May has been a rather busy month for our team, always on the move to promote and publicise our activities to the largest audience. This time, we embarked on a 3 day trip to Manchester to take part to the Eureka Global Innovation Summit 2019, the international meeting place for businesses and innovation agencies that took place between last 14 -16 May 2019. The event marked the return of the UK to the chairmanship of this important network after 22 years and the turnout couldn’t have been more impressive: over 2000 delegates from 65 countries, with Belgium, Canada and South Korea sharing the centre stage, as each of these delegations organised receptions, networking events and specific workshops. South Korea, in particular, to celebrate the deeper involvement within the network, enjoyed a separate venue  with a bespoke set of showcases and talks.

The 3 days of talks and workshops on international collaboration in innovation have been inaugurated by Science Minister, Chris Skidmore, whose speech not only set the but also highlighted some very interesting points on the direction the Government wants to take in terms of future policies, among which the commitment to invest 2.4% of the GDP in research and development by 2027, and the  intent to maintain the UK within the next Horizon Europe programme despite of Brexit, clearly raised much interest and the approval of the delegates.

Overall, the event proved to be an unique opportunity for our company, as we had the chance to promote our business and activities to such a vast  and international audience, as our delegate, Matteo Radice said: “The Summit gave me the great chance to sit at the table with some of the most influential figures in the global innovation landscape to discuss the future of international partnership and not only that! it was great to meet businesses and policy makers from as close by as Caerphilly and from as far as South Africa! Most of all, thanks to our success stories -and especially our BreathSpec project- RedKnight is slowly getting international recognition. It is indeed a nice feeling!”