Universities are generally very successful at helping others innovate. We do it all the time by ensuring our academics transfer their knowledge into industry and other organisations to help them grow and improve. We also work with policy makers to ensure that good research informs decisions, and with citizens and communities to review the impacts of these endeavours.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced us to turn some of this attention inwards and develop innovative solutions to the new challenges we are facing. This has seen our plans and good ideas for remote working, online learning and digitalisation all being implemented within weeks. Nothing fosters innovation like a challenge.
In fact, the latest thinking on stimulating innovation is challenge-based. Universities are some of the organisations that lead the way in reducing the risk involved with long-term local and global challenges such as making sure populations are healthy, the food we eat is produced sustainably, we are educated and our work is fair and decent. We do this through research and innovation; we think, we pilot and we collaborate until we find workable solutions.
At Cardiff Met we are contributing to the development of solutions to these challenges and have oiled the wheels of research and innovation through our recently established Global Academies. These Global Academies address some of the most pressing issues that society needs to overcome to create inclusive economic growth and a sustainable environment for future generations. bn
Faced with the biggest challenge in a generation, Global Academies have brought together post-graduate students, researchers and stakeholders from Wales and around the world with a solutions-focused approach that harnesses expertise from all disciplines as we face the challenges of the global pandemic.
Through the work of our Global Academies, Cardiff Met has been able to respond to the pandemic in a way that is international in outlook, interdisciplinary in approach and impactful in outcomes. The Academies are truly at the forefront of our contribution to addressing the human and economic impact of Covid-19 – and it’s important that this is widely known as the higher education sector is facing huge challenges set to last far beyond the initial financial impact.