Are You Prepared to Innovate?

R&D Today – sharing ideas, good practice and innovation in R&D management and innovation leadership

We have found the Pentathlon provides a useful framework for discussion – click through to explore further.

Latest News

RADMA travel grants help scholars make the squad #RND2026

We are on our way to Manchester.

R&D Management Conference programme launched

Sven Schimpf says this year’s programme reflects contemporary trends in R&D and innovation and the call for tracks received more responses than expected. “The format of the conference, which incorporates a colloquium for PhD students, has continuously evolved during the last years and has gained a remarkable state of maturity,” he says.

Creativity paradox – why innovation fails between idea and execution

Creativity needs openness, curiosity and time to explore. Execution needs focus, evidence and control. If we only protect creativity, we get dispersion. And if we only protect control, we kill learning too early. This tension, Abdelmoula El Hadi, Group Head of Innovation at Knauf Insulation, describes as the Creativity Paradox and he shares his actionable insights.

AI for R&D and Innovation Research – A Professional Development Workshop at #RND2026

AI-based methods are widely used for R&D Management studies – with over 50 publications in 2024-25. Here is an opportunity to gain invaluable new skills in this rapid evolving area. Join an interactive workshop at the R&D Management Conference.

Surviving and thriving in the flux world

We are living in a flux world, observed Andy Neely at Rethinking Innovation 2026, describing the perception that instability, transformation, and uncertainty are now a constant rather than extreme events.

Surveillance capitalism – how Big Tech bros govern their own turfs

By becoming regulators of their ecosystems, and effectively running the business relationships, data exchanges, and transactions, platform firms are acting as private governors with the power to create their own domains or ‘turfs’. Annabelle Gawer explores how the process of digitalisation has led to the economy-wide redesign of value creation, delivery, and capture processes.

Arts-Based Initiatives, Creativity and Innovation

Ignite your imagination and boost your creativity – #RND 2026

This experiential workshop at the R&D Management Conference 2026 complements the paper session “Arts-Based Initiatives, Creativity and Innovation” (track 1.4). It offers all conference participants a creative exploration of how artistic practices foster innovation in times of disruption.

How the AI transformation is driving change in the automotive industry

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping how vehicles are designed, manufactured, validated, operated, and maintained. Pranjal Saikia, Head of the Vehicle Component Solution Department at LG Soft India, describes the digital transformation at this pioneering automotive company.

Are we under valuing success in R&D projects

The value of people in the success of R&D projects

50 percent of software projects fail to meet their original objectives - but does this mean they were unsuccesful? Valerie Lynch, argues that through agile working, the engineering team can often make the impossible, possible. And yet success is often judged on whether estimates were correct, rather that what they achieved within the time and budget.

Innovation Culture Framework and the launch of Artemis II

From practice to theory: The birth of the Innovation Culture Framework 4/4

NASA is watching the weather forecast for Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was "80 per cent go" for the launch of Artemis II this week. The Johnson Space Center’s (JSC) has become a real-world laboratory for understanding how culture drives innovation in complex technical organizations. The Innovation Culture Framework enables these lessons to be shared with all progressive organisations.

Human v’s AI vision of the future – creative workshop explores arts-based initiatives and innovation

Arts-based initiatives can enhance innovation by stimulating perception, imagination, and transformation. The humanoid robot character C-3P0 first appeared in the Star Wars in 1976, many years before droids became a reality. Creative writing can give insights into future technologies.

UK Innovation Report 2026 from Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy IfM

UK Innovation Report 2026 calls for focus on sectors that can scale, export and compete globally

A dramatic restructuring of the global economy requires a UK innovation strategy that is focussed on increasing the competitive advantage within sectors, Lord David Sainsbury observed at the launch of the UK Innovation Report 2026. The report, produced by Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy group puts the UK performance into an international context.

Special Focus

The People Factor

How can I motivate my R&D team? What is the best leadership approach? What makes a successful Innovation Culture? Over the coming months, we will be exploring the People Factor in a special focus – click here to read case-studies from industry practitioners and findings from the latest research.

A special focus on an aspect of R&D Management, highlighted as an area of interest by our community of practitioners and scholars.

Innovation for a Sustainable Future

The big transition to a low-carbon economy will come as leaders see that innovation, focussed on increasing sustainability, also offers competitive advantage and increased efficiency. With this change in the narrative, disruptive technologies will emerge as game changers.

How to measure the value created by innovation

How do you measure value when innovation is an early stage, and has not yet produced products or services that can be monetarised?

Introducing RADMA Scholars

R&D Today is the outreach site for RADMA, the Research and Development Management Association, a charitable organisation that supports research, best practice and innovation. www.radma.net

Loading...

Roman Schumacher

Sara Hajnassiri

Leon Pietschmann

Nopparuj Chindasombatcharoen

R&D Conference Tracks

R&D and Innovation Management is a dynamic field. The conference aims to capture the current interests of researchers and practitioners, curated into a number of tracks.

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Innovation Ecosystems and platforms

With the growth of digital platforms the need for Entrepreneurial Ecosystems to be geographically co-located has become less crucial. This is creating the opportunity for looser, more dispersed innovation ecosystems.

Business model innovation

Business model innovation is vital to the future sustainability of organisations and firms. With digitalization, electrification, and the circular economy, among the factors reshaping the ways industries operate, adapt, and innovate, necessitating novel business models.

Intellectual Property Rights

Around 90 per cent of the value of modern-day companies is determined by their intangible assets, which includes Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), such as patents, copyrights, trademarks and design rights. Formal and informal leverages can be used to create and protect value.

Innovation Leadership

Although inherently risky, innovation management has an underlying body of knowledge, tools and approaches that can be widely applied. Here is an introduction to some of these concepts.

Innovation Manager job description

The innovation management professional job role is broad. It encompasses both strategic and operational elements. These elements can be combined into a single role, or divided into separate roles. Innovationsledarna has created this useful job description that can be used as a guide to assembling one’s own job description or to create a new role as appropriate.

Best books for innovation management?

There are many inspirational books for R&D management practitioners and scholars. Here is a short list of some of the best books for innovation management.

Must read papers on aspects of R&D Management

Want to know about R&D Management but too busy to read all the journals? The editors for R&D Today have each selected a journal and have made a selection of the most interesting papers of recent years.

Are these the best tools for R&D Management?

There are many excellent tools and techniques for R&D management, but all too often people re-invent the wheel as knowledge of these gems is not shared. Here are some of the tools that RADMA trustees and contributors to R&D Today have found useful, but we are keen to know what has been missed or what others think of these tools.

Eight principles of Innovation Management

Which of the eight principles of Innovation Management do you think is most important? Victoria Milne and Joanne Hyland discuss how the framework is universally applicable but can be customised as required.

R&D Project Exchange

The R&D Project Exchange offers a unique platform for collaboration between university students and companies. This initiative invites students and businesses to co-develop research proposals, ensuring a balanced approach that addresses both academic objectives and real-world industry challenges.

The innovation disconnect

There is a disconnect between R&D spend and performance, says Professor Magnus Karlsson. Ahead of the launch of the international standard ISO 56000 he explains that the purpose of an Innovation Management System is to improve an organisation’s ability to realise value under conditions of uncertainty.

Is it time to professionalise Innovation Management?

The challenge of how Innovation Management can gain the recognition it deserves stimulated a lively discussion in our webinar “Is it time to professionalise Innovation Management”. If you missed the webinar – you can watch the presentations from our two speakers and listen to the full discussion via a podcast on Soundcloud.

Innovation Management System ISO 56002:2019

Innovation is the driving force for companies to stay relevant in the market, observes the guidance for ISO 56002:2019 Innovation management system.

Special Features