Innovation & Impact Summit 2017: programme details announced

Register for the THE Innovation & Impact Summit 2017. There is an exclusive early-bird discount of £150 for university delegates who book by 14 April.

University leaders and senior industry figures from organisations spanning five continents will speak at Times Higher Education’s inaugural Innovation & Impact Summit this year.

Greg Simon, executive director of the White House’s Cancer Moonshot Task Force, which was established last year by former US president Barack Obama to accelerate cancer research, will deliver a keynote speech on the challenges and opportunities of industry and research collaboration at the event, while entrepreneur and Amadeus Capital co-founder Hermann Hauser will speak about his experience of translating science into a business.

Max Lu, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Surrey, and Jacques Biot, president of École Polytechnique, will also deliver keynote speeches. In addition, Candace Johnson, global infrastructure, network and innovation expert and entrepreneur, will discuss whether entrepreneurs can be created, while Peter Mathieson, president of the University of Hong Kong, will explore how universities innovate to address grand challenges.

The summit, which will take place from 31 May to 2 June 2017 in partnership with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), will be on the theme “Powering universities’ economic and social impact through innovative research and teaching”.

Paul Feigin, vice-president for strategic projects at Technion Israel Institute of Technology; Alexander Wai Ping-kong, vice-president (research development) at PolyU; and Tateo Arimoto, principal fellow at the Japan Science and Technology Agency, will discuss models of strategic leadership and present best-practice case studies of universities delivering impact.

There will also be a panel discussion examining the graduate skills gap with Michael Fung, group director (planning group) and chief data officer at Singapore Workforce Development Agency; Catherine Koshland, vice-chancellor for undergraduate education at the University of California, Berkeley; Michelle Potts, regional director of education at British Council South Asia; and Tony F. Chan, president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Meanwhile, Madeleine Atkins, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England; Cheryl de la Rey, vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Pretoria; and Arun Sharma, deputy vice-chancellor (research and commercialisation) of Queensland University of Technology, will debate how to calculate the economic and social impact of higher education.

The event will also hear from Nicholas Yang, secretary for innovation and technology for the Hong Kong government, and include a rankings masterclass on how impact and innovation can be measured with THE rankings editor Phil Baty.

The summit will be hosted at PolyU’s Hotel ICON, a five-star hotel that is wholly owned by the university and is an extension of its School of Hotel and Tourism Management.

Register for the THE Innovation & Impact Summit 2017. There is an exclusive early-bird discount of £150 for university delegates who book by 14 April.

ellie.bothwell@tesglobal.com