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CALL-TO-ACTION - Register by Monday 14th June 2021
It can be easy to overlook the importance of UK manufacturing. As COVID and Brexit have demonstrated, UK manufacturing is fundamental to the reliable supply of products that are critical to life. It is also a fundamental part of a resilient economy. To grow manufacturing in the UK, firms need to be productive and competitive. The innovation and diffusion of Industrial Digital Technologies (IDTs) is critical to achieving this goal.
Some of the biggest challenges to developing new IDTs and seeing them used at scale are not technical but human. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has invested £4m through the ESRC as part of the Made Smarter Challenge to help industry understand and overcome these challenges. The aim is to develop and support the creation of an effective digital innovation ecosystem, to accelerate the adoption and diffusion of IDTs. This will be achieved by ensuring that the full range and depth of social and economic science insights are accessed by UK manufacturers. It’s currently called the Made Smarter Network+. It will be launched in October 2021 and will run until December 2024.
What is Nudgeathon?
Nudgeathon is a two-stage crowdsourcing event in which carefully selected groups of stakeholders draw on insights and methods from behavioural science, design science and drama theory to devise implementable solutions to major behavioural policy problems. A unique feature of Nudgeathon is that the understanding of the situation comes from stakeholders themselves, and these stakeholders work with domain experts to create solutions that not only are sensible from a scientific and managerial perspective, but also ones that will work when actually applied. It is by leveraging the combined power of diversity, expert knowledge, “insider” knowledge, and open group interaction we create new ideas and stress test them.
Nudgeathon format
The Nudgeathon itself is a one day event. But prior to that diverse teams are formed, and extensive groundwork is done developing the brief. There are typically six teams of five or six. The day begins with an in-depth description of the problem, a team bonding/problem analysis session that makes use of drama theory concepts, and a masterclass and behavioural science and design thinking. Then the teams work to devise a solution to the problem.
Nudgeathon problem
In this Nudgeathon, two related problems linked to increasing diversity and inclusion within the digital innovation ecosystem for manufacturing.
- How can you nudge economic and social sciences researchers to contribute to research in a manufacturing context?
- How can you nudge early career researchers to contribute to research in a manufacturing context?
Who should attend
The workshop is aimed at all key stakeholders who have a part to play in developing and supporting the creation of an effective digital innovation ecosystem for manufacturing. Previous experience of working in a manufacture context is not required. We particularly welcome participation from those who would like to work within a manufacturing context, but have yet had the opportunity to do so. We would also like to encourage participation from Early Career Researchers.