAct co-hosted international webinar with colleagues at the ESRC PrOPEL Hub with keynote speakers Dr Paula Apascaritei and Professor Marta Elvira of IESE Business School, Madrid. (5 May 2022). Dr Apascaritei and Professor Elvira shared their research on what 'HRM dynamic capabilities' might look like in innovative businesses. First, their research points to the need for an HR function that supports 'knowledge-building' within and across teams, for example though the creation of real and virtual spaces for employees and managers to collaborate and learn together. Second, they pointed to value of 'socially integrative' HR practices, noting the importance of supporting people in different roles to build relationships with colleagues, customers and partners. Lastly, Dr Apascaritei and Professor Elvira pointed to the value of HRM that supports 'reconfiguring' capabilities, with an emphasis on cross-skilling and flexible working practices that fit with the innovation priorities of businesses, including in digital manufacturing. Much of this discussion chimed with ongoing research being conducted by the 'Future of Work' team at InterAct. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | InterAct dissemination with UKRI/Innovate UK at Smart Factory Expo, NEC, Birmingham |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | InterAct shared the UKRI/Innovate UK space at Smart Factory Expo, NEC, Birmingham 5-6 June 2024. Jill MacBryde presented the Future of Work research and what it had revealed about skills, job quality and talent acquisition & retention in the manufacturing sector. On behalf of InterAct, Will Blackshaw attended the Enginuity Skills Awards 2024, which recognises the achievements of young people and supportive organisations driving forward engineering. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/06/18/interact-joins-innovate-uks-made-smarter-innovation-showcase/ |
| Description | InterAct visit to MxD the U.S. leading digital manufacturing innovation centre, Chicago, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | While the InterAct research team were in Chicago for the Academy of Management conference, a mini mission was undertaken. Jan Godsell and Colin Lindsay met with MxD (Manufacturing x Digital) and LightGuide, Inc., the leading projected augmented reality (AR) work instruction software platform that transforms manual manufacturing processes. InterAct later hosted a webinar with LightGuide and plans future collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | InterAct webinar - 'How to write better grant applications' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This session, led by InterAct Co-director Professor Jan Godsell and featuring successful InterAct grant applicant Dr. Andreas Schroeder examines examples of successful applications, developing opportunities for networking/feedback, and through sharing our knowledge of navigating the administrative processes associated with funding calls. Following this event, InterAct has received applications for the Commissioned Research funding calls from a broader range of research organisations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | InterAct with AI: Effective AI use in Industry - webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 'InterAct with AI: Effective AI use in Industry (23rd November 2022). Presented by InterAct. A webinar to hear from four speakers addressing the following topics surrounding AI: Developing human efficiency through better collaboration with AI - Dr Viktor Dörfler, University of Strathclyde. The use of AI in product design: an automotive perspective - Professor Gary Page, Loughborough University. AI and procurement - Joel Walker, COO of The Knowledge Group. Responsible AI considerations in manufacturing, operations and supply chains - Sue Williams, Managing Director of Hexagon. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | International Conference 2025 Modern Challenges and Opportunities for the Apparel Industry - 18 - 20 February 2025 - Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The conference was organised by University of Monash, InterAct, the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) and the Postgraduate Institute of Management University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. The event brought together global experts, industry leaders, and academics to explore the future of apparel. Day 1 comprised of apparel industry presentations, panel discussions and Jill MacBryde, InterAct co-director, facilitated 'Shaping the circular future we want for the Sri Lankan apparel industry' workshop. Day 2 comprised academic paper presentations on people and relationships, and circular economy and resilience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | International Perceptions of Manufacturing Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A workshop at Aston Business School - 30 November 2023. To disseminate the research from an InterAct funded project about international perceptions in manufacturing led by Dalila Ribaudo, Guendalina Anzolin, and Jennifer Castañeda Navarrete. Dr Robert Stewart from University of Strathclyde presented his InterAct research about "perceptions of manufacturing in the UK". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | International Webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A professor from a European university discussed the dar side of Industry 4.0 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | International Workshop with Telkom University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An international workshop for business practitioners was organised with Telkom University (Indonesia). The topic was AI and its benefits. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | International webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The webinar focus on international industrial policies |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Jill MacBryde - Keynote presentation at CADE 2022 : Competitive Advantage in the Digital Economy Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A keynote presentation online by Professor Jill MacBryde at CADE 2022 : Competitive Advantage in the Digital Economy Conference on the InterAct 'Future of Manufacturing Work' core research programme. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | KTN Webinar Series: Introducing the Research Centres & Innovation Hubs: InterAct. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As part of the 'Making Manufacturing Smarter Webinar Series', this webinar presented the findings of the research and outlined how future research could support UK manufacturers with their digital investment challenges, as well as showcase the work being undertaken to bring historical technology adoption stories to life, to help address the human side of digitalisation. Webinar - 25 October 2022. As part of the InterAct network, an interdisciplinary team from Aston and Cranfield Universities had reviewed historical cases of industrial transitions. By identifying cases related to mechanisation, electrification and computerisation, the aim is to support the successful adoption of industrial digital technology for the digitalisation of manufacturing. Simultaneously, another team from Aston University used a systematic literature review method to identify the range of technological, organisational, and social barriers that inhibit effective digital investments and how manufacturers should overcome these. The webinar presented the findings of the research and outline how future research could support UK manufacturers with their digital investment challenges, as well as showcase the work undertaken to bring historical technology adoption stories to life, to help address the human side of digitalisation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://iuk.ktn-uk.org/events/introducing-the-research-centres-innovation-hubs-interact |
| Description | Mach 2023 MTC conference invited speaker and panelist |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | This event at MTC had 100+ people in person and 400 people online. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://nmsummit.co.uk/sessions-2023/ |
| Description | Manufacturing & Engineering Week - invited speaker and panel chair, Birmingham |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Chaired a panel discussion on women in manufacturing. This received a good bit of media attention and follow up events. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/ifm-at-digital-manufacturing-week-2022/ |
| Description | Manufacturing a better future - exploring disability inclusive digital manufacturing - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr. Marisa Smith of Strathclyde Business School outlines the reasoning behind, and aims of, this InterAct funded research into disability inclusion in the manufacturing sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/12/07/manufacturing-a-better-future-exploring-disability-inclusive-dig... |
| Description | Manufacturing in the Metaverse - a presentation at Industrial Cambridge International Manufacturing (CIM) Symposium Sept 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Nikolai Kazantsev presented the results of his InterAct funded systematic literature review. The feedback from industrial participants was very useful for developing academic papers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Manufacturing@MIT Annual Symposium: Charting the Future of Production in a Time of Shifting Globalization, Boston, USA (23 May 2023) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Keynote at MIT Symposium - Professor Jan Godsell discussed shifting supply chains and the importance of moving to a circular economy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Moving Towards the Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 'Moving Towards the Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems' Multi-Stakeholder Co-Design Workshops - Liverpool (pilot) (17 November 2022). Led by Dr Wanrong Zhang. A pilot co-design workshop to support InterAct - Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems - Scenario Development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Overcoming barriers to digitalisation: adding value in the agri-food sector - A webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An InterAct and Foods Connected webinar - To learn more about digitalisation in the agri-food industry. Held 8 November 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l69jv7lFDKk |
| Description | People as route to competitive advantage in a digital manufacturing future - webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Jill MacBryde - 'People as route to competitive advantage in a digital manufacturing future' webinar. 25 January 2023. Digit Lab Seminar. To outline opportunities to engage with InterAct - whether you are an academic, policy maker, or a practitioner from manufacturing or a developer of digital technologies. The talk focused on how we can ensure that we are thinking abut people as we build a strong manufacturing future in a digital environment. The webinar touched on important questions such as: What will a digital manufacturing workplace look like? How can the manufacturing sector prepare people to work alongside new technologies, robots, and co-bots? What are the essential skills for future manufacturing workplaces and how can we enable these through training and education? How can advanced technologies help generate and embed new ways of working by opening up career opportunities for otherwise hard-to-reach groups such as women, minorities, older workers and disabled people? |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Perceptions of manufacturing and the industrial metaverse - A workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A workshop at IfM, Cambridge and online - 1 December 2023. An event to share the outputs from two InterAct funded systematic reviews - Perceptions of manufacturing (Dr. Guendalina Anzolin, Dr. Jennifer Castañeda Navarrete and Dr. Dalila Ribaudo) and Manufacturing and the Metaverse (Dr. Nikolai Kazantsev, Professor Chander Velu, Bethan Moncur, Dr. Bang Ming Yong). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation 'Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems' at 'Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Wanrong Zhang from InterAct gave a presentation on her Core Research theme 'Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems' at 'Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium', Cambridge UK (23 September 2022). This annual symposium provides an opportunity to hear from world-leading business figures and thinkers on the challenges facing modern manufacturing. The event brings together senior industrialists and leading academics to share approaches and experiences in this strategic domain. The activity informed the audience of future research activities and support required from industrialists, IDT providers etc for co-design workshops. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | New Energy Meeting, Boston, 2025. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Presentation at Global Energy Meet, Boston 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We presented the work on emissions tracking and different methodologies to track emissions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation at Marketing and Strategy Practice Conference, Newcastle, 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A paper on analytics and its role in advanced manufacturing has been presented. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation at SDM 2022 9th International Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | SDM-22, the ninth International Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing took place in Split, Croatia as a hybrid conference. The event attracted over 100 participants in person from around 20 countries. The conference included three days of scientific sessions with 8 expertly curated invited sessions. The conference consisted of keynote talks, oral presentations, invited sessions and workshops. It covered the theory and applications of sustainable design and manufacturing, and related areas, whilst providing an excellent platform for the presentation and discussion of new data and concepts, leading to knowledge exchange and the generation of new ideas. Professor Jill MacBryde was invited chair of the session titled 'Manufacturing sustainability through digital technology, people and policy'. The session focus - In a world faced with the looming threat of climate change, the InterAct Network will also support UK manufacturing's efforts to achieve Net Zero by 2050. Whilst technology is important, there are many social and economic factors that will be hugely influential in achieving these aims. This session focused on how we can improve manufacturing sustainability using digital technology and in particular the role of people and policy. We will also discussed the impact on people and communities. In the session titled 'Lean Practices for Sustainable Process-product Design and Management in the Industry 4.0 era' Dr Ahmad Beltagui, Dr Brian Sudlow, Dr Miying Yang, Ms Qinglan Liu, Mr Glen Jonata presented their paper 'Learning from histories: a systematic review of historical industrial transitions' - a project funded by the InterAct Commissioned Research programme. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at Society of Economic Measurement, Milan 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This is an academic conference with a mixed audience of academics and practitioners. It led to a discussion on advanced manufacturing and measurement of productivity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Professor Jan Godsell presented at Engineering SC Show - Mach 2022. NEC, Birmingham |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Keynote titled 'Breaking the Chain: The Future Manufacturing Ecosystem'. Professor Jan Godsell, shared her thoughts on how supply chain innovation could help businesses to 'build back better' in the wake of COVID. This talk encompassed the creation of new business models, that decouple consumption from production, the need to break the traditional linear view of supply chains, keeping products in their highest value state, and reuse, repair, and remanufacturing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Public perceptions of working in UK manufacturing - roundtable |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In July 2024, InterAct Future of Work co-investigator, Professor Colin Lindsay joined the Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce and industry guests at British Sugar, Peterborough to share insights on manufacturing workforces. Professor Lindsay spoke to a wide range of stakeholders from across the region to discuss the barriers and potential solutions to the challenge of developing future talent - a key focus of the area's Local Skills Improvement Plan. Make UK have highlighted the scale of the problem of an aging manufacturing workforce: 1 in 5 employees are aged 55 and over, with 20% of workers set to retire in the next decade. This urgent issue has been investigated by the InterAct Future of Work team, culminating in the publication of the 'Making Things Work' - Perceptions of Manufacturing' report in late 2023. This report, based on a survey of over 2100 people, addressed the serious issue of how the UK public perceives the manufacturing sector. The researchers placed the spotlight on concerns such as the fact 'over 70% of respondents have not heard or read anything about manufacturing in the last year'. The survey found that concerns over the sustainability, perceptions of low pay and a lack of flexible working were driving younger and more diverse potential applicants away. Attendees of the session had the opportunity to discuss these findings, before hearing from Enguinity's Fiona McGarry about how manufacturers can start to tackle the problem of attracting and engaging with younger generations through innovative solutions. Discussing the event, Professor Lindsay said: "It was a pleasure to be able to address such a wide ranging group of manufacturers and key stakeholders in the sector. It is encouraging to see how receptive businesses are to the message we're sharing, and that we're starting to see real traction in addressing what is a huge and growing issue for industry." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/07/17/professor-colin-lindsay-brings-future-of-work-insights-to-cambri... |
| Description | Putting the East Midlands at the heart of the future UK manufacturing ecosystem - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Professor Jan Godsell examines the role of previous industrial evolution and the role of Industry 4.0 in shaping the manufacturing sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/04/24/putting-the-east-midlands-at-the-heart-of-the-future-uk-manufact... |
| Description | RESTRAIN: Socio-cultuRal bEhaviour of end-uSers To specific cybeR-threAts In maNufacturing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | An InterAct funded project led by Veniamin Boiarkin, Professor Muttukrishnan Rajarajan, Professor Rajkumar Roy and Professor Katy Tapper (City, University of London). A series of project dissemination events at: 13th International Conference on Compressors and their Systems - 15 September 2023, London. AMDEA 2050: Appliances of the Future Conference - 21 September 2023. Australia-UK Cyber Security Roundtable and Networking - September 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Rethinking manufacturing: It is everything, everywhere, all at once - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | InterAct funded researchers Dr. Guendalina Anzolin (IfM, University of Cambridge), Dr. Jennifer Castañeda-Navarrete (IfM, University of Cambridge) and Dr. Dalila Ribaudo (Aston University) outline the need and key reasoning behind their recent report on comparative international perceptions of manufacturing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/01/02/rethinking-manufacturing-it-is-everything-everywhere-all-at-once... |
| Description | Stakeholder Consultation Workshop on Industrial Digital Technologies for Net Zero Transitioning in the Steel Sector - Online |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | An InterAct Open Funding Call project led by the University of Warwick in collaboration with Niesslein Sustainability - A stakeholder consultation workshop to collect desired data for modelling and industry stakeholders volunteers to further complete the data collection template for verification and validation. Held 15 November 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Supply Chain Superwomen - International Women's Day 2024 - Amsterdam - A workshop. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Program of the 3rd session of the Supply Chain Superwomen on March 8th, 2024 - Schiphol Airport. A workshop for female supply chain executives from international companies, focused on innovation, scenario planning and backcasting. (Sharing the insights of InterAct 'Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems' research.) In addition, the event showcased the entrepreneurial spirit of startups Winddle, RTI Blockchain, THE CLIMATE CHOICE and Lox Solution who pitch their solution in a Dragon's Den. This event in collaboration with Professor Janet Godsell , Blue Yonder and Henkel Consumer Products promises to be a unique opportunity for learning, collaboration, and networking. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Talk at International Conference of Industrial Ecology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This is a talk on different methodologies to track progress against net zero targets. The talk presented a potential tool to support decision-makers in industry and government. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Talk at the Global Energy Meet, LA, 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This talk focused on the models to forecast emissions and their quality. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Talk on AI in Fashion Industry |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | I have presented models of Responsible AI for the Fashion industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | The Future of Manufacturing Ecosystems - "The Role of the United Kingdom in the 2040 Shipbuilding Global Value Chain (GVC)" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | InterAct Workshop led by Jan Godsell & Usman Ghani and supported by the National Shipbuilding Office and Babcock. Aims: Whilst it is impossible to predict the future, envisioning it enables us to explore different future scenarios and identify a common vision by answering the following questions: What could the future of the manufacturing ecosystem for Shipbuilding look like by 2040? What are associated business models? What role do Industrial Digital Technologies (IDTs) play in enabling the vision? How the various drives would impact the future business model and what might the best response to amplify or mitigate the driver? |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | The Future of Manufacturing Work - a presentation at Foundation Future Leaders Conference, 20 November 2023, London. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Jill MacBryde, InterAct Co-director, gave a presentation at the Risk and Resilience - Foundation Future Leaders Conference 2023.This conference examined three key issues - AI, the future of work, and energy security. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.foundation.org.uk/Events/2023/Risk-and-Resilience-Foundation-Future-Leaders-Conf |
| Description | The Image of Manufacturing: Brand, Strategy and Changing Perceptions - InterAct & GW & Co Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | InterAct partnered with expert creative change consultants GW+Co to deliver an online workshop for manufacturing leaders on 23rd May 2024. The session explored the underlying issues for manufacturing, address the myths of modern branding and introduce ways to enact meaningful change within businesses. Attendees had the chance to work with GW+Co's CEO, Gilmar Wendt, to learn about his innovative approach to tackling the brand and perception challenges of their own organisations, including: How three manufacturing businesses have changed perceptions by aligning their people with brand, culture, and strategy. Tools and approaches that deliver successful brands by tapping into the existing skills and knowledge within a business. Training in a technique developed by GW+Co that helps businesses to identify the pitfalls specific to their business, and documents outcomes in a way that ensure project success and team cohesion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | The future of medical technology manufacturing - workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An InterAct Network and the West Midlands Health Technology Cluster co-hosted workshop held 27th March 2024 at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry. The workshop provided an opportunity to explore the visions and future business models for the sector and jointly identify the drivers for change. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Towards the Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Towards the Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems: Co-design Workshop. Multi-Stakeholder Co-Design Workshops - Burleigh Court Hotel, Loughborough University, Loughborough (14 February 2023). The purpose of this workshop is to bring manufacturing firms, policymakers, digital technology providers together with the InterAct 'Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems' team to co-design the digital roadmaps that enable the UK manufacturing industry to achieve improved productivity, sustainability, resilience, and wellbeing by 2040. Outcome: Gained a much better understanding of how the digital technologies could support UK manufacturing moving towards the following scenarios: Scenario 1 - Productivity Powerhouse Scenario 2 - Flexibility as the Standard Scenario 3 - Sustainability Champion Scenario 4 - Happy and Sustainable Workforce |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Toyota, you and a "human centric" digital manufacturing future - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Russell Watkins, Lean Transformation Expert & Co-founder at Sempai and InterAct Strategic Advisory Board member, discusses the importance of putting people at the heart of digital manufacturing strategy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/07/31/toyota-you-and-a-human-centric-digital-manufacturing-future/ |
| Description | Unlocking human insight: a summer school journey - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Stephanie Yao Gou, PhD researcher at Loughborough University attended the InterAct Summer School, co-hosted by InterAct and Atlantic Technological University, at the ATU Letterkenny, Donegal Campus, Ireland in July 2023. This blog describes the enriching experience, exploring human insights surrounding digital technology diffusion and how the program was incredibly valuable in expanding knowledge and identifying potential collaborative opportunities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2023/07/31/unlocking-human-insight-a-summer-school-journey/ |
| Description | Unlocking the UK's Regional Manufacturing Productivity - webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Webinar 'Unlocking the UK's Regional Manufacturing Productivity' took place on 4 November 2024. This webinar provided an analysis of the comparative productivity of the manufacturing industry across UK regions, specifically the East Midlands, West Midlands, and Yorkshire. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/11/07/webinar-unlocking-the-uks-regional-manufacturing-productivity/ |
| Description | Webinar for Digit Lab - Change through People |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Introducing InterAct and its work to the Digit Lab community |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://digit.ac.uk/seminar/people-as-a-route-to-competitive-advantage-in-a-digital-manufacturing-fu... |
| Description | Webinar for the East Midlands Policy-makers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This is a webinar on the drivers of regional productivity in the East Midlands. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | What can we expect from the Industry 4.0 revolution - online session |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | InterAct welcomed Dr. Olivér Kovács of the Ludovika University of Public Services, Budapest to an online session on 23rd May 2024 to share his insights on the 4th Industrial Revolution, how technological change can be accomplished and what key barriers to innovation remain. Dr. Kovács is a Hungarian economist whose research embraces two fields: Sustainable development through the lens of complexity science (including structural change, techno-economic paradigm shifts, Industry 4.0, state fiscal sustainability and the theoretical and empirical issues of fiscal policy and fiscal consolidations) Innovation and innovation policy |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/07/16/future-of-the-economy-team-welcomes-economist-to-discuss-industr... |
| Description | Women in Manufacturing: 'Changing perceptions' conference - 31st October 2023. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Keynote lectures on research findings - on the participation of women in UK manufacturing. More than 160 delegates from diverse manufacturing backgrounds attended the Women in Manufacturing Conference: Changing perceptions. The conference agenda drew on the IfM's Dr Jennifer Castañeda-Navarrete's InterAct-funded work, which raises awareness of challenges faced by women in manufacturing. Jennifer Castañeda-Navarrete (IfM) and Dr Dalila Ribaudo from Aston University gave the keynote talk on gender representation in UK manufacturing and international viewpoints on the sector's challenges. InterAct Co-director Jill MacBryde, University of Strathclyde discussed how digital technologies can make jobs more attractive to women. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Women in digital manufacturing: discussion panel and networking |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Jill MacBryde - Speaker - Women in digital manufacturing: discussion panel. (16 November 2022). Made Smarter Theatre, Digital Manufacturing Week, Liverpool. An activity to support the InterAct Future of Manufacturing Work core research theme. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Workshop insights: International Perceptions and Megatrends of Manufacturing - A blog. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr. Chloe Billing of the University of Birmingham reflects on a recent InterAct funded workshop she attended on International perceptions and megatrends of manufacturing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://interact-hub.org/2024/01/25/workshop-insights-international-perceptions-and-megatrends-of-ma... |
| Description | Workshop on Circular Economy - Opportunities and Challenges for the Sri Lanka's Apparel Industry. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A workshop by Prof. Amrik Sohal from Monash Business School, Australia & Janet Godsell from InterAct, Loughborough University UK held 16 November 2023 at Cinnamon Grand Colombo - supported by JAAF an University of Moratuwa - Supply Chain & Operations Department. InventiX, a provider of Advanced Production Planning & Scheduling Software, participated in the workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |