INNOVATION INTERFACE: Technology on the Human Scale

Join us as we welcome Will Norman of The Young Foundation, London as he discusses: Social Innovation: New Approaches to Meeting Society's Toughest Challenges

Throughout the year, Innovation Interface aims to gather academics, policy makers, entrepreneurs and business people to kick start the debate between social science and innovation and to forge alliances leading to action through a series of talks about social science, design and innovation.

More about Innovation Interface:

Social Science and Innovation- could these seemingly strange bedfellows be the answer to connecting the need of the user to the innovation and creativity of the technology industry?

Many of the world's leading technology companies and science institutions have already discovered the way forward for innovation has as much to do with the intangibles of the human experience as it does with algorithms, chips and design. Using both sociologists and anthropologists, corporations are increasingly turning to designers who combine the insights of social scientists with scientific knowledge to transform creativity and research into innovation. Will emo-engineers and anthro-technologists be the buzzwords of the twenty-first century? We invite you to join the debate and listen as this line-up of world leading thinkers and practitioners discuss their international experiences and practices of innovation, design and social science.

Coordinated by Adam Drazin and Simon Roberts (Twitter: @si_roberts)

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About Will's talk:

European countries are experiencing unprecedented squeezes in public spending in the face of growing social pressures. Incremental changes and efficiency measures in public services are no longer plausible solutions. Radical social innovation is needed to respond to these pressures.

Social innovation is the process of designing, developing and growing new ideas that work to meet pressing unmet needs. The term is a relatively new one, but there is a long history of social innovators and examples of social innovation - from kindergartens to hospices, and from the cooperative movement to microfinance.

The past thirty years in particular has seen a remarkable growth of new social ventures in both the developed and developing worlds. Sometimes referred to as the Third sector, they in fact operate across many sectors, from parts of the public sector, to the collaborative 'household economy' as well as the private market.

The Young Foundation is a centre for social innovation and research based in East London. Its work brings together insights, social innovation and entrepreneurship to meet social needs.  The Foundation has a 55 year track record of high quality research and success with ventures such as the Open University, Which?, the School for Social Entrepreneurs and Healthline (the precursor of NHS Direct). It works across the UK and internationally - carrying out research, influencing policy, creating new organisations and supporting others to do the same, often with imaginative uses of new technology. The Young Foundation now have over 60 staff, working on over 40 ventures at any one time, with staff in New York and Paris as well as London and Birmingham in the UK.

In this seminar Will Norman, Principal Research Associate at the Young Foundation, introduces the foundation's work and draws on examples from around the world to show the many ways in which people are creating new and more effective answers to the biggest challenges of our times: how to cut our carbon footprint; how to keep people healthy; how to end poverty.