The newly launched Digital Transformation Innovation Institute at Cardiff University has joined Wales Tech Week as Digital Transformation Zone Partner, to showcase its academic expertise and ambition on a national and international stage.

The institute joins other Wales Tech Week partners including Thales, Box UK, and Sony UK TEC. The hybrid physical and online summit has two core missions – to champion next-generation Welsh technology and innovation to a global audience, and to help organisations keep pace with progress and prepare for the future.

The partnership with the Digital Transformation Innovation Institute aligns with both these goals. Established in August 2022, and officially launched in March 2023, the institute is dedicated to driving digital transformation responsibly and co-creating solutions with those most affected by tech advances.

The aims of the institute overlap with the objectives of Wales Tech Week in many areas, such as showcasing the impact of digital technology on logistics, operations, and supply chains, fintech, transportation, energy systems, and other industries.

The institute’s work is currently based around four key areas:

• Digital transformation in healthcare – From mapping the genome of viruses to empowering patients to manage their conditions at home using apps and wearable devices, technology is revolutionising the way we think about healthcare. Researchers aligned to our healthcare priority area are drawn from across the university, including engineers, bioinformaticians, data scientists, geneticists, physiotherapists, and immunologists.
• Digital transformation in logistics – The institute’s researchers have developed new forecasting, inventory control, and production planning policies that have helped companies revolutionise their supply chain and logistic models in a way that promotes economic and environmental sustainability.
• Digital transformation in transport – The institute brings together expertise from across industry, academia, and the public sector to address decarbonisation and sustainability in transportation to realise net zero goals underpinned by a human-centred approach.
• Digital transformation in finance – The institute’s researchers are experts in blockchain and cryptocurrencies, constructing models to predict the behaviour of these emerging financial markets, while democratising access to them via the Cardiff University Bitcoin Database. They are experts in how human behaviour affects financial decision making, and the implications of diversity in accounting and taxation reform.

The institute also applies their academic capability to enable digital transformation in the fields of cybersecurity, human-centric computing, cognitive science, responsible innovation, operations research, data science for digital transformation, citizen science and digital humanities.

The partnership with the Digital Transformation Innovation Institute complements Wales Tech Week’s approach of fostering collaboration among industry leaders, innovators, and experts, and the summit themes of Tech for Good, Tech for the Planet and Tech for the Future. This event is a significant opportunity for academia and industry to work together.

The in-person physical summit takes place on 16 to 18 October 2023 at the International Convention Centre (ICC), in Newport, South Wales, where it will host world-class speakers, investors and leading tech organisations, as well as an exhibition and more from innovators, entrepreneurs and the wider supporting Welsh tech industry ecosystem.

Founded by Technology Connected, the leading network for Wales’ technology industry, Wales Tech Week 2023 follows on from the successful virtual events in 2020 and 2021, where the festivals reached an audience of more than 4,500 people across 57 countries. The third day will be the inaugural Talent4Tech event, designed to attract the next generation of tech talent, from apprentices to graduates to returners and transitioning workers, to inspire their journeys into the tech industry.

Professor Tim Edwards, Co-Director of the Digital Transformation Innovation Institute, said: 

“Digital innovation is a game changer. Digital challenges the way we do business, how we employ people, and it is shaping how we might up-skill people for a better future. The institute is working with industry, government and civil society stakeholders to ensure digital innovations are developed responsibly in the search for greater prosperity, wellbeing and inclusivity in society.”

Avril Lewis, Managing Director of Technology Connected, said: “It is a delight to welcome the Digital Transformation Innovation Institute as a partner. Their expertise in digital transformation will amplify the potential of tech and innovation to help all our Wales Tech Week attendees improve their own organisations. They are also a fantastic example of the technological capability we have here in Wales and the opportunities available for academia and industry to collaborate.

“At Technology Connected, one of our motivations for establishing Wales Tech Week was to facilitate collaboration and connections among private and public sector organisations and academia, to drive innovation, grow our economy, and tackle some of our greatest societal challenges.  The Digital Transformation Innovation Institute will play an important role in this for our summit.”