Weirdo and misfits are presumably no longer needed. Number 10 is looking to hire 10 Innovation Fellows to accelerate the adoption of cutting edge tech in government.
The Government wants to harness the power of technology and data to improve public services, and is seeking the best digital and tech talent from industry, academia and civil society.
Taking inspiration from the US Presidential Innovation Fellowship Programme, the No.10 Innovation Fellowship Programme will see around 10 Fellows enter government each year. Since 2012, the US version has been matching outstanding technologists with federal leaders to improve the way government builds, designs, and delivers public services. It might be worth checking out their projects and fellows to get a sense what the UK government is looking to replicate. The US fellows are quite eclectic, so I wouldn't discount yourself without checking first.
Number 10 claims to be offering unparalleled opportunities to deliver the type of high impact technology and data projects that are only possible in government. You’ll be matched with a government department; have access to senior decision makers; and help tackle public sector challenges of national importance.
I wouldn’t normally lead a newsletter with a job advert, but I think this is important enough to do so. While I’m sure there will be frustrations working in Government, the upside for the country could be potentially huge if the Fellows are the very best the UK has to offer. The contracts are for 12 to 14 months and there’s more information here.
Queen Be
Octopus recently released Spinning out Success. It reveals universities’ success at turning academic achievements into thriving companies, and identifies what works in supporting investor-ready spinouts. Queen’s University Belfast came top for the second consecutive year, with Cambridge University second, and Cardiff University third.
As James Hurley explains in The Times: “The ranking considers universities’ effectiveness in producing intellectual property and the creation and eventual sale of spin-out companies, relative to the institution’s total funding, so smaller universities that get more bang for their buck can outrank more illustrious rivals.”
Read All About It
Sam Dumitriu has written a thoughtful article on what the Moderna vaccine tells us about complaints about stock market short-termism – namely, that they're often overblown. As always, it’s a great article. It’s not on our website, but has gone out through Substack – an increasingly popular platform for newsletters. You can access it by signing up to Sam’s Weekly Thoughts here.
History buffs should also sign up to Age of Invention, the Substack of Anton Howes, our Head of Innovation Research. Anton’s Substack recently won a prestigious Emergent Ventures prize.
Even before Sam’s Substack, we already had quite a few newsletters, including this one, our monthly APPG for Entrepreneurship newsletter, our fortnightly Female Founders Forum newsletter, and our ad hoc Policy Updates. You can sign up to those you're interested in by joining us (for free) as a Member, or we’ve just created a Newsletters page on our website, which is a little quicker.
The idea behind all these newsletters isn’t to overload your inbox, but to ensure you get more of what’s useful and less of what’s not. We’re even experimenting soon with a sector-specific newsletter, so I hope you take this chance to experiment with what everything we have to offer.
Twenty Hands