Earlier in June 2023, members of our team participated at the first London TownHall meeting of the Next Generation Professional and Financial Services (PFS) program, jointly supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Innovate UK – the UK’s innovation agency. The PFS Programme has awarded funding to single and collaborative projects through two competitions: CR&D competition and Innovation Adoption Accelerator (IAA) competition.
The TownHall meeting was a unique opportunity for members of our team to liaise with fellow funded Innovate UK entities and projects, including high growth businesses, SME’s, incumbent firms and academia, over a day of networking, knowledge sharing and industry and academic feedback.
The PFS programme has amongst its objectives the provision of assistance to SMEs and start-ups and other funded organisations to support the development of their tech solutions via mentoring and/or networking activities, highlight and create opportunities for international cooperation, facilitate AI for services network and promote the dissemination of projects and notification about new competitions, activities and other news.
Our organisation participated at the joint workshops and had the opportunity to engage with the awarded businesses and academics, disseminate new ideas and identify areas of synergy across PFS, build new collaborations with project leads and partners including industry leaders, high-growth potential entrepreneurs and academic experts and hear about the future activities of the programme and further support available.
Among the themes discussed were the challenges of data access as a major barrier to innovation, the development and adoption of digital technology and innovation and the economic and societal benefits associated with them, the use of technology in professional services (mainly law and accounting) and the relevant “market-making” opportunities. Moreover, the importance of aspects such as reaching out to underserved businesses, the understanding (evidence based) of market failures holding back innovation and building resilience was highlighted.
We are proud to have been invited to the London TownHall meeting as part of our Innovate UK funded project “PLEIADS” which is currently ongoing with workings well-underway towards the design and development of an innovative platform that will transform the KYC ecosystem.
For more information or to discuss potential collaboration and synergies please contact us at info@oxinnotech.com