KTN's first Global Expert Mission (GEM) Dissemination Day attended by Minister Chris Skidmore

Posted on: 15/07/2019

The GEM cohort who visited the USA in March 2019 to gain insight into the Robotics & AI sector came together to discuss the outcomes of the visit.

To date, KTN has facilitated 24 Global Expert Missions (GEMs) to countries around the globe. The visits, which focus on a specific sector or industry, seek to identify collaboration opportunities, facilitate international dialogues, and make the UK the partner of choice.

In March 2019, KTN’s Paul Larcey and Marie Emerson led the Robotics & AI in Extreme Environments GEM to California and Texas to better understand the success of the RAI community in these states. KTN were joined by leading experts working in start-ups, enterprise and research. Areas reported on include “Robotics and AI: The Opportunities”, “RAI in Space Sector” and “RAI in Offshore Marine Sector”.

At Dissemination Day, the published Mission Report was circulated, and members of the Mission cohort shared their learnings and feedback. Insight from one Mission delegate was that ‘there is a deep and broad cross-cutting RAI ecosystem in the US that we can engage with’, while others highlighted that the USA is open to collaboration.

One attendee at Dissemination Day said that it ‘was a great KTN event, working to build a national robotics and AI cohort’ and that they would ‘recommend the free downloadable report to anyone looking to identify potential US partners or customers in Robotics and AI’.

The event was also attended by Minister Chris Skidmore who announced the co-chairs of the Robotics Growth Partnership; Paul Clarke the CTO of OcadoTechnology and David Lane of Heriot Watt University. The Partnership aims to put the UK at the forefront of the smart robotics revolution. A ¬£3 million extension to RACE, a remote handling and robotics test facility, was also announced; ‘Not only will this create over 100 highly skilled jobs and improve collaboration. But it moves the UK closer to a globally significant robotics cluster in Oxfordshire.’

With a growing number of GEM reports, all accessible here, the KTN hopes to run more Dissemination Day events in the future.

Click here to find out more about how KTN’s International Team can help you.

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