Manufacturing health: A wake-up call for resilient economies

Tim Minshall is one of the world’s leading experts on innovation within the manufacturing sector. His recent research has focused on open innovation as a successful business strategy and on the transformation of manufacturing processes with the emergence of additive manufacturing (3D printing). He is on the board of directors for St John’s Innovation Centre Ltd and a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology's (IET) Innovation and Emerging Technologies Policy Panel. He actively works to connect academic work in his field to the outside world, building a close relationship with companies in the Cambridge cluster, the largest and most successful technology cluster in Europe, and visiting primary and secondary schools to raise awareness of engineering and manufacturing. He is a recipient of a University of Cambridge Pilkington Prize for Teaching Excellence and a Royal Academy of Engineering/ExxonMobil Excellence in Teaching Award.

Rebecca Shipley is a mathematician who has pioneered the application of mathematical models in medicine. Her research investigates nervous system tissue engineering, where she works to design and test repair constructs, and on the use of computational modelling (in combination with high-resolution imaging) to understand cancerous tumour development and investigate the potential for individualised treatment. In 2017, she co-founded the UCL Centre for Nerve Engineering to provide a new, interdisciplinary approach to nerve engineering which brings together the physical and life sciences. Her outstanding research contribution was recognised in 2011 when she received the UK Tissue and Cell Engineering Society’s Young Researcher of the Year Award. Rebecca played a central role in the UCL-Ventura CPAP initative. The Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device was manufactured by UCL, Mercedes-AMG HPP and UCLH to help keep Covid-19 patients out of intensive care.

Cecilia Ugaz Estrada is an economist with extensive experience working in international development. Her work at UNIDO concerns the impact of rapid technological change on the future of manufacturing and sustainable development. Previously, she served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative for Paraguay. She has also served for the UNDP as Deputy Resident Representative in Argentina and Deputy Director for the Human Development Report Office at their headquarters in New York. She has held numerous academic positions in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Finland, as well as at the World Bank.

Antonio Andreoni is an industrial economist whose work has made a major contribution to understanding the structural context and relationships which shape the development of the manufacturing sector. He has special expertise in industrial policy and its role in dynamics of innovation, structural change and economic development. He has led major research programmes on economic governance, including the multi-country Research Partnership Consortium on Anti-Corruption Evidence (funded by DFID) and Governing Financialisation, Innovation and Productivity in UK Manufacturing (funded by the Gatsby Foundation), and his work appears in numerous leading international journals. He is also Visiting Associate Professor in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, SARChI Industrial Development at the University of Johannesburg. Antonio’s expertise has been employed by the World Bank, OECD, DFID, GIZ, UNIDO, UNCTAD, ILO, UNDP, UNECA, UNU-WIDER, and governments in South Africa, Tanzania, Italy and the UK.