Regulations: Constraints or Enablers?

In April Professor David Wield was invited to provide a keynote presentation at the 4th Annual Open Innovation Conference held by Shannon ABC, the research centre and Irish technology gateway for biotechnology.

In his address, Regulations as Constraints or Enablers: Can Regulations Drive (Open) Innovation, Professor Wield argued that the blockbuster pharma drug discovery model is closer to a theatrical performance of life science innovation than a description of reality. One that is good neither at picturing the realities of the constantly changing life sciences sectors, nor describing the changes that have taken place recently as more open innovation approaches have become embedded. The model’s complex and multi-layered national and international regulatory systems, however, continue to cast an enormous shadow over the ways regulations evolve and are applied.

The presentation closed by assessing to what extent the emergence of open innovation practices could offer lessons to regulatory systems becoming smarter, and thus enabling and driving – rather than constraining – innovation, by describing some novel approaches and research results from the ESRC Innogen Centre, of which he is director.

Professor Wield also presented the prize to the winner of the doctoral student poster competition, Mr Martin Hayes. This year, to tie in with the conference theme, posters were presented as ‘potential technology offerings’ rather than in the standard format.