Science & Innovation
Whether it’s the delivery of new medications and vaccines, the patent process that secures rights to breakthrough technologies, or the delivery of public science and their translation into human, environmental or industrial impact, science and innovation is essential to society.
Breakthroughs in areas such as biotechnology, AI, quantum computing and clean energy, among others, are driving major shifts in every area of society, from healthcare to environmental management to agriculture to international development.
The pipeline of scientists is growing, but the need for diversity and the challenges of national retention continue to be challenges in optimising science workforces at every stage of the science career trajectory.
Science is becoming increasingly driven by big data and big compute capabilities, and their intersection with thematic areas of science is becoming a norm rather than an exception.
Collaborations between research and industry have yielded powerful results in many areas, but the models, governance and infrastrctures needed for this to be systemic are still evolving and often absent.
Science is moving faster than law and regulation, with the twin effects of insufficient regulation being able to be meaningfully applied to emerging science applications, and of scientific innovation being inhibited by perishable policy positions.
The engagement of society in science and evidence is being challenged by a global tsunami of non-scientific misinformation and disinformation, creating distrust in legitimate scientific endeavour and trust in false or unproven directions.
The speed of scientific innovation means that ethics is more critical than ever, and understanding the dynamics of social licence is more challenging than ever because it is more heterogenous than ever.
How we help
ThinkPlace works at the intersection of science and innovation, community need and engagement, and the translation of science into applications that solve environmental, social, industrial and policy/regulatory challenges. We help:
- Create the foundations for sectoral and inter-disciplinary collaboration, helping scientific leaders collaborate across synthetic boundaries to achieve results now possible within a single research vertical
- Running innovation processes that allow different perspectives to come together to generate innovative, investable applications of science and technology in ways that deliver social and environmental value
- Design science and innovation policy and strategy, that creates systemic affects for building momentum, encouraging R&D, and create safeguards and ethical controls, all at once
- Blueprinting digital systems, enabling the capture, dissemination and adoption of knowledge and insight, in ways that are usable, useful and timely
- Community engagement, creating strong understanding of needs, values and trust relating to science and innovation, establishing the social licence basis for governance and application of innovation
- Data strategy development to create research foundations or applications that can harness high quality, hih-utility standards, data and governance, along with the capabilities, culture and analytical/visualisation tools to invite meaningful use
- Sustainability transformations, helping science and research institutions pivot to new postures that positively account for natural capital, carbon reduction and cradle-to-cradle environmental sustainability.
And much more.
