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Imperial’s COVID innovation
Imperial’s COVID innovation
As the name of this magazine testifies, disruption is a common theme in innovation, with many entrepreneurs striving to transform their industry or the system in which they are working. But what happens when disruption is external and on a global scale? How do we innovate when our systems are shaken by something bigger and more uncontrollable than we can imagine?
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has brought change to everybody’s lives and, for some, redirection. Within weeks of the UK going into lockdown, several teams from Imperial’s entrepreneurial and academic community adapted, redeployed and pivoted their research and technology to help face the multi-pronged challenge of the pandemic. Brilliant and innovative minds have come together to understand and fight this coronavirus, with teams applying their skills to project its spread and to develop new
advances in vaccination, diagnosis, treatments and ways to return to ‘normal’ life. Behind this agility has been the organisational machine of Imperial itself, which has kept core labs open, connected teams to industry and government, provided funding, and enabled the acceleration of innovation, all the time working within safe boundaries. PREDICTING THE VIRUS Mathematical models offer the opportunity to provide powerful predictive analyses of the spread of infectious disease. Imperial is
D/srupt The magazine for innovators & entrepreneurs
a leader in this field and when the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed of the first cases of pneumonia from an unknown source in China, researchers begun working to track and model its spread. Led by Professor Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team were the first to accurately predict the scale of the outbreak in China and the team produced the landmark report that modelled the impact of public health measures in the UK. To date they have produced 30 online reports in seven languages and seven publicly available planning tools.
“We have dealt with a lot of infectious disease crises, clearly none quite on the scale of this,” says Professor Ferguson. “But we exist to provide quality support and we have an established process for creating teams that work together.” Across the globe, the team is providing insight into the pandemic and working with governments to support their responses, adapting their approaches to answer continually changing questions and ensure learning for the future.
Issue 3 / 2020–21
