Over the past weeks and months, the coronavirus pandemic has clearly highlighted the great advantages of better collaboration and cooperation across disciplines in the knowledge economy. Reports about companies in tech, medicine and life science sectors and world-leading universities making a collaborative effort to generate innovative responses to Covid-19 abound. 

 

Many of the most high-profile innovations have emerged from researchers and companies in and around London, Oxford and Cambridge – three points of an area in southern England also known as ‘The Golden Triangle’. The area in question is the focus of NLA’s upcoming report, which looks at projects in the built environment that are supporting the knowledge economy in knowledge clusters across the UK. 

 

The remarkable speed at which we have seen innovative new products and services generated by the changing demands of the situation has been astounding. AI company DeepMind’s release of data predictions to support the scientific community’s research into the effects of coronavirus, the NHS-approved collaboration between Mercedes F1 and UCL to create breathing aids and the British Library collaboration with The Francis Crick Institute and University College London Hospitals (UCLH) to provide a drive-through testing service in the staff car park, in central London, are just three examples. The Covid-19 crisis has catalysed collaboration across disciplines and the wider region highlighting the interconnections already established. 

 

As part of NLA's  insight study ‘Knowledge Networks: London and the Ox-Cam Arc’, launching in June, we are highlighting stories of collaborations which have arisen over the past weeks and months, in response to the crisis, through our digital channels. If you, or someone you know, has been working on one of these inspiring initiatives and would like to be included, please send your stories to ilaria.vignolo@newlondonarchitecture.org - we look forward to receiving them.

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