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Mission Oriented Finance for Innovation: Conference overview
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Last updated: Thursday, 31 July 2014
From 22-24 July 2014, over 200 people attended the Mission-Oriented Finance for Innovation conference organised by Prof Mariana Mazzucato (Reginald M Phillips Professorship in the Economics of Innovation, SPRU).
The event was characterised by innovative discussion with a diverse range of speakers and attendees from across government, business, the finance industry, academia and the media. Keynote speeches came from Business Secretary Vince Cable, Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane and Senior Fellow at the Institute of New Economic Thinking (INET) Adair Turner. Several members of SPRU: Prof Johan Schot (Director of SPRU), Prof Andy Stirling (Professor of Science and Technology Policy), Caetano Penna (Research Fellow) and Carlota Perez (Honorary Professor) also spoke at the conference.
New government initiatives
In his keynote speech - profiled in The Telegraph - the Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP used the conference to call for an ambitious doubling on Technology Strategy Board funding to £1bn, as well as unveiling three new government initiatives aimed at nurturing and sustaining the UK’s world class science capability.
Press coverage
The conference was accompanied by a series of blogs in the Financial Times Alphaville, written by several keynote speakers. Further media coverage included two articles in The Guardian by Paul Mason, economics editor of Channel 4 News, and Guardian economics editor Larry Elliot.
- From Concorde to the iPhone, state intervention drives technological innovation, Paul Mason, The Guardian, 27 July 2014
- Why governments still have a mission to promote innovative capitalism, Larry Elliot, The Guardian, 27 July 2014
The conference challenged conventional thinking about the role of the state in driving the innovation needed for sustainable, inclusive growth. The Mission Oriented Finance for Innovation conference builds on Mariana Mazzucato’s work encapsulated in her book, ‘The Entrepreneurial State’ supported by a grant from INET.