It's Time to Build... in Government

​The Society for Technological Advancement (SOTA) and Civic Future are partnering for a panel discussion on building in government.

​Our panellists will share stories and strategies from advancing techno-scientific progress during government service. They have successfully navigated bureaucracies, built up essential state capacity in science & technology, and launched ground-breaking new organisations:

• ​Rob Murray - NATO's first Head of Innovation, conceptualising and leading negotiations for DIANA (deeptech accelerator) and the NATO Innovation Fund (the world's first multi-sovereign VC fund).

• ​James Phillips - former Special Advisor to the UK Prime Minister for Science & Technology, co-creating the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) and publishing the first model of rapid testing during Covid.

• ​Nitarshan Rajkumar - former Senior Policy Adviser to the UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, co-creating the AI Safety Institute (AISI), the AI Safety Summit, and the UK's supercomputing programme.

• ​Moderated by Munira Mirza - CEO of Civic Future, former Head of the No 10 Policy Unit, and former Deputy Mayor of London.

​The panel will be followed by drinks, where SOTA's and Civic Future's communities can discuss building in government to position the UK for the 21st & 22nd centuries, and promoting system-level optimism about the opportunities generated by technological innovation.