Warwick Enterprise, in collaboration with Warwick Manufacturing Group, hosted an Innovation Lunch Time Talk as part of the Innovation 2022 Campaign. The lunch took place on Friday 10^th of June 2022. The lunch was attended by staff representing 10 different departments from the University of Warwick.

Professor Jay Bal and Xiao Ma lead the session and presented a practical example of how the promotion of innovation and entrepreneurial behaviour can be an excellent asset for any department and university’s development. They emphasised that collaboration and networking between departments is an essential driver of innovation and how such collaboration can support the university in achieving strategic goals.

The delegates participated in an exercise that required them to pitch for a fixed some of funding. There were no limitations to what they could present. The activity required them to present their ideas on how they would use the funding. Delegates then pitched their ideas and were asked to vote on each other’s ideas. The goal of this exercise was to see how much inter-departmental collaboration was front of mind when pitching for the funding. Two of the ten delegates presented ideas which required collaboration. The remainder presented on ideas that would benefit just their department or a unit within their department.

The aim of this activity was to present an opportunity for departments to connect and network and navigate the possibility of exchanging knowledge and expertise to create more resilient innovation projects and programmes. Delegates agreed that the next action step was to have regular quarterly meetings to discuss potential opportunities for collaboration.