Synopsis

The Panel Debate at the end of Session 1 will pull all four speakers back to the stage for a moderated discussion about how best to drive innovation in cosmetic science, and business growth in our industry.  The moderator will open the discussions, but there will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions from the audience.

The UK and Ireland have world-class universities, but we have often struggled to turn this to our financial advantage, and we are slipping behind the Far East in terms of economic outputs.  Technology clusters such as silicone valley in California, the Cambridge life sciences cluster, and Cosmetics Valley in France, offer one mechanism to drive innovation.  Cosmetics Cluster UK is working towards this sort of aim, but there is always more to be done.  Another solution could be to build deep partnerships between businesses and particular academic centres, such as the Materials Innovation Factory, a collaboration between Unilever and Liverpool University.  Then there is the whole world of open innovation, where inventors develop new technologies and then sell them to businesses to take them to market.  How can this be best supported at a national level?  There is also the area of government research grants, and how these can be used to push through new science, develop new capabilities and open new business opportunities.  Of course, there are probably many other potential solutions.

The purpose of the debate will be to share ideas on how governments, universities, and scientific and trade associations (such as the SCS and the British Beauty Council), can work together to drive business growth, through cosmetic science.

One solution is undoubtedly, linked to improved cosmetic science education.  We shall not dwell on this during the Panel Debate, since the Future Education Forum, the following day, will look at this in some depth.