Follow Innovate UK KTN on the latest Global Expert Mission in Next Generation Services to Canada

Prior to the pandemic, Canada was the third-largest investor in legal tech ($107m) after the US and Europe. Cities such as Toronto are investing in legal tech with accelerators; a new law school (Ryerson) with a focus on innovation; a generally tech-intensive regional economy; and the presence of several legal tech companies. Ottawa, being the administrative centre, has a strong professional services sector and federal funding agencies, most notably the Pan Canadian AI Strategy that is delivered through CIFAR.

In July 2021, Innovate UK KTN delivered a Global Scoping Workshop (GSW) bringing together UK experts from regulatory bodies, industry, policy, and academia in the sector, to capture their knowledge of the international landscape and understand better their needs, to help prioritise countries of focus and type of activities to undertake. The outputs from the session confirmed the appetite to collaborate with the East Coast of Canada, based on the positive experiences of previous engagements and the opportunity to partner with companies leading in professional services innovation.

As a result, Innovate UK, ESRC and Innovate UK KTN will deliver an in-person Global Expert Mission (GEM) in March 2022, funded through the Next Generation Services Challenge, whereby a group of UK experts will meet private and public sector organisations in Canada to better understand the professional services innovation landscape and help benchmark against UK capability. The GEM will focus on the legal and accountancy sectors and cover a variety of thematic areas, including task automation, data access, AI ethics and business model innovation. The primary outcome of the GEM will be to provide evidence to support private/public funding in the UK and to explore opportunities for the UK to collaborate with the best Canadian organisations and companies.

The team are looking forward to expanding international collaborations and will report back next month! Follow us on Twitter @KTN_Global and #nextgenservices.

The Global Expert Missions (GEM) programme is funded by Innovate UK to support the Industrial Strategy’s ambition for the UK to be the international partner of choice for science and innovation. Led by Innovate UK KTN, GEMs play an important role in building strategic partnerships, providing deep insight into the opportunities for UK innovation and shaping future bilateral collaboration programmes.