Seven from Seven: Coronavirus Tech and Industrial Decarbonisation

19th March 2021

Each week, we scour the worlds of innovation, tech for good and social impact to bring you seven of our top stories…

  1. This week, the UK Government confirmed the creation of a new Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy to align manufacturing and construction efforts to the national net-zero target, funnelling more than £1bn into industry, schools, and hospitals.
  2. Chief Programmes Officer at Nesta, Elspeth Kirkman, examines how we can harness the potential of people and data to transform community pharmacies, for example by drawing insights from prescription data to improve health outcomes.
  3. Raconteur explores how carbon dioxide is being reconsidered by scientists as the raw material from which to make fuels and plastics.
  4. The New York Times investigates artificial intelligence technology, the areas where it can prove helpful, and where it falls short of expectations – it is not, contrary to popular belief, a “magic potion”, especially as it can generate biased misinformation on a huge scale.
  5. According to one US nanotech company, compact chips that emit ultraviolet light could safely neutralise airborne coronavirus in buildings, vehicles, and even outdoor spaces.
  6. The Mayor’s Resilience Fund, a £1 million innovation programme set up to create solutions to ten challenges faced by the capital, is calling on innovators to help London to bounce back stronger, from producing renewable energy, to supporting gig workers’ financial planning.
  7. In an extract from his new book, Bill Gates lays out his plan to avoid a climate disaster, from achieving net zero, the need to create and make use of breakthrough technologies, as well as the role of governments, big companies, citizens, consumers, employees, and employers.

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