Innovation

Imperial awards medals to Business School's Professor Lara Cathcart and Afrey Edes

Shamita Harsh — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 15:04:25 +0000

Imperial awards medals to Business School's Professor Lara Cathcart and Afrey Edes

Shamita Harsh Mon, 02/06/2025 - 15:04

22 July 2026 News

Exploring new frontiers at the Africa Innovates Conference 2026

15 July 2026 News

Business School academic nominated for second term on UK's fiscal watchdog

14 July 2026 News

Celebrating the Dean’s Community Award winners

4 June 2025

During the graduation ceremony on 2 June, ��ý awarded the prestigious Imperial College Medal to two exceptional members of the Business School community: Professor Lara Cathcart and Afrey A. Edes. The medals came in recognition of their transformative impact on the university over the course of their distinguished career.

Professor Lara Cathcart, who has served Imperial for 27 years, was honoured for her pioneering contributions to finance education and her unwavering commitment to academic excellence, diversity, and inclusion.

“It is an honour to be awarded the Imperial College Medal, and this recognition means a great deal to me. What started out as one finance programme has become a fully-fledged department with several courses producing leaders of the finance industry. I am truly grateful to have played a part in this journey.” said Professor Cathcart, a trailblazer who has co-created and led a suite of MSc programmes.

Her dedication is mirrored with graduates and peers alike citing her as an inspiring mentor, role model, and advocate for gender equity in academia.

Reflecting on her diligence, Dean Peter Todd said, “Lara exemplifies the values of Imperial through her excellence, integrity, and enduring commitment to the university and its ��ý. It is an honour to recognise her with the Imperial College Medal.”

Continuing to shape the future of finance education both at Imperial and internationally, Lara said: “I always believed that the lack of representation of women in the field of finance served as a kind of deterrent for prospective female ��ý and academics. I felt it my duty to provide encouragement to staff and ��ý alike to pursue their dreams."

“Diversity is a strength, and the increasing representation in the Business School is furthering its success, something I am very proud of.”

Professor Lara Cathcart

Professor of Finance, Imperial Business School

Afrey Edes, Executive Director of Faculty Services and Space at the Business School, received the Medal in recognition of over two decades of transformative leadership in operational excellence, innovation, and strategic space planning. Since joining Imperial in 1996, Afrey has played a key role in the growth and development of the Business School, most notably leading on the design and delivery of space innovation initiatives.

Acknowledging her journey at Imperial, Afrey said: “Cross-disciplinary collaboration has always been essential, working with teams in Estates, ICT, student representatives and academic faculty has enabled us to do something genuinely transformative. Receiving this award is both a personal milestone and a testament to the incredible teamwork that defines Imperial.”

Afrey’s leadership was especially vital during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she swiftly adapted campus facilities for multi-mode learning, enabling high-quality hybrid teaching for thousands of ��ý.

Recognising Afrey's commitment to the Business School community, Peter said, “Afrey’s calm, pragmatic approach, deep institutional knowledge, and unwavering dedication to Imperial’s mission make her a highly respected and valued colleague. It is a privilege to recognise her contributions tonight with the Imperial College Medal."

Reflecting on her work leading space design and pandemic adaptations, Afrey added: “I feel honoured to be recognised by Imperial for my contribution, it’s a moment of immense pride and reflection, which I’m very grateful for. Throughout my time here, I’ve had the opportunity to work in a number of different roles and contribute in many ways to the outstanding growth of the Business School.”

Her forward-thinking approach and deep understanding of institutional needs have helped shape an environment where both ��ý and staff can thrive.

Professor Cathcart affirms that this recognition is a testimony to the Imperial legacy: “It is the pursuit of scientific advancement, and the quantitative unity of all disciplines, that fosters the ecosystem of research, innovation and education at the Business School and Imperial at large.”

Together, Professor Cathcart and Afrey Edes exemplify the values of Imperial—excellence, innovation, and commitment to the greater academic community—and their lasting legacies continue to shape the future of the institution.

“Thinking about the student and staff experience has been at the heart of all the projects I’ve worked on, creating spaces that are inclusive, adaptable and innovative. ”

Afrey A Edes

Executive Director of Faculty Services and Space Planning

Subscribe to our newsletter

Culture and Inclusion

Digital transformation

Finance and institutional resilience

Academic area

Finance

Management & Entrepreneurship

External

Off

Outstanding contributions to finance education, operational excellence, and inclusive growth recognised

Professor Lara Cathcart (left) and Afrey A Edes (right) receiving the Imperial Medal from Professor Hugh Brady | ��ý

3 minute read

Book launch on Tencent and its rise to being a global tech giant

Lou Lee — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 10:15:24 +0000

Book launch on Tencent and its rise to being a global tech giant

Lou Lee Mon, 14/04/2025 - 10:15

22 July 2026 News

Exploring new frontiers at the Africa Innovates Conference 2026

15 July 2026 News

Business School academic nominated for second term on UK's fiscal watchdog

14 July 2026 News

Celebrating the Dean’s Community Award winners

1 July 2026

To mark the publication of their new book, China's 'Everything Online' Company: The Unique Innovation Model of Tencent, Professor George Yip, Emeritus Professor of Marketing & Strategy at Imperial Business School, and co-author Professor Xiaolan Fu, Professor of Technology and International Development at the University of Oxford, shared insights from their research into one of the world's leading technology companies.

Introduced by Lord Clement-Jones, Liberal Democrat House of Lords spokesperson for Science, Innovation and Technology, the event traced Tencent's evolution from its early instant messaging platform QQ to the creation of WeChat and its vast digital ecosystem spanning social media, gaming, payments, cloud computing and AI.

Drawing on years of research, Professor Yip and Professor Fu explained that Tencent's success stems not only from technological excellence, but also from the way it encourages new ideas to emerge. Their book introduces the company's distinctive OCEAN framework: Openness, Coopetition, Empowerment, Autonomy and Attentiveness as a way of managing stakeholder needs. Together, these principles help Tencent operate more like a connected ecosystem than a traditional corporate hierarchy, encouraging experimentation while allowing new ideas to scale quickly.

“I hope people left with fresh insights into how Tencent combines technology, organisation and ecosystem thinking to create innovation at scale, and why those lessons matter well beyond China.”

Professor George Yip

Emeritus Professor of Marketing & Strategy

Reflecting on the event, Professor Yip said: "The enthusiasm and engagement from the audience showed just how much interest there is in understanding one of the world's most innovative companies. I hope people left with fresh insights into how Tencent combines technology, organisation and ecosystem thinking to create innovation at scale, and why those lessons matter well beyond China, even to the UK's next Prime Minister."

The evening concluded with a lively audience Q&A exploring the future of innovation, digital ecosystems and China's rapidly evolving technology landscape.

Professor Yip and Professor Fu's book offers fresh insights for business leaders, policymakers, researchers and ��ý interested in innovation, digital platforms and the future of technology.

Subscribe for research and events from the Business School

Artificial Intelligence

Big Tech

Brand

Consumers

Digital Transformation

Digital transformation

Entrepreneurship

Academic area

Management & Entrepreneurship

Marketing

Off

External

Off

Imperial Business School welcomed business leaders, academics and alumni for the launch of a new book offering a rare insight into how Chinese technology giant Tencent became one of the world's most innovative companies.

2 minute read

My Global Online MBA Capstone experience

Helen Richardson — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:13:30 +0000

My Global Online MBA Capstone experience

Helen Richardson Tue, 18/02/2025 - 09:13

29 May 2026 Alumni

Real career advice from Imperial MBA alumni

We recently caught up with alumni from Imperial Business School’s Full-Time MBA, Weekend MBA and Global Online MBA programmes, who shared insights and advice into succeeding in your career post-MBA studies. Read what they have to say in this blog.

1 April 2026 Features

The ultimate guide to choosing a part-time MBA at Imperial

Part-time MBA programmes have grown in popularity as more professionals look for flexible ways to develop their skills while continuing to work. At Imperial, options include the Weekend MBA, Global Online MBA and Executive MBA, each designed to fit around different schedules and career goals.

18 March 2026 Features

Imperial’s Global Online MBA programme ranked second in the world by Financial Times

Imperial Business School is delighted to announce that our Global Online MBA programme has been named second in the world in today’s Financial Times ranking of online MBAs.

22 May 2024

Student blog

Mangala Prasetia , a Global Online MBA student, reflects on his experience of the Capstone module. The Capstone takes place over a seven-day period across our South Kensington and White City campuses. Alongside a series of lectures on innovation, design and entrepreneurship, Mangala and his classmates analysed the innovative needs of a large multinational and developed a business case to help the company grow.

“I learnt what it means to be truly resilient in an academic sense and appreciated the value of diverse perspectives as our cohort collaborated across all our different projects.” Mangala Prasetia, Global Online MBA

Earlier this month, my Global Online MBA cohort gathered in London from all over the world to complete the Capstone module, a pivotal part of our MBA journey designed to integrate everything we have learnt over the past two years. Over an intense seven-day period, our team logged almost 100 hours of brainstorming, planning, interviewing, and refining our ideas.

Pre-Capstone week

In the lead-up to the Capstone, our first task was to form groups of up to six people, consider several problem statements faced by our companies, and conceive a corresponding innovative solution that was both feasible and socially impactful. Forming the group was straightforward for me, as I had the opportunity to reunite with my first-year syndicate group members: Padma, Brandon, Sebastian, James, and Yuko. We had an excellent group dynamic and agreed to put our minds together for the Capstone week (and of course go out and hit the town!).

Day 1

Arriving on Sunday at Scale Space, located in Imperial’s White City campus, after a 30+ hour journey (not to mention the time difference and jet lag!) from Australia was a challenging start to the week. However, seeing everyone from our cohort once again after a year-long hiatus was truly a highlight, and I had the opportunity to catch up with my peers from around the world over lunch and an opening ceremony of sorts.

Day 1 was also the day we settled on a project. Our group chose to enhance WHILL’s “mobility for all” mission. WHILL is known for its innovative mobility devices (particularly electric wheelchairs) designed to improve the lives of people with mobility challenges. Our proposed solution was to build on their existing technology to create a solution that would be even more inclusive and accessible.

Day 3

One of the most demanding aspects of the week was the sheer volume of work and the need for constant iteration. Receiving feedback from multiple coaches was a challenge, as we had to consider various aspects of our solution and balance the technical feasibility, financial costs, and meaningful social impact. In fact, to quote one of our professors, the job of the coaches was “to confuse you!” However, what stood out most was the camaraderie within our group. Our familiarity (having worked together for most of 2022-23) really helped us get through the continuous pivots we had to make. More importantly, we also had a “brainfood” sharing session, where we shared snacks from around the world: Australian biscuits, Swiss chocolates, Singaporean crispy skins, Japanese Kit Kats, and British flapjacks. These snacks encouraged us to take much-needed breaks and helped us bond even more (until the snacks mysteriously disappeared one night!).

Day 5

After several days of intense preparation for our pitch, we were rewarded with a cohort social at a nearby pub. We were treated to plenty of food and drinks and had the opportunity to unwind and connect with peers outside of our Capstone groups. Through this, we had an opportunity to listen to what other groups had been working on, and in some instances, were able to exchange ideas and offer insights. The diverse backgrounds of the cohort meant that we could leverage the expertise of medical professionals, frequent flyers, and other professionals in testing the viability of our solution, and vice versa.

Day 7

The week culminated in pitching our solution to an esteemed (and intriguing!) panel of judges comprising a former princess, a former United Nations representative, and a senior employee from a major video game company. It was a nerve-wracking yet exhilarating experience as our team conducted multiple dress rehearsals and prepared for a gruelling question and answer segment. Given we were the first group to present, expectations were sky-high – but we succeeded in the end. We received insightful feedback from the panel, which was invaluable for refining our approach as we put together our final slide deck for submission.

The Global Online MBA Capstone was undoubtedly one of the most intense weeks of my life, but also one of the most rewarding. I learnt what it means to be truly resilient in an academic sense and appreciated the value of diverse perspectives as our cohort collaborated across all our different projects. The real-world challenges we all tried to solve did test our limits, and there were certainly more than a handful of instances where we all needed to take a breather. However, this experience just demonstrates the passion and high calibre of Imperial ��ý, with whom I have had the privilege to work. A special thank you to the Imperial Business School staff who made this week possible – it was truly a fantastic opportunity to make use of the facilities across the South Kensington and White City campuses.

Discover our Global Online MBA

Recently ranked #1 in the world by QS Online MBA rankings 2024. The Global Online MBA is a part-time programme that is delivered in an online format, focusing on innovative thinking and new technology to deliver a practical curriculum.

Request an MBA brochure

Download an MBA brochure.

How to apply

Discover our admissions process for the Global Online MBA at Imperial Business School, including entry requirements, how to apply and key deadlines.

Programme

4 minute read

Why professional networks are vital to healthcare innovation

Marisa Miraldo — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 14:54:30 +0000

Why professional networks are vital to healthcare innovation

Marisa Miraldo Mon, 20/01/2025 - 14:54

21 January 2025

Back in 2000, English health authorities issued guidance for an innovative form of keyhole surgery. This promised a less invasive way of treating colorectal cancer, which is the third most common cancer in the world and responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. For decades, doctors had treated this condition with open surgery, but the new procedure carried a better survival rate, patients tended to recover faster and it cost less.

Despite this, doctors were reluctant to adopt it. As a procedure, it required new skills and the learning curve was steep. Even when England’s National Institute for Health & Care Excellence evaluated it as a cost-effective treatment alternative in 2006, uptake among surgeons remained sluggish.

An encouraging environment is critical for new methods and techniques to spread

We interviewed surgeons in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and, while some were enthusiastic about the new procedure, others were reluctant. “We all like to stick with things we know work,” one surgeon, who’d persisted with conventional methods, told us. “I think there’s a lot of innate conservatives and we do require… an innovation to prove itself before we adopt it.”

Crucially, there was no easy way for surgeons to learn the new technique, which requires much practice to perfect. Could more have been done to encourage and inspire doctors to adopt the new approach? What governs the speed of uptake of novel techniques such as this among medical professionals? Were some doctors more influential than others?

Spreading healthcare innovation

It’s important we understand the different ways innovation spreads, because once a doctor reaches the senior status of consultant, there is no further formal NHS training for new procedures. If doctors are to innovate, they must often take the initiative themselves.

Colleagues can be important sources of encouragement, either by sharing their perceived value of the technology or their own experiences with it. An encouraging environment is critical for new methods and techniques to spread.

Our research, carried out by a team of academics from Imperial's Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation, the University of Toulouse Capitole and University of Queensland, incorporates a vast quantity of data, all anonymised. These included details of all patients treated by the NHS between 2000 and 2014. We also used details on NHS doctors’ careers as they progressed to consultant level and their clinical choices, where they have practised and with whom, and their demographic and education details.

These data enabled us to characterise each consultant professional network and how it evolved as well as the uptake of the technology in each network. In all, we honed in on nearly 1,500 consultants responsible for more than nine in 10 colorectal cancer surgeries in England during the 14-year window.

These were our three key findings:

The larger doctors’ networks are, the more likely they are to use keyhole surgery.
The more often an innovative procedure is performed within an individual’s professional network, the more likely they are to use it too. This became more pronounced according to an individual surgeon’s experience: more experienced doctors were found to have a stronger effect on their colleagues.
We also spotted the role of those we’ve termed "key players" – influential doctors whose use of the procedure inspired a greater share of colleagues to follow suit.

The key players

While it is the more experienced doctors or the pioneers in the uptake of the innovation who are the most influential in their network, we found less experienced doctors are more likely to adopt the innovation as a result of peer influence. This means they develop into effective innovation ambassadors themselves. We also found "key players" are more likely to be working in the kinds of hospitals with greater regulatory freedom and which are more open to innovation.

When we ran an experiment to see whether a training campaign that targeted the most influential doctors would improve uptake, our simulation found this would have boosted use of the novel surgery by 20 per cent – with substantial health benefits for patients and cost savings for the NHS.

Our work shows that guidelines, in combination with ad-hoc training programmes that don’t factor network effects in their design, are not the most effective strategies to ensure uptake of cost effective innovation.

Our work also reveals a dearth of information about doctors themselves. Our health systems know all about the demand side, such as patients’ characteristics, but almost nothing about the doctors who treat them. If authorities want to improve health and lower costs, researchers need more detailed information about the professionals who deliver care and their characteristics, as well as their attitudes towards innovation.

This article draws on findings from "Innovation Diffusion among Coworkers: Evidence from Senior Doctors" by Eliana Barrenho (Imperial London), Eric Gautier (University of Toulouse Capitole), Marisa Miraldo (Imperial London), Carol Propper (Imperial London) and Christiern Rose (University of Queensland).

Health

Innovation

Healthcare management and policy

Research Centre

Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation

Knowledge Categories

Health

Academic area

Economics & Public Policy

Developing innovative healthcare practices is a big challenge, but getting doctors to adopt them once they exist is yet another barrier to improving patient healthcare.

Main image: elenabs/iStock via Getty Images Plus

4 minute read

Off

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

Ryan Cory-Wright — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:14:02 +0000

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

Ryan Cory-Wright Wed, 15/01/2025 - 12:14

More blogs

17 July 2026 Knowledge

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

15 July 2026 Knowledge

How to survive as an entrepreneur: insights from Steve Blank

6 July 2026 Knowledge

What business leaders can learn from the erosion of democracy

17 July 2026

Article at a glance

AI can now generate scientific hypotheses faster than traditional research systems can test them
Scientific progress still depends on verification: testing whether promising claims hold up against evidence, theory and domain expertise
AI-driven science will deliver on its promise only if we can test ideas as quickly and rigorously as we generate them

Scientific breakthroughs look sudden only in retrospect: a new theory, a medical advance, a technology that changes how we see the world. But before an idea becomes a discovery, it must survive a slower and less glamorous process of verification.

AI-driven science needs scalable verification methods. This is because AI systems can analyse vast amounts of data, identify patterns and generate new hypotheses faster than ever before. But verifying those hypotheses remains slow, costly, and highly domain-specific.

Ideas need proof

Science begins with a hypothesis: a claim precise enough to be tested, challenged and potentially proven wrong. Verification asks whether that hypothesis survives contact with what we already know by testing it against against theory, evidence, experiments, simulations, or formal reasoning. It is this process that separates genuine discoveries from ideas that merely appear plausible.

Scientific advances such as germ theory, thermodynamics and modern agricultural practices transformed society not simply because scientists proposed new ideas, but because those ideas were rigorously tested and repeatedly validated. Verification, then, is the dividing line between a promising idea and a discovery that science can trust.

The age of abundant ideas

For centuries, generating new scientific ideas was one of the most time-consuming parts of research. Over the past decades, major discoveries have become harder to achieve as scientific problems have grown more complex and interconnected.

This is what makes AI so exciting for science: it changes the speed at which researchers can move from data to possible explanations.

Machine learning systems can scan vast datasets for patterns that humans might miss, while large language models (LLMs) can help connect those patterns to possible explanations, making hypothesis generation dramatically faster.

That changes the economics of discovery. When machines can produce candidate explanations faster than researchers can test them, the bottleneck shifts from generating ideas to verifying and filtering them.

Science’s new bottleneck

In many areas of science, the pace of hypothesis generation has historically been constrained by human expertise, data collection and theory-building. AI weakens that constraint: it can propose many more candidates than existing verification systems, such as peer review, can comfortably absorb.

While the number of hypotheses has increased dramatically, verification remains comparatively slow, expensive and often dependent on human expertise. Laboratory experiments, clinical trials and peer review cannot easily be scaled at the same rate as AI-generated ideas. The result is a growing verification bottleneck.

“Generating ideas is no longer the primary constraint. Determining which ideas stand up to scrutiny is becoming the harder problem.”

Without effective verification, scientific progress risks becoming overwhelmed by plausible yet untested results. Some hypotheses may fit existing data while failing to hold up under further scrutiny. Others may appear convincing but remain disconnected from established scientific knowledge.

In other words, generating ideas is no longer the primary constraint. Determining which ideas stand up to scrutiny is becoming the harder problem.

History shows the cost of inadequate verification. Scientific claims that initially appeared convincing have later been overturned because measurements were flawed, assumptions proved incorrect, or results could not be replicated. Without rigorous verification, minor errors can compound, leading to years of wasted effort and resources.

Verification isn’t one-size-fits-all

Verification is not the same in every scientific field. In physics, it often relies on mathematical consistency and reproducible experiments. In biology, it may require laboratory testing and observation. In medicine, verification can involve clinical trials and statistical evidence.

There is no universal framework that can verify every scientific claim. What unites these disciplines is the principle that scientific knowledge advances only when ideas are tested against evidence. Although the methods differ, verification remains fundamentally driven by structured, iterative reasoning.

Trust is the new competitive advantage

AI is changing scientific discovery and may ultimately require us to rethink aspects of the traditional scientific method.

For much of human history, ideas were scarce and difficult to generate. Today, AI is making ideas abundant. The scarce resource is increasingly becoming the ability to determine which discoveries are robust enough to trust, invest in and build upon.

“In an age of abundant AI-generated ideas, trust becomes the scarce resource, and verification will be how science and business earn it.”

As AI continues to accelerate scientific discovery, the greatest opportunities may lie not in generating ever more hypotheses, but in developing better ways to verify them. That means building verification into AI-driven science itself through:

Automated checks wherever possible
Stronger links to established theory
Better benchmarks
Human oversight where scientific judgement matters

For businesses, universities and investors, the main lesson is not that AI makes scientists less important. It is that AI makes scientific judgement more valuable. As machines make it cheaper to generate hypotheses, the competitive advantage will shift to organisations that can test claims quickly, rigorously and carefully before building products, making investments or changing practice. In an age of abundant AI-generated ideas, trust becomes the scarce resource, and verification will be how science and business earn it.

Discover insights by Dr Cory-Wright

Read 'The need for verification in artificial intelligence-driven scientific discovery'.

Artificial Intelligence

Data

Digital Transformation

Innovation

Technology

Digital transformation

Knowledge Categories

Technology

Academic area

Analytics & Operations

AI is making scientific ideas abundant. The hard part is knowing which ones to trust.

4 minute read

Off

Opinion: “Good science” needs purpose, accountability and an explicit ethical stance

Marisa Miraldo — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:14:02 +0000

Opinion: “Good science” needs purpose, accountability and an explicit ethical stance

Marisa Miraldo Wed, 15/01/2025 - 12:14

More blogs

17 July 2026 Knowledge

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

15 July 2026 Knowledge

How to survive as an entrepreneur: insights from Steve Blank

6 July 2026 Knowledge

What business leaders can learn from the erosion of democracy

5 March 2026

We like to pretend that science is neutral – that our work is insulated from politics, economics and power. But it isn’t. The funding we receive, the methods we choose and, crucially, the questions we ask – and those we never ask – are shaped by funding, performance metrics, history, social norms, and our own biases. To act as if science floats above these forces is not only naïve, it’s irresponsible.

From the 19th century onwards, scientific institutions were deeply entangled with military power, industrial productivity and colonial rule. Funding priorities were set around national prestige and economic gains. Universities adapted by building reward systems around publications, citations, patents and grants. Generations of researchers were trained to see themselves as specialists accountable primarily to peers and promotion committees not to the communities affected by their work. Within this system, a comforting narrative took hold: “I just do the science; what others do with it is not my responsibility.”

Science that harmed

As a professor, I am painfully aware of the historical lessons that demonstrate how damaging scientific work framed as progress can be.

One example is the many leading scientists and physicians who believed they were helping society while promoting eugenics. In practice, it justified forced sterilisation, institutionalisation, and the brutalisation of disabled people, the impoverished, and racialised communities. Meanwhile, the science was wrapped in the language of public good, making it harder to challenge. The echoes of eugenic assumptions that some lives are less desirable persists today, reminding us of the lasting harm scientists can have on society.

Today, algorithmic systems and social media recommendation systems designed to “maximise engagement” have contributed to polarisation, harassment and mental distress. Built by people who may have wanted to “connect the world” or “democratise access” these systems operate in institutional settings that reward growth, not care.

A pattern emerges: decisions are made far from those most affected and the social, historical, and political dimensions of science are often treated as secondary, if they are acknowledged at all.

Ethical science requires governance that travels with the technology – from research question to deployment – and includes the people and communities most affected.

A manifesto for socially responsible science

If good intentions are not enough, what would it take to change? A manifesto is, by definition, unfinished – it is an invitation to collective work. But I would like to start the conversation by setting out some clear commitments.

1. Name the politics of science, openly and early. Make our values explicit in the design, conduct, and communication of research.

2. Redefine excellence. Treat equity, representation, and long-term social and environmental consequences as core criteria of quality.

3. Practice convergence, not siloed brilliance. Treat lived experience, social sciences and the arts as essential intelligence, not decorative.

4. Share power with those most affected. Move beyond token consultation. Communities and groups most affected by research hold real decision-making power over priorities, methods, data governance, and evaluation of impact.

5. Build systematic processes to surface potential harms, including those that fall outside our immediate field of view.

6. Align incentives with responsibility. Push institutions and funders to reward collaborative and justice-oriented science – in hiring, promotion and grant allocation.

7. Refuse institutional silence and require them to align their investments, partnerships, and policies accordingly.

8. Protect dissent and whistleblowing within science to create a culture that produces socially responsible knowledge.

9. Educate for responsibility, not just technique. Embed history, ethics, social theory, and critical reflection into scientific training. Students must learn not just how to generate but how to situate it in the world and be transformational leaders.

10. Hold ourselves accountable. When we invoke “science for humanity,” “precision health,” or “sustainability,” we treat those words as obligations, not slogans. We measure ourselves against the lived experiences of people and ecosystems, not just against citation counts and patents.

How ethical science is embedded in practice

At a time when “science” is simultaneously invoked to defend public policy and attacked as elitist, I believe good science needs purpose, accountability and an explicit ethical stance. These do not sit only in labs and universities: they run through funders, regulators, publishers, governments and yes, businesses that decide what gets built, scaled, and sold.

Initiatives like Imperial’s School of Convergence Science, where I am Co-Director, the Good Science Project, and the “Science for Humanity” strategy, create spaces that prioritise impact and values, question incentives, and redesign how we judge excellence. They will matter insofar as they shift incentives and decision-making: who sits at the table, what counts as excellence, and how harms are identified and acted on.

The question now is whether we are prepared to turn those intentions into structures, commitments, and convergent practices that make responsibility – not just discovery – the organising principle of what counts as excellent science.

Learn more about the Good Science Project

Discover the College-wide initiative

Economy

Education and Learning

Knowledge Categories

Academic area

Economics & Public Policy

Scientific research needs to extend beyond good intentions. This is my manifesto for socially responsible science – and why it is so desperately needed

Main image: sanjeri / iStock via Getty Images

4 minute read

Off

Why dreamers and realists are key to innovation, and how to bring them together

Anne ter Wal — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:14:02 +0000

Why dreamers and realists are key to innovation, and how to bring them together

Anne ter Wal Wed, 15/01/2025 - 12:14

More blogs

17 July 2026 Knowledge

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

15 July 2026 Knowledge

How to survive as an entrepreneur: insights from Steve Blank

6 July 2026 Knowledge

What business leaders can learn from the erosion of democracy

19 November 2025

Professor Anne ter Wal’s research on “Dual Networking: How Collaborators Network in Their Quest for Innovation” shows that dreamers and realists must collaborate early on to prevent ideas being watered down and to turn creative potential into real-world results.

The principal challenge of innovation is to marry technological opportunity with societal or business need. True innovation is difficult because of the obstacles in bringing these two things together when conceiving ideas, evolving them, and gaining buy-in to develop them. Networks are key to overcoming these obstacles, as they bring together diverse perspectives that shed light on where opportunities might arise, how needs are likely to change, and how to recognise the moment when the two align.

Architects can design stunning buildings but need the expertise of pragmatic engineers to realise their vision. Film directors with expansive creativity rely on the diligence and tenacity of their producers to bring storylines and scripts to life. In the same way, corporate innovators work with managers to make what’s possible meet what’s needed. As these examples show, cross-role collaborations often require dreamers and divergent thinkers to work together effectively with realists and convergent thinkers.

Effective collaboration in such partnerships, however, is far from straightforward. It requires individuals to build connections with people outside the like-minded groups with which they are most familiar and naturally inclined to connect. The same differences in perspective that are integral to what can make creative partnerships work so well can be a source of misunderstanding and disagreement. This limits the ability of creative minds and practical thinkers to leverage their combined potential.

When ideas are ready to progress, both dreamers and realists alike need to engage in “intimate co-creation", which means working together from an early stage.

What does this look like in practice?

How, then, can dreamers and realists learn to work together more harmoniously and fruitfully? The answer lies in cultivating daily habits that encourage early, open interaction. Leaders can help by fighting the temptation to water down new concepts until they fit existing ways of working, and by providing a safe and free working environment for creative minds to experiment.

Within such a framework, both dreamers and realists need to embrace "creative collisions". They need to both deliberately seek exposure to new ideas at an early stage, outside of their comfortable and familiar circles, and open up about what ideas are on their mind in spontaneous day-to-day interactions.

In most innovation settings, this can look like technologists (the specialist scientists whose expertise and curiosity breed novel ideas) taking active steps to discuss ideas with managers, engineers, lawyers and other more practically focused colleagues, and vice versa. Seeding ideas in this way helps to hone them and allows all parties to spot the crucial moment when technological opportunity and market need may converge.

Following this stage, when ideas are ready to progress, both dreamers and realists alike need to engage in “intimate co-creation", which means working together from an early stage. This sounds simple but represents a significant break from the business world’s normal way of working, where ideas are typically taken to a certain stage and then handed over to another team to take forward sequentially. Often, such handovers lead to ideas being watered down and creativity being compromised.

By working side-by-side with practical, realist colleagues on a project from inception, creatives reduce the risk that bold ideas are diluted or dismissed and transform potential sceptics into enabling partners who help turn vision into reality.

Culture change

In a world of accelerating technological change and shifting economic conditions, organisations cannot afford to miss the fleeting moments when a societal need and a technological opportunity align. Fostering a collaborative culture of innovation, where creatives are confident their ideas are valued and practical minds are comfortable working with them, might be the surest way to avoid missing out on those vital moments.

Putting this into practice, however, can take time and effort, as it relies on breaking down the siloes that divide not only teams but also roles and professions in organisations. This requires different (net)working practices and habits, and the willingness for both visionaries and realists to leave their comfort zones.

Subscribe to the IB Knowledge newsletter

Innovation

Networking

Entrepreneurship

Knowledge Categories

Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Academic area

Management & Entrepreneurship

Ahead of his inaugural lecture on the power of networks in technological innovation, Anne ter Wal, Professor of Technology & Innovation Management, explores why innovation demands more than sequential workflows.

Main image: pixelfit / iStock via Getty Images

4 minute read

Off

Jónas Oddur Jónasson on how healthcare systems can work better for people

Shamita Harsh — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:14:02 +0000

Jónas Oddur Jónasson on how healthcare systems can work better for people

Shamita Harsh Wed, 15/01/2025 - 12:14

More blogs

17 July 2026 Knowledge

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

15 July 2026 Knowledge

How to survive as an entrepreneur: insights from Steve Blank

6 July 2026 Knowledge

What business leaders can learn from the erosion of democracy

29 September 2025

Dr Jónasson’s research focuses on how analytics and operations can improve healthcare delivery in resource-limited settings. As Associate Professor of Analytics & Operations at Imperial Business School, Dr Jónasson is keen to continue developing models that link operational decisions to patient outcomes and public health. His work spans emergency medical services, behavioural health interventions and global health delivery, with collaborations in the UK, Africa and beyond.

His work develops data-driven models to address the pressing operational challenges faced by health systems—from emergency medical services in urban centres to behavioural health interventions and community-based care in lower-income regions.

A defining feature of Dr Jónasson’s approach is his commitment to making research actionable. His collaborations with organisations such as the London Ambulance Service, Riders for Health in Malawi, Keheala in Kenya and the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Mozambique, demonstrate how carefully designed operations models can be translated into meaningful improvements on the ground.

This focus on impact is also evident in his scholarship. His research has been published in leading journals including Operations Research, Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and BMJ Global Health. Beyond publication, he contributes to shaping the field as an associate editor for Management Science and IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering.

Academic journey and recognition for research excellence

Dr Jónasson began his academic career in Europe, earning a BSc in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iceland before pursuing postgraduate study in the UK. He completed an MSc in Operational Research at the London School of Economics, an MPhil at the University of Cambridge, and both an MRes and a PhD in Management Science & Operations at London Business School.

Before joining Imperial, he spent nearly a decade at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management, where he rose from Assistant to Associate Professor of Operations Management. His time at MIT further cemented his reputation as a leader in the study of healthcare operations, while also giving him the opportunity to work closely with healthcare practitioners and global health organisations.

Dr Jónasson’s contributions have earned international recognition. He received the prestigious Bonder Scholarship for applied Operations Research in Health Services in 2014. His work has since been awarded the M&SOM Practice-Based Research Competition prize (2021) and the William Pierskalla award for best paper in Healthcare Management Science (2024). He has also been a finalist for the Sanjay and Panna Mehrotra Research Excellence Award (2021) and twice for the MSOM Society Award for Responsible Research (in 2019 and 2024). These honours underscore the impact of his research in advancing both rigorous scholarship and socially responsible practice.

Looking ahead at Imperial

At Imperial, Dr Jónasson is excited to continue building bridges between rigorous research and healthcare practice.

Reflecting on his move, he said: "I am thrilled to join Imperial Business School and to work alongside outstanding colleagues in Analytics and Operations. What makes this especially exciting for me is that few business schools in the world can match Imperial’s environment: a top technical university, an exceptional medical school and a leading school of public health. For someone working on health and healthcare, this combination—in my favourite city—is a rare and special opportunity.”

Dr Jónasson looks forward to advancing research that not only deepens academic understanding of healthcare operations but also creates lasting impact for healthcare provides policymakers, patients and communities worldwide.

Read about the new faculty joining the Business School

Explore our latest faculty appointments

Healthcare management and policy

Knowledge Categories

Marketing

Academic area

Analytics & Operations

Designing systems that build bridges between rigorous research and healthcare practice

Main image: Jónas Oddur Jónasson

3 minute read

Off

Jasmin Moshfegh on the economics of healthcare innovation

Shamita Harsh — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:14:02 +0000

Jasmin Moshfegh on the economics of healthcare innovation

Shamita Harsh Wed, 15/01/2025 - 12:14

More blogs

17 July 2026 Knowledge

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

15 July 2026 Knowledge

How to survive as an entrepreneur: insights from Steve Blank

6 July 2026 Knowledge

What business leaders can learn from the erosion of democracy

30 September 2025

Understanding how new medical technologies diffuse through health systems, especially including who gets access to them, is central to Dr Jasmin Moshfegh’s research. Joining Imperial Business School in 2025 as Assistant Professor of Economics & Public Policy, she brings a research agenda that sits at the intersection of health economics and healthcare innovation.

How precision medicine and health equity intersect

Her work examines the causes and consequences of healthcare innovation, with a focus on precision medicine, AI and assisted reproductive technologies. By combining quasi-experimental methods with large administrative datasets and cancer registries, she sheds light on how institutional and policy choices shape both efficiency and equity in healthcare delivery.

Her job market paper, supported by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), studies the adoption of genomic testing in breast cancer care—showing that while precision medicine can reduce unnecessary treatments, it may also exacerbate racial disparities.

Dr Moshfegh completed her PhD in Health Policy (Economics) at Stanford University, where she was also a T32 Fellow and R36 awardee from AHRQ. She went on to hold a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford, alongside appointments as a Fellow at the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Her research has been supported by grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the SIEPR George P. Shultz Fund and the Sweden-America Foundation.

Extending research into new frontiers

Dr Moshfegh studies the causes and consequences of healthcare innovation, with a particular focus on information technologies. She is extending her work to explore the impact of next-generation diabetes drugs in the US Veterans population and the role of AI tools in improving women’s health in India.

Reflecting on her move to London, she said: “What excites me most about joining Imperial is the opportunity to be part of a department and institution that sits at the intersection of cutting-edge research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and real-world impact. Imperial’s unique ecosystem brings these disciplines together in a way that few other places can.”

Read about the new faculty joining the Business School

Explore our latest faculty appointments

Healthcare management and policy

Knowledge Categories

Health

Academic area

Economics & Public Policy

Dr Moshfegh discusses how her research in precision medicine is aimed at reducing health inequalities

Main image: Jasmin Moshfegh

2 minute read

Off

Innovation

Imperial awards medals to Business School's Professor Lara Cathcart and Afrey Edes

Imperial awards medals to Business School's Professor Lara Cathcart and Afrey Edes

Exploring new frontiers at the Africa Innovates Conference 2026

Business School academic nominated for second term on UK's fiscal watchdog

Celebrating the Dean’s Community Award winners

Subscribe to our newsletter

Share

Outstanding contributions to finance education, operational excellence, and inclusive growth recognised

Book launch on Tencent and its rise to being a global tech giant

Book launch on Tencent and its rise to being a global tech giant

Exploring new frontiers at the Africa Innovates Conference 2026

Business School academic nominated for second term on UK's fiscal watchdog

Celebrating the Dean’s Community Award winners

Subscribe for research and events from the Business School

Share

Imperial Business School welcomed business leaders, academics and alumni for the launch of a new book offering a rare insight into how Chinese technology giant Tencent became one of the world's most innovative companies.

My Global Online MBA Capstone experience

My Global Online MBA Capstone experience

Real career advice from Imperial MBA alumni

The ultimate guide to choosing a part-time MBA at Imperial

Imperial’s Global Online MBA programme ranked second in the world by Financial Times

Pre-Capstone week

Day 1

Day 3

Day 5

Day 7

Discover our Global Online MBA

Request an MBA brochure

How to apply

Share

Why professional networks are vital to healthcare innovation

Why professional networks are vital to healthcare innovation

Spreading healthcare innovation

The key players

Share

Developing innovative healthcare practices is a big challenge, but getting doctors to adopt them once they exist is yet another barrier to improving patient healthcare.

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

More blogs

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

How to survive as an entrepreneur: insights from Steve Blank

What business leaders can learn from the erosion of democracy

Article at a glance

AI can now generate scientific hypotheses faster than traditional research systems can test them

Scientific progress still depends on verification: testing whether promising claims hold up against evidence, theory and domain expertise

AI-driven science will deliver on its promise only if we can test ideas as quickly and rigorously as we generate them

Ideas need proof

The age of abundant ideas

Science’s new bottleneck

Verification isn’t one-size-fits-all

Trust is the new competitive advantage

Discover insights by Dr Cory-Wright

Share

AI is making scientific ideas abundant. The hard part is knowing which ones to trust.

Opinion: “Good science” needs purpose, accountability and an explicit ethical stance

Opinion: “Good science” needs purpose, accountability and an explicit ethical stance

More blogs

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

How to survive as an entrepreneur: insights from Steve Blank

What business leaders can learn from the erosion of democracy

Science that harmed

A manifesto for socially responsible science

How ethical science is embedded in practice

Learn more about the Good Science Project

Share

Scientific research needs to extend beyond good intentions. This is my manifesto for socially responsible science – and why it is so desperately needed

Top 10 Business School articles that you should read before the year ends

Top 10 Business School articles that you should read before the year ends

More blogs

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

How to survive as an entrepreneur: insights from Steve Blank

What business leaders can learn from the erosion of democracy

Explore articles by Imperial Business School's academics

Share

From sustainable consumption to innovation in the biopharma sector, here are 10 of the most-read IB Knowledge think pieces that shaped our understanding of globally relevant research from Imperial this year

Why dreamers and realists are key to innovation, and how to bring them together

Why dreamers and realists are key to innovation, and how to bring them together

More blogs

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof