UIDP Academy

UIDP London was held on July 7-9, 2026. UIDP thanks UCL for serving as the site host and providing an outstanding venue for this gathering. This event brought together research, policy, and innovation leaders from around the world to explore how international and cross-sector partnerships can advance science, foster innovation, and improve the human condition amid global disruption. The convening featured expert panels, facilitated working sessions, and peer discussions focused on strengthening international research partnerships, navigating evolving policy and funding landscapes, and developing practical models for cross-sector and cross-border collaboration. Participants left with new insights, expanded global networks, and actionable strategies to support resilient, high-impact partnerships.

UIDP extends its sincere appreciation to our sponsors for their support of UIDP London 2026. Their partnership helped make this convening possible and contributed to meaningful conversations that advance international collaboration and innovation. Thank you to our local co-host, UCL, and to our sponsors, Canary Wharf Group, The Impulse by Chiesi, Sanofi, Elsevier, London Quantum Cluster, Novartis, UI Collab, TUFF, and PepsiCo.

Need a recap? Access available presentations from the UIDP London below, and bookmark this page to find new resources as they are added. Blue-linked speaker names indicate presentations that are available for download. Please note that presentation materials were not available for every session. Presentations were provided by speakers, and their content does not necessarily reflect UIDP policies or positions.

July 7, 2026

What’s Changing in How Organizations Collaborate Internationally

Murielle Gitton, Sanofi
Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, Elsevier
Yoichi Oshima, Institute of Science Tokyo
Kendra Sharp, Santa Clara University

This panel examined how organizations are changing their approaches to international collaboration in response to geopolitical shifts, research security requirements, funding pressures, and talent constraints. The session opened with insights on long-term global trends in university–industry collaboration, highlighting how patterns of engagement are evolving across countries and sectors. Building on this, panelists focused on specific decisions made in practice, including how partnerships are prioritized, where engagement is expanded or limited, and how collaboration models are restructured to support research translation and impact. The discussion highlighted where approaches are aligning, where they diverge, and what these differences mean for how international partnerships are taking shape in an increasingly complex and competitive environment.

Frontier Technologies and the New Conditions for International Collaboration

Ben Kidd, ARUP
William Lovegrove, UCL
Karl Steiner, University Of Maryland, Baltimore County
Davide Venturelli, USRA

This panel examined how collaboration is evolving in frontier technology domains, using quantum as a case in point. Drawing on perspectives from universities, industry, and the broader innovation ecosystem, panelists explored how partnerships are being structured across borders, how national strategies and investment priorities are shaping collaboration, and how commercialization, intellectual property, and access to infrastructure are influencing decision-making. The discussion highlighted how collaboration in these environments is becoming more strategic, resource-intensive, and competitive, and what this reveals about the broader conditions for international research and innovation partnerships.

Case Study of International Collaboration Under Shifting Priorities: The UCL-PGIM Centre for Sustainability and RealTech Innovation

Shakirah Akinwale, UCL
Tim Bodley-Scott, UCL

This case study examined the UCL Centre for Sustainability and RealTech Innovation, a joint initiative developed in partnership with PGIM, as an example of how international collaboration is being shaped by shifting national and institutional priorities. The presentation explored how the centre was established around a shared focus on sustainability, and how that focus is being sustained as priorities evolve across different regions. The discussion focused on the tensions that arise when global challenges such as sustainability are no longer uniformly prioritized, including how partners maintain alignment over time, how research agendas adapt to changing external conditions, and how decisions are made about where to invest effort and resources. It also examined how collaboration is structured and governed when long-term objectives must be balanced against shifting policy signals, funding landscapes, and expectations for impact. Positioned alongside the UK-Ukraine case study, this session highlighted a different form of pressure on international collaboration, where the challenge is not an immediate constraint but maintaining coherence and commitment in the face of diverging priorities.

July 8, 2026

From Value Mapping to Decision-Making: Trade-offs in International Collaboration

Sarah Main, Elsevier

This session examined how organizations are making strategic decisions about international collaboration in an environment shaped by competition, national priorities, and the need for economic impact. Drawing on new analytical approaches that map the alignment between research capabilities and economic specialization, the discussion highlighted how institutions and governments are identifying where collaboration creates value and where it does not. Building on these insights, the session explored how organizations are prioritizing partnerships, selecting areas of engagement, and aligning collaboration strategies with industrial policy, innovation goals, and competitive positioning. Particular attention was given to how trade-offs are being made, including where collaboration is being expanded, limited, or restructured in response to changing conditions.

Beyond Precompetitive: Coordinating International Collaboration in a Fragmented System

Niklas Blomberg, Innovative Health Initiative
Marielle Chiron, Sanofi
Lee Ellen Drechsler, Procter & Gamble
Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova, University of Exeter

Precompetitive collaboration has long played an essential role in university-industry engagement, enabling shared risk and early-stage knowledge development. However, as the research and innovation ecosystem becomes more fragmented, with shifting funding models, growing data sensitivity, and increased competitive and geopolitical pressures, organizations are reassessing how and where they invest in these models. This panel examined how precompetitive collaboration is being weighed alongside alternative approaches across sectors, where it continues to deliver long-term value, and where it is being supplemented or replaced by more structured, selective, or outcome-oriented forms of engagement. Panelists explored how collaboration is being redesigned to align with evolving priorities, including the role of intellectual property, data governance, and the intentional design of pathways toward translation and commercialization. The discussion highlighted how organizations are moving from broad participation toward more deliberate coordination across partners, capabilities, and stages of the innovation lifecycle.

Data, IP, and Value: Redefining What Gets Shared in International Collaboration

Amy Fetter, Sanofi
Florian Montel, Boehringer Ingelheim
Kenji Takeda, Microsoft
Tonishiya Watanable, Institute of Science Tokyo

As collaboration models evolve and become more structured and selective, questions of how value is defined, shared, and protected have become central to whether international partnerships can function effectively. At the same time, the growing importance of data as a strategic asset, combined with advances in AI, is challenging long-standing assumptions about intellectual property, ownership, and value creation. This session examined how organizations are navigating these shifts in practice. Panelists explored how decisions about data access, IP, and value-sharing are influencing collaboration design, partner selection, and pathways to impact across sectors. Particular attention was given to how the increasing availability of data, the ability to generate knowledge at scale, and the need for execution and implementation are reshaping what is considered valuable and what must be protected. Drawing on real examples, the discussion highlighted where traditional approaches to IP and data-sharing are under strain, how organizations are redefining the balance between openness and control, and what new approaches are emerging to enable collaboration while managing risk in a more competitive and data-driven environment.

Startups and Value Capture in Global Collaboration: Where Value Is Realized

Dean Cook, Innovate UK
Ginger Luckey, KPMG

International collaborations are often built on shared investment of funding, talent, infrastructure, and data, but the value generated through those collaborations is realized in different ways across partners. As research moves toward commercialization, startups have become an increasingly prominent pathway for translating collaboration into economic and societal impact. Drawing on a structured comparison of international examples, this presentation examined how startups emerge from global collaborations, where they are formed, and how value is ultimately realized across institutions, companies, and geographies. It explored how decisions related to intellectual property, data access, funding models, and ecosystem capacity shape these outcomes, and how national context influences the pathways through which impact is achieved. By focusing on startups as a primary lens, the session surfaced broader patterns in how value flows across borders and highlighted the implications for designing international collaborations that more intentionally align shared investment with realized impact.

July 9, 2026

Delivering Complex Collaboration: Capability, Coordination, and Execution

Chaouki Abdallah, LAU
Fabrizio Conicella, Chiesi
Peter Hubbert, Fidelity Investments
Mio Mieko, University of Tokyo

This session examined what it takes to design and deliver more complex forms of international collaboration. As partnerships become more strategic, resource-intensive, and multi-actor, success increasingly depends on the ability to coordinate across institutions, sectors, and funding systems rather than manage individual projects. Drawing on perspectives from universities, industry, and emerging program models, panelists explored how organizations are building the capability to structure and lead coordinated efforts, how roles and responsibilities are evolving, and what this means for sustaining collaboration over time. The discussion connected these capabilities to the guiding principles developed during the forum, highlighting where current approaches are sufficient and where new models or skills are required.