Manchester you have done a brilliant job! Jeremy Klein, Chair of RADMA, said as he thanked the organisers of the R&D Management Conference 2026 and congratulated them on a job well done.
He drew parallels between the air of confidence and vibrancy in the conference and that of the region.
As the conference started news broke that Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, is on the road to becoming prime minister of the UK. This follows his success in priming an economic revival in the region.
Manchester is the home of the industrial revolution and the keynotes focussed on the role of advanced manufacturing as the route to prosperity, a discussion of Manchester Fashion Week as a celebration of making and the importance of human intent in directing technological innovation.
Jeremy also reflected that one of the keynote speakers Peter Gallagher, of Unilever, talked of the creative tension between coordination and autonomy and how that was a unique feature of the R&D Management Conference, which gives the host freedom to curate the content within supportive guidelines.
He concluded that the team’s confidence and eye for detail had given the conference its distinctive personality and the outcome was impressive.
Best papers
Conference Chair, Silvia Massini, of the Alliance Manchester Business School announced the best track papers, the best conference paper and the best PhD conference paper.
Best conference paper
Does Promity to academic research improve carbon abatement performance? Evidence from Italian EU ETS installations – Andrea Flori and Giovanni Marin
Best PhD paper
When are novel designs worth protecting? Design, novelty and patent lifespan in China – Yuewen Wang, Cristian Mejia, Yuga Kajikawa, Jianwei Dang.
See you in Amsterdam for #RND2027
Sven Schimpf, director of the R&D Management Conference, took the stage to announce that next year’s conference is to be held in Amsterdam, hosted by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
The theme is to be: “R&D for Society: Accelerating Science, Technology and Social Systems for Global Impact”
The Amsterdam team will include:
- Professor Bart Bossink, Faculty of Science, VU
- Professor Ard-Pieter de Man, School of Business and Economics, VU
- Dr Sandra Hasanefendic, Faculty of Science, VU
- Professor Meike Bartels, Faculty of Behavioral and Movement Sciences, VU
