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We hope this finds you well, and enjoying some warmer spring weather, even if the political climate has been somewhat less settled. We have certainly seen plenty of good things flourishing in our work at IFOW - so much of which is captured by a push for productivity that is centred on work and wellbeing.
Could uncertainties in institutions elsewhere provide opportunities for the UK to offer global leadership in this area of human-centred technology adoption? We think so, and have been working hard with key stakeholders to offer research-led policies and practices to support that.
Yesterday, working in a partnership with the AI Security Institute and the Department for Science Innovation and Technology, we convened interdisciplinary academics from across the UK and the global academic ecosystem to discuss the latest methods for evaluating the productivity potential and job quality impacts of AI.
Just a few days before, the APPG on the Future of Work - for which IFOW acts as Secretariat and Strategic Research Partner - brought together expert panellists representing trade unions, employers, and policy organisations in a packed House of Lords Committee Room to discuss the Bill’s strengths, gaps, and the broader implications for the UK labour market - again focused on how rights for workers can help growth. Read a full write-up of the key policy takeaways here, and reserve a space for our next event on 24th April - focused on skills - here.
Finally, we were delighted to be invited to the excellent Anthropy event at the Eden Project in Cornwall, addressing a gathering of leading industry figures, change-makers and thought-leaders on our work with the EY Foundation exploring skills and capabilities among young people. Helping those in the 'NEET' group move into good work is one of the key routes to a strong and sustainable recovery for the country - both in terms of health and wellbeing, and economic growth.
As you'll see in our Deep Dive below, Cornwall has been a focus for us as a 'peripheralised' economy that is making a strong case for agency over its own 'future of work', using data from our Good Work Monitor and Disruption Index. If you are interested in IFOW working in your region on a Spotlight Report, we would love to hear from you - please do get in touch.
Finally, we are delighted to welcome Anna Whitehead to our team as our new Comms and Events Associate. Anna joins us from the Institute for Government, and we are really looking forward to all that she will bring to our work.
Anna and IFOW Team
Cornwall is a fascinating region of the UK, one that highlights both the vast inequalities we are seeing in this period of technological transformation, and the huge potential of regions to exploit their place-based resources and particularities to create new futures of work.
Collating funding from partners across the region, local experts worked with IFOW to develop two 'Spotlight Reports', shining a light on implications of our research for the region.
The first Spotlight Report used data from our Disruption Index to explore technological transformation and innovation readiness, and gave a superb contextual piece about Cornwall's industry - both in the past, and with a future that includes lithium mining, advanced manufacturing and a base for space exploration.
The second used data from our Good Work Monitor to dig into the details of access to good work. Using case studies and local expertise, it outlines Cornwall's labour market dynamics and highlights significant progress that has been made in access to good work, but how seasonal fluctuations and market conditions remain obstacles to faster change.
Dr Harry Pitts - our Senior Research Fellow based in Penryn who has led on this work - has written a blog piece for us about the challenges and opportunities in Cornwall's push for a different future of work. Read it here.
This work is vital to ensuring that technology adoption and pushes for growth do not exclude 'peripheralised' economies. If you are interested in us helping deliver similar Spotlights focused on your region, we would love to hear from you - please do get in touch.
Our Senior Research Fellow, Dr Frederick Harry Pitts, explores in a new blog post for us the challenges and opportunities in Cornwall's 'peripheralised' economy - and what lessons there are for other regions across the UK in developing a regional future of work strategy that builds on local strengths. Read the full blog post here.
A new survey from the Ada Lovelace Institute reveals that "72% of the UK public say that laws and regulation would increase their comfort with AI, according to a new nationally representative survey." This figure is up from 62% in 2023. Read the full piece on this here.
The Centre for Cities has released a new briefing exploring the impact of hybrid working on spending patterns by workers in both city centres and their local neighbourhoods. Five years after Covid, the ongoing economic consequences are still in play, and it's vital to a balanced and equitable recovery that these are well understood. Read the briefing here.
Why do economic statistics matter for both policymakers, and the wider public? What big changes are being missed by official data, and what might they tell us about the state of Britain today? And what could a world of better data tell us about how to boost Britain’s economic performance, and raise living standards?
Professor Diane Coyle is joined by Professor Tera Allas and Ruth Curtis to discuss Diane's new book, The Measure of Progress.
The message chimes well with findings from our Disruption Index, which highlighted key gaps in nationwide datasets that could really help the country better navigate this period of technological transformation.
Register here.
As Skills England begins its mission to 'meet skills needs of the next decade', IFOW convenes an expert panel to discuss what its key priorities should be if we are to future-proof the UK’s workforce.
A key opportunity to engage with leading voices on the future of work and education, we will be joined by: Donna Ford-Clarke (VP of Vocational Qualifications and Portfolio at Pearson), Simon Parkinson (Chief Executive and General Secretary of the Workers Educational Association), Dan Howl (Head of Policy and Public Affairs at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT) and Lizzie Crowley (Senior Skills Policy Advisor at the CIPD).
Register here.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is an area of AI underpinning technologies we use every day, including personalisation systems, voice assistants, translation tools and generative AI, such as ChatGPT. But how do we make these systems work best for humans, and ensure they are fair, accountable and transparent?
Our friends at Scottish AI are collaborating with Edinburgh Futures Institute for a drop-in festival of exhibits, hands on activities and an opportunity to meet the next generation of researchers sharing their work and ideas of how we design and build a more responsible future.
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Anna Thomas MBE
