Interview: Rapid responses

Former head of Innovate UK Ian Campbell on the funding agency’s performance during the pandemic

The first day of the nationwide lockdown in March last year was a struggle for most organisations—including the UK’s innovation agency. “We were going to test whether we could work remotely on the day that lockdown began, so we went into lockdown without having tested any of our services to see if we could deliver remotely,” admits Innovate UK’s former interim executive chair Ian Campbell.    

Since then, the majority of staff at the agency have been working successfully from home—and even Campbell, speaking to Research Fortnight from his home office in Cambridgeshire, has only held one face-to-face meeting.