Turning innovation into industrial capability

5 minute read

By Lucy Caffery, Chief Customer Officer, NPL

There is no shortage of great ideas in the UK. 

My first public appearance in my new role as NPL’s Chief Customer Officer was to host our Industrial Innovation Summit last month. The Summit started last year as part of NPL’s 125 birthday celebrations, and we enjoyed it so much we thought we’d do it again!  

This year was the second of what we now hope will be an annual event, and the agenda felt even more purposeful. We widened our scope, bringing together innovators, technologists, researchers, policymakers, regulators, funders, service providers, entrepreneurs and investors. The summit explored a question that sits at the heart of the UK's innovation ambitions: how do we accelerate and scale emerging technologies so they can deliver meaningful economic and societal impact? The discussions were deliberately pan-sector, including healthcare, energy, defence, finance, artificial intelligence, and quantum technologies, because many of the challenges are not confined to a single market or technology. In the weeks since, I have reflected on some of conversations and snippets I found most interesting:

Regulation and innovation 

Our keynote theme was on the relationship between regulation and innovation. In his opening address, The Rt Hon. Lord Willets, Chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO), challenged the perception that regulation is a barrier to progress, arguing instead that effective regulation can create the conditions needed for innovation to thrive. He described RIO’s role as helping to smooth the path for emerging technologies, ensuring that regulation enables innovation while maintaining public confidence.  

This perspective was echoed throughout the event, with speakers highlighting how clear and effective regulatory frameworks can provide the confidence needed to encourage investment, support adoption and build public trust.  

These discussions reinforced the point that innovation and public confidence should not be viewed as competing priorities. When regulations and standards evolve alongside technology, they help create the conditions for responsible growth. They allow businesses to bring new products and services to market with greater confidence while ensuring safety, reliability and trust.  

Businesses need confidence and trust to invest 

As one speaker put it, “how do we trust innovation”?  

Just as regulators need robust evidence, customers and investors need assurance that technologies will perform as intended, and innovators need practical pathways to scale.  

We heard directly from the technology companies navigating the challenge of commercialising their innovation. A new technology may be ingenious but this isn’t enough. Before a new technology can gain investment, enter a supply chain or reach widespread adoption, organisations need evidence to demonstrate that it works, that it performs consistently, reliably and safely in real-world environments. This is where standards and measurement come in… 

The importance of standards, assurance and measurement 

These topics may not always attract the attention given to breakthrough discoveries, but they are fundamental to successful innovation.  

Whether the focus was artificial intelligence, healthcare technologies, industrial decarbonisation or quantum systems, the need for trusted evidence was repeated throughout the day. These conversations highlighted why measurement science is such an important part of the UK's innovation infrastructure and why confidence remains a critical enabler of growth. As another speaker said, “without measurement standards, everyone is marking their own homework”. 

As the UK's National Metrology Institute, NPL plays a unique role within that ecosystem, developing new measurement capabilities, supporting standards development and providing trusted expertise. We help organisations to reduce uncertainty, solve technical challenges and build the confidence to move from research and development towards real-world adoption.  

Collaboration with shared purpose 

Looking back, one theme stands out above all others: innovation succeeds when expertise, partnerships and trust come together around a shared purpose. The summit reinforced the importance of collaboration - no single organisation can solve these challenges alone. Progress depends on bringing together researchers, businesses, investors, policymakers and regulators to combine expertise and tackle shared problems. Scaling a business demands access to investment, strong partnerships, customer understanding and the ability to establish trust in new markets.  

What has stayed with me since the summit is the sense of ambition that was evident throughout the day. There was a shared commitment to strengthening the UK's innovation ecosystem and a recognition that collaboration will be essential if we are to realise the full potential of emerging technologies. 

These conversations were particularly valuable as I begin my journey as Chief Customer Officer. 

One of the aspects of the role that excites me most is the opportunity to strengthen the relationship between NPL and the organisations we support, our customers (and we use that word in its broadest sense to mean anyone who benefits from working with us).  

Across every sector, businesses are facing increasing complexity as they adopt new technologies, improve productivity, meet changing regulatory requirements and respond to rapidly evolving markets. 

Our role is to understand those challenges and work alongside all our customers to help address them. That means listening carefully, understanding where barriers exist and ensuring that NPL's expertise continues to support the needs of the innovation landscape. 

The UK already has extraordinary strengths in science, research and innovation. The challenge is ensuring that we create the conditions that allow those strengths to translate into successful products, thriving businesses and lasting economic impact. 

For NPL, those outcomes matter enormously. We remain committed to helping organisations innovate with greater confidence and enabling ideas to become real-world impact and delivering lasting value for industry, society and the economy.We look forward to seeing the progress made by the time next year’s Summit comes around!

12 Oct 2026