The Foundation Industry Forum, organised by TransFIRe, is currently looking for sponsorship for its second annual event.

Last year, the event attracted over 150 online attendees and this year we will build on this success by holding the event in-person to facilitate networking and critical discussion.

You can see a recording of the 2022 event here – transfire-hub.org/eventrecordings

This year’s Forum will bring together a range of academics, industry partners, government funders and interested parties to share insights and learning across Foundation Industries to support progression towards transformation.

Monday 16 October

12.00  Registration Lunch and Networking

13.00  Welcome and Introduction

13.30  The Challenge Landscape: The Foundation Industries (FI) and Beyond

An informative session about the current and future FI landscape

This sessions will cover:

      • What is the FI landscape looking like?
      • Main areas of activities
      • What can we learn from this?

14.30  Break

15.00  Panel Discussion: How can the foundation industries attract funding for innovation?

Transforming our foundation industries (cement, ceramics, chemicals, glass, metals and paper) with new, technology-focused and circular business models require access to finance. Foundation industries (FIs) are capital extensive making it difficult to compete with new plants from the developing world. Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) find it even harder to access the funding they need to thrive and succeed.

Banks and investor partners are keen to support innovations that meet the growing demand for more sustainable products in the sector. In this panel discussion, we bring together business, banks, investment funds and others to explore the theme ‘Access to funding and finance for the FIs’.

  • What are the existing investment/funding opportunities for foundation industries?
  • How can we make foundation industries more attractive to investors?
  • How can we mobilise financial resources for foundation industries to accelerate transformative change?

Come and find out how your business can benefit from these opportunities.

On the panel, we have:

 

16.00  Comfort break

16.10  Identifying Industrial Symbiosis 

The aim of this session is to identify opportunities for industrial symbiosis and new business opportunities for participants’ waste resources.

Facilitated by International Synergies.

17.10  Networking and drinks reception

18.10  Close

 

Tuesday 17 October

09.00  Registration and coffee

09.30  Welcome and introduction

09.40  Right People for Future Technologies 

Reflections and development on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) within the Foundation Industries and the progress being made by Transfire in 2022.  This is an opportunity to share transformation in practice.

  • Where/why we started EDI Working Group
  • What happened in 2022 forum - the discussions and outputs
  • Overview what we have done - summary of activities and insights

How do we get the right people for the future? Discussion

Sharing Insights and Identifying Future ED&I Priorities

10.30  Industrial Transformation: technologies and change

This session will explore examples of the different technologies that are being adopted, adapted or considered by the Foundation Industries.

- We will hear from people sharing their examples of successful transformational change

- There will be a group activity and discussion around current and future technologies being explored or implemented in your business (or that you have insights into)

- There will be an exploration of what helps or hinders the adoption of new technologies in your organisation

11.30  Break

12.00  What are our opportunities for innovation?

This session will tackle the innovations and changes that will need to happen for technological transformation in the context of the challenges of reaching Net Zero, creating sustainable/resilient supply chains and making sure foundation industries in the UK are viable.  We will discuss and share some of the challenges that need to be addressed and identify those that need to be prioritised for action.

These discussions will help you and the TransFIRe team to better understand the future challenge agenda. All the challenges suggested will be written up by our team in the summary and you will choose which of the challenges you want to focus on in the afternoon session.

13.00  Lunch and networking

14.00  Challenge forum: Creating future transformations

A series of conversations to collaboratively develop potential pathways that might help us to move forward in core areas such as recruitment, retention, management of our people and innovation processes.

What might some of the steps to get us from here to the future goal?

14.50  Break

15.20  Opportunities and solutions for monetisation in the wider-eco system 

Foundation Industries are based in communities and have resources that could be of benefit to others in the area. We want in this session to inspire you to explore possibilities and options for monetisation of your site's eco-system. We are going to share some examples with you to show what we mean about ecosystems and monetisation options, and then give you the opportunity to be consultants and advise our imaginary scenario companies about what options they might want to explore.

16.20  Wrap up summary

16.30  Close

Registration for this event is now closed.

Please contact Joanna Johnson if you have any queries.

 

Local hotels

Please see below for some suggestions of hotel accommodation in the local area - we bear no responsibility for bookings or quality of accommodation.

Novotel Leeds Centre - http://bit.ly/3Z3ZTFa
(5 mins walk to Cloth Hall Court)

Premier Inn Leeds City Centre (Whitehall Road) - http://bit.ly/40tBSbD
(6 mins walk to Cloth Hall Court)

Radisson Blu Hotel – Leeds City Centre - https://www.booking.com/Share-922697
(6 mins walk to Cloth Hall Court )

Leeds Marriot Hotel - http://bit.ly/3z5wmAc
(6 mins walk to Cloth Hall Court )

Ibis Styles Leeds City Centre Arena - http://bit.ly/3Y2Lt8s
(12 mins walk to Cloth Hall Court)

Roomzzz Leeds City West - https://www.booking.com/Share-E930TV
(Apartment – 17 mins walk to Cloth Hall Court)

Holiday Inn Express Leeds City Centre (Cavendish Road) - https://www.booking.com/Share-5G5RB5
(16 mins walk to Cloth Hall Court)

An interactive programme of events to share insights and learning across foundation industries to support progression towards transformation. The forum includes a series of workshops with the opportunity for you to meet industry experts and leading academics.

This event will be aimed at:

  • Companies in foundation industries and their supply chains.
  • Professional membership bodies.
  • Trade associations.
  • Regional and national government bodies.
  • Civic organisations and workers initiatives.
  • Innovation support organisations such as the KTN and Catapults.
  • Consultancies supporting transforming foundation industries.
  • Media.
  • Researchers in foundation industries.

The purpose of this event will be to:

  • Hear from foundation industries’ stakeholders about major challenges for transformative change and how we might be able to help overcome these.
  • Share results from TransFIRe research in collaboration with our project partners.
  • Knowledge exchange with other projects from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund for Transforming Foundation Industries (ISCF TFI).
  • Hold discussions to progress equality, diversity and inclusion in the foundation industries.
  • Hold discussions about dynamics in policy, regulation, economy and society that affect the transformation of foundation industries.
  • Expand collaborations in support of transforming foundation industries.

 

A summary of the 2022 Foundation Industry Forum can be found here:

Day 1 Summary

Day 2 Summary

Day 3 Summary