Hottest conference underlines need to accelerate innovation
The R&D Management Conference 2025 in Pisa – brought together around 500 participants from across the globe.
“It has been the hottest conference on record,” said Jeremy Klein, Chair of RADMA on the last day, “Both in temperature – it reached 38 degrees – and for the topic, which are unfortunately related.
“Innovation & Biodiversity was a challenging theme, but the organisers have successfully created a coherent programme with excellent keynotes and an industry panel. I would like to thank Andrea, Valentina, Giulio, Filippo and all those in the wider team for their work in putting together a brilliant conference and a special mention to Giovanni for his work on the colloquium.
“The keynotes and papers have been of high quality and the hospitality and social program has been fantastic.”
Big thank you to outgoing Conference Chair Andrea Piccaluga
“Andrea has been the conference director for four conferences – Trento, Saville, Stockholm and Pisa – and he is now stepping down from this challenging position. It has been a pleasure working with him and he leaves the conference in a strong position,” continued Jeremy.
“I am pleased to introduce Sven Schimpf – from the Fraunhofer in Germany as the next Conference Director, we are delighted to have him on board. The next few events have already been agreed and I look forward to seeing you all again at #RND2026!”
Awards for best papers
The diversity and quality of the papers and presentations excelled this year. There are a record number of Special Issues in preparation that will draw on content from the conference.
The Best Paper Award went to Mert Merde, Dirk Schneckenberg and Hamid Mazloomi for their paper “Evaluating internal corporate venture ideas: strategic relatedness, feasibility and novelty.”
Mert is pictured receiving the award on behalf of the team from (left to right) Paavo Ritala and Aberto Di Minin Co-Editors in Chief R&D Management Journal and Jeremy Klein, Chair of RADMA.
Save the date!
Sven Schimpf of Fraunhofer, Germany is to be the next R&D Management Conference director and plans are already underway for the next events, which will be:
R&D Management 2026: “Creativity and resilience in an era of technological disruption” – conference 22-24 June 2026 (University of Manchester) and the doctoral colloquium 20-21 June 2026 (Alliance Manchester Business School)
R&D Management Workshop 2026: “The future of R&D management in the era of AI” – workshop 29-30 May 2026, Seoul, Korea.
