‘Be bold and take calculated risks’: Five minutes with Ian Brotherston of Innovate UK
In this sister series to our ‘Five minutes with’ interviews, we share insights from the civil and public service leaders who will speak at our Innovation conference. Taking place in London on 25 and 26 March, attendees will hear about how their peers are developing new approaches to policymaking and service delivery.
In this interview, Ian Brotherston, deputy director for innovation funding at Innovate UK – who will speak in the session on Getting procurement right – tells GGF about the civil service reform he’d like to see introduced, taking inspiration from the Baltic nations, and his childhood heroes.
Click here to register for Innovation 2025
What are you most interested in discussing at Innovation 2025?
I am most interested in discussing both the role Innovate UK, the UK government’s innovation agency, can play in realising the ambition of government to increase the uptake of innovative solutions across government and the wider public sector, and specifically how procurement – both pre-commercial procurement and public procurement of innovation (early adoption) – can play in delivering government policy objectives, such as delivery of the missions.
What more do you want to achieve before you retire?
I would love to see the public sector use procurement of innovation to its fullest possible extent to increase public sector efficiency and efficacy of delivery, while increasing the level of private sector innovation and adoption as the public sector de-risks crucial innovations.
What advice would you give someone starting out in the civil service?
Be bold and be prepared to take calculated risks to increase efficiency and efficacy of delivery.
What do you dislike about the civil service?
The fact that change programmes and innovation can often mean changes are far too often seen as additional to ‘business as usual’, and therefore too often the changes and innovations are not properly immersed into the wider systems.
If you could introduce one civil service reform, what would it be?
I would like to see some form of mandatory targets for the percentage of procurement budgets that is spent on either pre-commercial procurement, trials of innovative solutions, or true early adoption of emerging technologies.
Which country’s public service are you most inspired by and why?
The can-do attitude and digitisation of the Baltic nations’ public facing services and wider public sector infrastructure.
Can you name one lesson or idea from abroad that’s helped you and your colleagues?
Any government or agency that can get over the ‘not invented here’ barrier to innovation, whether in innovation in policy or delivery.
What is your favourite book?
Pretty much any cookbook, but a particular favourite is Rick Stein’s Secret France.
What was your first car?
A Vauxhall Nova.
Who is your hero?
I love sport and there were two standouts when I was growing up: Ian Botham (the British cricketer) and Seve Ballesteros (Spanish golfer).
Click here to find out more and register for Innovation 2025
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