Heather Payne

I took Grant Hero on the (virtual) road again yesterday with a webinar on Innovate UK grants for Sheffield Technology Parks - I was delighted to meet and reconnect with some great founders and tell them about: 1. Ensuring they are eligible and how to scope grant proposals effectively 2. How to leverage AI for grant writing 3. Tips for boosting success Thanks again for attending Rose Tran MBA Luisa Maria Bautista de Deus Ponces de Carvalho Sirinda Bhandal Nicola Towse James Battersby and many more! 🚀

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🎯 Funding Opportunity Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme supports collaborative innovation projects by linking UK businesses with universities, research and technology organisations or Catapults to embed new knowledge and skills within the business. 💰 Funding Up to £10,000,000 is available in total. Projects run between 12 and 36 months with a portion of eligible costs covered through the grant. ⏰ Deadline Applications close at 11:00am UK time on 1 April 2026. 👥 Who can apply UK registered academic institutions, research and technology organisations or Catapults can lead bids in partnership with UK registered businesses, public sector or not for profit partners with two or more full time employees. 🛠 Support This funding aims to help businesses accelerate innovation by bringing in specialist knowledge and embedding it through structured projects that deliver real value and build capability. https://lnkd.in/eN5EgNfU #InnovationFunding #KnowledgeTransfer #CollaborativeResearch #UKRI #BusinessGrowth #GrantSupport #TechnologyDevelopment

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Don't just chase grants... Some fantastic advice from Rachel Fletcher in our recent interview. Watch the full video to find out the full detail, but the short version is that the grant provider will always be looking for an outcome and that might not align with the direction you want your business to go. That being said, if the outcomes do marry up with your vision then they are a fantastic way to inject some cash and grow your business. You can find an invaluable grant finding resource on the FCS Associates Ltd website here: https://lnkd.in/e6RQ2KQ6 and Rachel sends out a regular grant bulletin that you can subscribe to here: https://lnkd.in/eMwKNfkB Don't forget, the Barnsley StartUp MeetUp will return in September so if you're missing your fix then head over to the YouTube channel and brush up on some of the awesome guests I've interviewed: https://lnkd.in/dygNzNg5 Enterprising Barnsley Barnsley Council South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority South Yorkshire Incubator and Accelerator Network Sheffield Digital TECH SY DMC

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New Resource for #SMEs: #AI & #Governance #Playbook Proud to share the SME AI & Governance Playbook, developed through Innovate UK–funded Black Country Innovation Services, designed to help SMEs adopt AI responsibly, ethically, and with confidence. This practical playbook supports business leaders to: ✅ Set a clear AI vision and strategy ✅ Build strong data and cybersecurity foundations ✅ Implement ethical and responsible AI practices ✅ Align with UK standards, including ISO/IEC 42001, ICO guidance, and the UK AI Playbook ✅ Measure impact, ROI, and governance maturity SME-AI-and-Governance-Playbook … attached below. 👏 Credits & Contributors This work was made possible through collaboration with: Conrad Taylor – Head of Business Learning Technology, City of Wolverhampton College Wumi Loye – Founder, AI Governance Hub Dr. Will Percy – Executive Vice President, Team Optix Sania Salman – Innovate Support Advisor, City of Wolverhampton College Dr Sage Lal – Innovate Consultant, Black Country Innovation Services With thanks to Innovate UK, City of Wolverhampton College, Black Country Innovation Services, AI Governance Hub (Trading as LoyAI Ltd), and TeamOptix , Harold Mututa Rosie Peacock for their continued support of responsible innovation. If you’re an SME exploring AI adoption and governance, this playbook is a practical place to start. #InnovateUK #BCIS #ResponsibleAI #AIGovernance #SMEs #DigitalTransformation #EthicalAI

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Building AI Literacy for Future-Ready Firms - Innovate UK and the ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), in partnership with Whitecap Consulting are proud to present the Practical Innovation Guide to Responsible Innovation, part of our ongoing Next Generation Professional and Financial Services programme. This guide demystifies artificial intelligence (AI) for the Financial, Professional and Business Services (FPBS) sector, explaining key terms, practical use cases, and considerations around data readiness, security, and ethics. Designed for senior decision-makers and practitioners alike, it encourages firms to start small with AI while building long-term strategies for adoption and talent development. Join us in Manchester on Tuesday 25 November to continue the conversation at the AI Literacy workshop, and take the first step towards harnessing AI for your organisation. 👉 Register now https://ow.ly/QTb550XmoS4 #AILiteracy #ArtificialIntelligence #AIForBusiness #ResponsibleAI #Innovation #ProfessionalServices #FinancialServices #NextGenPFS #InnovateUK #ESRC #UKWorkshops

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What actually breaks transformation programmes, technology or fragmentation? Three legacy systems. Zero single source of truth. One transformation programme to fix it. We led the mobilisation phase for a major public sector transformation replacing three legacy systems that had operated independently for years. The challenge was not technical complexity. It was operational fragmentation. Data existed in multiple places with no master version. Teams worked in silos using different methodologies. Deployment frequency was constrained by lack of data led insights. Enterprise data architecture suffered because nobody owned the complete picture. Here's what we actually did, 1. Established integrated project teams pairing our experts with client resources. 2. Teams worked together to build capability that stays after we finished. 3. Conducted workshops and hands on sessions on Agile data management. 4. Implemented master data management processes and data governance tools. 5. Created insights dashboards that gave visibility into what was actually happening. 6. Introduced KPI monitoring and feedback mechanisms so teams could see impact. 7. Delivered comprehensive training through train the trainer programmes. As a result, → 60 percent improvement in data team Agile development competency. → 40 percent increase in deployment frequency. → Pool of master trainers created who can upskill new joiners. → Single source of truth for data established across previously siloed systems. → Culture of continuous learning fostered instead of reliance on external expertise. The insight most organisations miss. Transformation fails when it treats capability building as separate from delivery. The best programmes are the ones where external specialists work alongside internal teams, not instead of them. Where knowledge transfer is designed in from day one, not added as an afterthought when contracts end. The work is not finished when systems go live. It is finished when the organisation can run, improve, and evolve those systems without external dependency. How much of your transformation budget goes to building internal capability versus buying external delivery?

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For anyone who is interested in how data, responsible AI and agentic solutions can transform the public sector, from NHS Trusts, to central and local government, to the intelligence services, this white paper provides the answers. And in a time where the public purse is under such strain, these actions could save £billions of tax payers money. #databricks Unifeye #agentbricks #responsibleAI

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AI for Services 2025: Unlocking Future Innovation Opportunities in UK Professional & Financial Services | prepared by Whitecap Consulting in collaboration with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council This report presents a strategic roadmap for harnessing artificial intelligence to drive innovation, #competitiveness, and #productivity in #theUnitedKingdom’s professional and #financialservicessectors. Developed through the Next Generation Professional & Financial Services Programme, and backed by Whitecap Consulting, UKRI, and ESRC, the study evaluates the sector’s readiness to adopt #AI, the #opportunities it presents, and the systemic barriers that must be addressed to fully leverage its transformative potential. The report identifies that AI adoption across the UK’s £240 billion professional and financial services sector is uneven but accelerating. Surveying over 500 #firms, it finds that while 63% of large institutions have implemented #AI solutions for #riskmanagement, #compliance, or #customerservice, only 28% of #SMEs report active experimentation—highlighting a stark innovation gap. Key areas of opportunity include automated document processing, algorithmic compliance monitoring, real-time #frauddetection, and the augmentation of professional advisory roles. The report also projects that targeted AI adoption could unlock up to £20 billion in productivity gains over the next decade, contingent on strategic investment in digital infrastructure, workforce upskilling, and ethical governance. Importantly, the analysis reveals a growing consensus around the need for sector-specific AI standards and collaborative ecosystems to foster trust and interoperability. In conclusion, AI for Services 2025 frames #artificialintelligence not simply as a technological tool, but as a foundational enabler of long-term resilience and global competitiveness for the UK’s knowledge-intensive service economy. The report calls for coordinated policy action, increased public-private R\&D investment, and a sector-wide commitment to inclusive innovation to ensure that AI capabilities are diffused equitably and responsibly across all segments of the professional and #financialservices landscape.

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Today NHS Providers and Public Digital have published this guide on mastering supplier relationships for a digital NHS. There are some really important messages in here, particularly around understanding your entire supply chain so you can manage risks (such as cyber security) and opportunities. It’s essential that every organisation develops and maintains a robust contracts register, so that you know what you’ve bought, the value and when they expire. This helps you think strategically about how you procure and manage your suppliers. But an often forgotten part of these registers is the need to understand and think about the total cost of ownership - that includes not just the cost of the contract itself, but the cost of exiting and moving to another supplier. The cost of exiting a contract is essential to understanding the risk of a supplier and lets you plan in advance how you will manage that relationship. When developing your approach to managing suppliers, it’s also important to think about why you’re doing something - not everything should be treated the same. The types of procurement hoops you want to go through for experimentation, trials or R&D should be very different from something that is more long term and business critical. For experimentation and innovation it’s essential to simplify procurement, reduce the barriers for SMEs, and make it easy to purchase tech and services as quickly as possible. All of this means that procurement and supplier management isn’t just an operational detail - it needs board-level priority. We need to integrate these skills into our digital teams and invest in horizon scanning for new opportunities.

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This is a brilliant article on why shizl, BrightHR and SeedLegals are essential, cost effective tools enabling SMEs to avoid the pitfalls of business. https://lnkd.in/e9gE6q4Q

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It’s not often we hear that the public sector is ahead of private but Tom points out a clear example. Buying the technology isn’t enough - companies needs to invest in the right scaffolding to make it efficient.

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📢 IGS Transform: Delivering meaningful change across UK Government 📢 IGS Transform works with public sector organisations to deliver high-impact transformation-combining strategy, service design, and hands-on delivery. Our recent work has included: · Designing digital operating models to support new ways of working · Creating enterprise-wide reporting strategies and implementation roadmaps · Leading business readiness and transition planning across multi-year programmes · Developing prioritised transformation portfolios with clear governance and benefits tracking · Embedding service design capability and delivery assurance within internal teams We build momentum where it matters-on the ground, with stakeholders, and through delivery. 𝗜𝗚𝗦 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀. 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.𝘤𝘰.𝘶𝘬 #Transformation #IGSTransform #DigitalDelivery #ServiceDesign #GovernmentConsulting #PublicSectorChange #StrategyToExecution #DDaT Matteo D'Anna Dan Gunn Georgie Williamson Matthew Pope Jon Hurry

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Young Minds, Big Future: Children and AI in the UK The Alan Turing Institute’s latest research with children, parents, and teachers shows how generative AI is already shaping young lives. Nearly 1,800 participants shared their views. The study investigates children’s experiences and perceptions of tools like ChatGPT, raising concerns about misinformation, environmental impact, fairness, and eagerness to be involved in shaping the future of AI. Here are 6 key takeaways: 1️⃣ Early adoption is real – 1 in 4 children aged 8–12 have used generative AI, mostly ChatGPT. 2️⃣ Digital divide is widening – 52% of private school students use AI vs only 18% in state schools. 3️⃣ Special needs support – children with additional learning needs use AI more often to communicate, learn, and express themselves. 4️⃣ Mixed teacher views – 85% of teachers say AI boosts their productivity, but 72% worry it harms critical thinking in students. 5️⃣ Bias and fairness – children of colour often feel under-represented in AI outputs, highlighting the need for inclusive design. 6️⃣ Environmental concern – children worry about the energy and water costs of AI, asking for greener technology. The report reminds us that generative AI is no longer on the sidelines, it is becoming part of children’s daily lives and classrooms. Thriving UK youth will depend on equal access, strong AI literacy, and ethical design. Now is the time to guide, educate, and empower them. #FutureSkills #AILiteracy #GenAI #AIForEducation #EdTechUK #UpskillingYouth #atomcampUK https://lnkd.in/d6CsE_Ni

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The Horizon scandal continues to unfold, with a recent article from BBC highlighting the significant efforts made by Fujitsu to address data issues. Despite the scale of these efforts, only one team member has stepped forward to share their account. This situation should be raising important questions about Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and their role in restricting evidence being brought forward in cases like these. The UK desperately needs to consider what types of information these agreements should safeguard, versus what types of information should be shared more transparently in order to combat challenges related to accountability. #NDAs

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Despite a busier-than-usual summer, the UK’s professional services sector has lapsed back into its long-term slump in the autumn. New data from the sector suggests the sector saw no output growth over the period, amid the uncertainty around the budget.

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In our latest Conversation with an Expert, we explore how to Avoid Pipeline Failure - Project to BAU and Hypercare I talk with Margaret Gilbert,Digital Program Manager and Carolyn Walker, Principal Consultant ITSM & Digital Transformation in this informative session now on the YouTube Channel. Poor planning for project handover to BAU can be the Silent Killer of Project Success What does a good Handover to BAU look like? In this session we discuss how to make sure that Go Live, Hypercare and BAU go well as a big tech program finishes up ... how to plan for that, how to prep for that, how to make it happen better next time. What PMs should do to make everyone’s life easier post Go Live. ——————————————————————————————————————— In this session we cover some of the following concepts * The hidden cost of poor Handover to BAU in terms of Project value erosion, operational chaos and what we can do to prevent failure * Why "Launch and Leave" is a recipe for disaster * The surprising truth: Many projects fail to achieve: because of sustained positive impact or positive return on Investment post-Go Live * At the start of the Program (what is HyperCare and Service Management) * What Does Operational Support Team Members Do? * During User Acceptance Testing * During HyperCare Planning * During HyperCare * During Post Implementation Review * Service Design and Service Transition Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to the Project Manager Clinic YouTube Channel whilst you are there and; Have a Great Project Day! https://lnkd.in/g8fgkCMc #hypercarexperience #businessasusual #hypercarexperience #mentor #projectplanning #projectmanagement

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Exciting development - this new Frameworks module from Tracker Intelligence will be a real game-changer for suppliers looking to secure long-term public sector opportunities. Definitely worth registering early: https://lnkd.in/eNEwhBWy

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This is a fantastic course for aspiring digital leaders in the NHS. I would highly recommend applying if you want to further your thinking, especially if you are involved in delivering the 10 year plan.

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