Innovation Hubs Insights

Kerala Launches New Phase in Space Innovation Kerala took a major step forward in space research and technology development with the laying of the foundation stone for the Common Facility Centre and the Research & Development Centre as part of the Kerala Space Park. These Centres, located at the Technocity campus in Pallipuram, Thiruvananthapuram, are part of a ₹244 crore initiative funded by NABARD. The first phase will see the development of 2 lakh sq. ft. of infrastructure to support research, innovation, and industrial collaboration in the space sector. The Kerala Aeroxpo 2025, also inaugurated today, highlights India’s space legacy and vision for the future. The Space Park aims to create a thriving ecosystem for research, manufacturing, and investment in emerging space technologies. Sub-centres will be developed in collaboration with key research institutes in Thiruvananthapuram, and affiliated institutions are planned in Kozhikode, Kochi, and Kannur. An Advanced Technology Manufacturing Centre is also being set up on an adjacent 10-acre plot with an investment of ₹250 crore to support SMEs in space technology. In line with Kerala’s forward-looking vision, K-Space will serve as a major platform for innovation in fields like navigation, geo-tagging, urban mapping, and remote sensing. Companies working at the intersection of new space technologies and industrial application will be actively supported. Skill development initiatives targeting ITI and polytechnic students will further ensure a steady pipeline of trained professionals for the sector. Thiruvananthapuram, with its deep-rooted legacy in space research — home to institutions like VSSC, LPSC, IISU, IIST, and BrahMos Aerospace — offers a fertile ground for this ambitious initiative. With the Space Park and other state-supported science infrastructure projects such as the Digital Science Park, Kerala is positioning itself as a leader in democratising access to scientific innovation and industrial transformation. #kerala #spacepark #kspace

AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly and Company launch digital health and AI innovation hubs in the Philippines and India >> 🇵🇭AstraZeneca will launch a Health Innovation Hub in the Philippines to attract investment and position the country as an ASEAN center for pharma, R&D, and digital health 🇵🇭 Its first project, an Oncology Innovation Center, will use AI for early cancer detection, expand patient support, and build healthcare workforce capacity 🇵🇭 The hub will drive collaboration and investment through business forums, B2B match-making, and regulatory support within ecozones 🇮🇳Eli Lilly has opened a Technology and Innovation Centre in Hyderabad’s Hitech City, set to expand from 100 staff to 1,500 by 2026–27, serving as a global hub for digital and technology capabilities 🇮🇳 The centre will focus on AI, automation, cloud, and software engineering, acting as a nerve centre linking Lilly’s global sites and accelerating medicine discovery and delivery 🇮🇳 Positioned as a centre of innovation rather than back-office support, it will bring together top talent in AI, data science, and engineering to drive digital transformation in pharma 💬 It’s great to see pharma innovation expanding across south and south east Asia, let’s hope the fruits are transformative vs just incremental #digitalhealth #ai #pharma

Cities worldwide are grappling with the twin pressures of urban expansion and environmental degradation. Belgrade is no exception - its reliance on coal and limited green spaces contribute to poor air quality, underscoring the urgent need for innovative solutions. One of such innovations comes from Dr. Ivan Spasojevic’s team: a 600-liter photo-bioreactor known as LIQUID 3. Using microalgae, this “liquid tree” purifies air at a rate that can outpace natural trees by as much as 10 to 50 times. How It Works: - Air Cleanup via Algae: At the heart of LIQUID 3 is microalgae - tiny organisms that thrive on carbon dioxide and pollutants. In return, they produce a steady supply of clean oxygen, effectively transforming polluted city air into something more breathable. - Multi Purpose Urban Fixture: Beyond improving air quality, this installation can become a social spot. Integrated solar panels support features like phone chargers and seating areas, turning a piece of environmental technology into a community hub. - Versatile Microalgae: Algae aren’t just air scrubbers. They can help treat wastewater, provide valuable biomass for agricultural or industrial use, and even serve as a resource for biofuels. Incorporating biotechnological solutions like LIQUID 3 into city planning may be a critical part of addressing today’s environmental challenges. By blending science, sustainability, and public engagement, these projects could help metropolitan areas breathe a little easier while opening new conversations about the role of nature-inspired innovation in our communities. What do you think? Are we ready to embrace biotechnology as a cornerstone of urban development, and could initiatives like this help reshape our cities for the better? #innovation #technology #future #management #startups

📌 How to Securely Design and Operate a Hub-Spoke Network Architecture on Azure? The Hub-Spoke architecture is a security-first foundation for Azure, enabling micro-segmentation, centralized inspection, and advanced threat protection across your cloud environment. ❶ Centralized Security Perimeter ◆ The Hub VNet acts as a secure landing zone, hosting shared security services like firewalls, Bastion hosts, and NVA appliances. ◆ All internet egress and ingress traffic can be routed through the hub for inspection and policy enforcement. ❷ Traffic Segmentation & Isolation ◆ Spoke VNets isolate workloads (e.g., production, dev, test), preventing lateral movement in case of a breach. ◆ VNet Peering allows controlled traffic between spokes and hub, with no transitive peering, reducing unintended exposure. ❸ NSGs ◆ Define granular inbound and outbound traffic rules at subnet or NIC level. ◆ Enforce least privilege by restricting access to critical resources only from trusted sources (e.g., specific jump boxes or Azure services). ❹ Azure Firewall & Threat Protection ◆ Deploy Azure Firewall in the hub to provide stateful packet inspection, outbound SNAT, and centralized logging. ◆ Combine with WAF on Application Gateway for L7 protection against threats like SQL injection and XSS. ❺ Private Connectivity to PaaS Services ◆ Use Private Endpoints in spokes to access Azure services (e.g., Storage, Key Vault) over private IPs, completely bypassing the public internet. ◆ Prevent data exfiltration by limiting service access to the private virtual network only. ❻ Centralized Identity and Access ◆ Integrate Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) for identity-driven access control, MFA, and conditional access. ◆ Use Managed Identities to securely grant Azure services access to resources without credentials. ❼ DDoS Protection & Edge Defense ◆ Enable Azure DDoS Protection in the hub to protect against volumetric and protocol-based attacks. ◆ Edge defenses like Application Gateway ensure encrypted traffic inspection and pre-authentication before workloads are reached. ❽ Monitoring, Logging & Compliance ◆ Azure Monitor, Network Watcher, and Log Analytics centralize visibility into traffic flows, blocked connections, and security alerts. ◆ Enforce compliance and security baselines with Azure Policy, ensuring NSGs, route tables, and peerings remain consistent and secure. ❾ User-Defined Routes (UDRs) & Forced Tunneling ◆ Control traffic flow by directing it through the hub (e.g., to security appliances for inspection). ◆ Support hybrid connectivity while keeping strict control over outbound internet access. ❶𝟎 Secure Remote Access ◆ Use Azure Bastion in the hub for secure, browser-based RDP/SSH access without exposing VMs to public IP addresses. ◆ Combined with JIT VM access to further reduce the attack surface. #cloud #security #azure

***New Paper*** Many of you are familiar with urban scaling, the idea that outcomes such as innovation and crime grow super-linearly with city size. But what if I told you that the "network of cities" was better at explaining some of these outcomes? In a new paper led by @xiaofanliang we explore this hypothesis by estimating networks for cities in the United States and China. In these networks, cities are connected based on social media friendships, travel patterns (human mobility), and scientific co-authorship (see figure). We use these networks to explain the patenting activity of American and Chinese cities, and ask whether a city's patents are better explained by population (urban scaling hypothesis) or by their centrality in these networks. We find that after we take the measures of centrality into account, population is no longer a significant predictor. In China, all three networks help explain innovative activity. In the US, the scientific co-authorship network is the most robust predictor. Network scaling seems to trump urban scaling when it comes to innovation. To explore this hypothesis further, we compare cities with similar population and different levels of connectivity, such as Corvallis (high connectivity) and Cumberland (low connectivity) in the US, or Shenzhen (high connectivity) and Handan (low connectivity) in China. This reveals that differences in connectivity explain the residuals observed in the urban scaling relationship between population and patenting. Certainly, this was not easy paper to make. It required collecting network level data for hundreds of cities in two large countries. But the prize was that it helped us explore beyond urban scaling, showing us that when it comes to patenting activity, a city's network connectivity explains more than its population. While our results are not causal, they are consistent with the idea that innovation depends on the flow and recombination of ideas. The paper also provides some insights about the network geography of China and the United States. China is a diamond (rhombus), with a Beijing-Shenzhen north-south axis and a Shanghai-Chongqing east-west axis (with Wuhan in the middle). But when we remove the geography, we see networks centered on Beijing, at least for the social media and the scientific co-authorship network. The US has more of an arc, or flyover structure, especially when it comes to the co-authorship networks linking the east and west coasts. In the US, social media friendships revolve around New York City, human mobility around N.Y.C and L.A., and science around Boston. This was a long project (about six years from idea to publication), so I am happy to finally see it published. My congratulations to @xiaofanliang who in the process became an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. Enjoy the networks and what they teach us about the world. https://lnkd.in/g5-6Mx_v

🚀 Accelerating Industrial Digitalization and Intelligence: Transforming Integrated Operation Centres with Digital Twins As the Technical Director of the EU Local Digital Twin EU LDT Toolbox - Empowering Smart Cities Initiative under the European Commission, I am thrilled to share how Digital Twins are reshaping integrated operation centres, driving urban management into a new era of intelligence and efficiency. 🌍✨ Digital Twins are a convergence of groundbreaking technologies: ✅ 5G Advanced & IoVT: Real-time data collection from connected devices and video sensors. ✅ Data Spaces: Seamless integration of utilities, socio-economic stats, and human dynamics for actionable insights. ✅ AI/ML & GenAI: From event detection and predictive analysis to user-friendly reports that make data accessible to all. ✅ Geospatial Technologies: AR/VR, 3D mapping, and GeoAI enabling immersive, actionable insights. ✅ Advanced User Interfaces: Bridging technology with usability through the Citiverse. 💡 Real-World Impact: These technologies are not just concepts—they are actively transforming urban centers, we are presenting a real example in Shenzhen, China by Huawei; which is addressing: 🌳 Enhancing sustainability with smarter green coverage and air quality monitoring. 📊 Improving economic operations by integrating socio-economic data to optimize investments and retail strategies. 🎥 Boosting safety and efficiency through IoVT and real-time event detection, such as traffic violations or public safety hazards. 🛠 Driving job creation by turning AI-detected events into actionable interventions, fostering local employment. The future is here, and it’s intelligent, sustainable, and immersive. By leveraging Digital Twins, we are creating smarter, greener, and more inclusive cities. Let’s connect to explore how we can drive the digital transformation of urban spaces together! 💬 #DigitalTwins #SmartCities #IndustrialDigitalization #UrbanInnovation #TechForGood #DataSpaces #AIForCities #Libelium

IT giants like Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro are joining forces with academic institutions to build and innovate across emerging technologies, say reports. Tata Consultancy Services on Tuesday announced its partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-Bombay) to develop India's first Quantum Diamond Microchip Imager. This advanced sensing tool can improve precision in the examination of semiconductor chips, reduce chip failures, and improve the energy efficiency of electronic devices, the company said in a statement. Wipro also announced a partnership with The Centre for Brain Research at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) this week. The collaboration aims to harness the power of AI, ML and big data analytics to develop technologies that can support the prevention and management of long-term health disorders, according to the company's statement. These aren't the only instances of industry-academia collaboration in the tech sector. businessline reports that NVIDIA has been collaborating with Indian Institute of Technology, Madras for computational brain research, while Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee has signed an MoU with Engineers India Limited to boost research and innovation in green technologies, reports Hindustan Times. What's your take on the trend of IT and tech giants partnering with academic institutions? Share your take in the comments. Source: TCS: https://lnkd.in/djdczXbg Wipro: https://lnkd.in/gZWddGxJ businessline: https://lnkd.in/g_2yADwz Hindustan Times: https://lnkd.in/gxRUPQRK ✍ : Isha Chitnis 📸 : Getty Images

What happens when a country stops importing innovation — and starts producing it at scale? In a bold move and strategic this week, HH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the UAE Future 50 a federal initiative selecting 50 high-potential Emirati companies positioned to drive the next decade of national economic growth and sectoral innovation. The initiative, led by the Ministry Of Economy, UAE in partnership with the Government Development and the Future Office, is part of the national Riyada entrepreneurship strategy, designed to make startups a core pillar of the UAE’s long-term economic model. But this isn’t just a symbolic recognition. It’s a multi-layered economic framework. Here’s the structural signal this move is sending: GDP Diversification Is Now the Core Operating Model • In 2023, non-oil sectors contributed 74.6% of GDP, totaling AED 320B. • By 2031, the UAE targets AED 4T GDP with 90% from non-oil sectors. • Startups are expected to deliver AED 700B+ of that value, with Future 50 as key accelerators. Capital Allocation Is Strategically Anchored • UAE startups raised $1.3B in VC in 2024 — top in MENA. • Emirati founders led 38% of Series A & B rounds, up from 22% in 2021. • Sovereign entities like Mubadala, ADQ, DFF, and Ghadan Ventures are actively co-investing to de-risk early-stage innovation. Innovation Zones Are Fully Operationalized • 70% of Future 50 operate under ADGM, DIFC, Masdar, Hub71 & etc. • These zones offer 100% ownership, 0% tax, and strong IP protection. • UAE ranks 1st in MENA and 37th globally in the 2024 Global Innovation Index aiming for top 25 by 2026. Human Capital Is a National Advantage • 65% of Future 50 founders are under 35; most graduated from UAE-based institutions. • Since 2021, 165,000+ Golden Visas issued including 12,000+ to founders and STEM talent. • Entrepreneurship is now embedded in UAE’s education system through the AI Strategy and Riyada. Market Access Is Already Secured • The UAE signed 13 CEPAs covering $12T+ in global GDP. • Future 50 companies will be supported by the “Go Global” platform for expansion, export, and licensing in those markets. Impact Targets Are Defined and Tracked (by 2031): 1. AED 18B GDP contribution 2. 12,000+ skilled jobs created 3. 1,000+ patents filed 4. Presence in 45+ international markets 5. At least 10 scaleups reaching Series C or exit This is not startup promotion. This is sovereign startup policy. The UAE isn’t just supporting founders it’s embedding entrepreneurship at the center of national strategy. This is how the UAE scales its future not by adopting global models, but by building its own. Startups are no longer experiments. They are instruments of national ambition. The question is no longer who will invest. The question is: who will be left behind if they don’t?

"This paper explores the potential of dynamic, collaborative public-private governance to foster safe innovation. Drawing from primary research, including interviews with tech industry leaders, U.S. Members of Congress, and staff, and an analysis of 150 AI-related bills introduced by the 118th U.S. Congress, this work identifies emerging areas of alignment between policymakers and industry stakeholders. It also highlights opportunities for a unified national approach, despite the challenges of a fragmented legislative environment. The authors propose a dynamic governance approach that brings government and industry together while combining the foresight of ex-ante measures with the adaptability needed to respond to technological advancements. Coupled with existing ex-post mechanisms, the Dynamic Governance Model creates a comprehensive framework to promote competition, innovation, and accountability. It represents a policy-agnostic extra-regulatory framework, including a public-private partnership for standards setting and a market-based ecosystem for audit and compliance. Ultimately, this governance approach can provide regulatory clarity and predictability, fostering an environment where businesses and innovation thrive while mitigating the risks inherent to AI’s transformative power" Paulo Carvao Slavina Ancheva Yam Atir Shaurya Jeloka Brian Zhou

Yesterday, the UK Government released its Modern Industrial Strategy and Digital and Technologies Sector Plan. The strategy is ambitious, including a £4 billion capital injection via the British Business Bank to unlock £12 billion in private investment; £670 million for development and adoption of quantum computers, and £54 million for a new Global Talent Taskforce. But beyond the numbers, what matters is this: the government is designing industrial policy with scaling tech companies in mind. At Tech Nation and Founders Forum, we’ve been listening to our community of tech founders across the UK and actively relaying their feedback to No 10, DSIT, and HM Treasury over the last few months, calling for practical changes to unlock growth for UK tech scaleups. It’s clear from this plan that the government have been listening attentively to our founder feedback, and are prioritising tech innovation as a key gateway to growth for our country. What stands out: – Growth capital: Deepening the pool of scaleup capital available to UK founders with increased firepower from the British Business Bank, and a long-overdue move to unlock pension capital now underway. – Talent: Doubling down on how we attract the world’s top talent to choose the UK as home base; the TechFirst programme and AI scholarships show a serious commitment to building the UK’s tech workforce, from school leavers to PhDs to global fellows. – Infrastructure: From regional AI Growth Zones to faster data centre connections, this is the first strategy that sees physical and digital infrastructure as core to scaling startups and focuses on unblocking grid connections so founders from all across the country can scale brilliant ideas. – Regulation and procurement: With the Regulatory Innovation Office, AI sandboxes, and Defence-led R&D pathways, there’s now more room for founders to take the right risks. – Regional innovation: Significant cluster funding with guaranteed local allocations, so that we can turbocharge game-changing tech companies from all corners of the UK. The direction of travel is clear: The UK is committed to cementing its place as a global innovation hub and technology leader, but it takes all of us – founders, investors, enterprise corporations, Big Tech, policymakers, and startup operators – to put this plan into action and deliver its results. This plan is just the beginning, but we’re looking forward to working with the government and our broader Tech Nation community to make it a reality. #IndustrialStrategy #Digital #Tech #UK #ScaleUps #TechPolicy #FoundersForum #TechNation #FoundersPulse #Startups #Founders #Entrepreneurs #ItTakesaTechNation