In 2024 we held a partner celebration event, to thank those who had come forward to be a part of the Talent & Skills Connect (T&SC) community. We hosted three provocations from the community on the day, to help shape the themes for T&SC, elicited through community based discussions. These provided the basis for the eight events Innovate UK has hosted over the past year.

The 2025 Partner Event aims to reflect and to look forward. The community should be driven through purpose and underpinned by the value of collection action. Understanding whether convening through the T&SC community is supporting progress is essential to this consideration.

Much has changed over the past 12 months, for Innovate UK – a new Executive Chair, and within our environment – the emergence of Skills England and the Industrial Strategy. The coming together of innovation, business and skills has never felt more tangible.

So we want to create conversations about how we are seeing skills priorities coming to the fore, how the UK’s mission of economic growth and the aligned success of innovation and technology is underpinned by our people and skills focus.

The afternoon will be focused on the T&SC community. With provocations from three sector bodies most closely aligned with innovation and technology, we will create a space where the community can prioritise efforts for the year ahead.