How innovation really works, what we can learn from the age of invention and what policies can promote innovation today.

Matt Ridley's books have sold over a million copies, been translated into 31 languages and won several awards. His books include The Red Queen, The Origins of Virtue, Genome, Nature via Nurture, Francis Crick, The Rational Optimist and The Evolution of Everything. He has a new book out on How Innovation Works.

His TED talk "When Ideas Have Sex" has been viewed more than two million times. As Viscount Ridley, he was elected to the House of Lords in February 2013. He served on the science and technology select committee 2014-2017.

Dr Anton Howes joined the Entrepreneurs Network in 2020 as Head of Innovation Research. Prior to this, he was Lecturer in Economic History at King's College London, and before that a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University. He received his PhD in 2016 from King's College London, on the causes of Britain's acceleration of innovation that gave rise to the Industrial Revolution.

Anton specialises in the study of invention. His first book, Arts and Minds, tells the story of Britain's subscription-funded national improvement agency, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). And he is currently writing a book on the causes of the British Industrial Revolution. Anton regularly shares his research on the history of innovation at his popular newsletter, Age of Invention.