2022 CSC The ‘Design Sprint’

EMILY PADFIELD 2022 NSch & ROB HOWE 2021 NSch

The 2022 CSC had three underlining themes: Food, Climate and Health. And nowhere better to hold this than the ‘farming county’ of Norfolk in East Anglia. Amongst the many attractions for International Nuffield Scholars was Norwich Research Park.

Norwich Research Park (NRP) is a unique cluster of world class institutions and brings together four independent, internationallyrenowned research institutes: John Innes Centre, Quadram Institute, Earlham Institute and The Sainsbury Laboratory; with University of East Anglia (UEA) and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NNUH), supported and funded by The John Innes Foundation and UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). As one of the largest single-site concentrations of research in food, genomics and health in Europe, the Park has world-leading credentials and as Nuffield Scholars, we were extremely fortunate to gain unrestricted access to the NRP as part of the 2022 CSC. The NRP’s vision is to ‘change lives and rethink society’. Bold words indeed, and day two of the conference saw scholars embark on an ambitious project introduced by Norwich University’s Business Innovation Manager, William Taitt as a ‘Design Sprint’. The concept of a Design Sprint was developed more than twenty years ago by tech-giant Google with the focus of developing products or solving problems in a short period of time by exploring and discussing ideas with the result being a strong, effective solution to a problem. The 2022 CSC Design Sprint consisted of eight groups, each tackling different challenges, which ranged from subjects like ‘Meat-Free Monday’ to ‘Antibiotic Resistance’. Each team had to deliver a solution and outline how this solution could be implemented, which would be presented to George Eustace MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in Westminster alongside a written report. More information can be found online in the ‘CSC Book’ at www.nuffieldscholar.org/about/ what-nuffield-international

Design Sprint Book Cover

The workshops ran through several phases to explore the numerous factors, considerations and options that would achieve our brief. There was one simple rule during this stage, we were not to use the word ‘No’ as this may stifle innovation. This explorative session led to some great innovative thinking and sharing of ideas in a comfortable and safe environment.

The secondary phase of the workshops was then to narrow our thought process to focus on the end goal and how this may be achieved realistically, utilising the ‘blue sky thinking’ that had been inspired during the initial phase. The final stages were how we could effectively communicate our messages that we had derived from the Design Sprint. The time limit for this was short, so a concise and coherent message was required that captured the essence of our conclusions.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: ROB HOWE 2021 NSch

Our group scenario transported us to 2050, where biomethane of dairy origin, is more valuable than milk. It was our task to define what the dairy cow of the future would look like and develop solutions to the issue of biogenic methane emissions from the dairy sector. Brakes off, the teams launched into the ‘no no’s’ process that we were encouraged to follow. Creativity flourished in this environment, leading to the ludicrous moment we found a child’s sketch in front of us of a genetically modified cow, with rhino horns growing in a stegosaurus-like dorsolateral pattern, ready for profitable harvesting and with the obvious side benefit of saving the rhino from extinction… This particular idea was cut from our pitches during the second phases of the process, which involved reigning ideas back in, to define the problem and later solutions.

However, the process which created such an abhorrent animal of anarchic abomination, fomented trust, generated both laughter and productivity within the group and was a great way of getting to know everyone in a new team, while exploring a subject without limits. A rare experience! Many of us felt it was a process with potential value and application within our own, varied businesses. In the end, perhaps the toughest part was combining two separate groups of fired up Nuffield Scholars and delegates, having separately agreed on the same subject, into one presentable and punchy pitch worthy of the occasion.

We concluded that in the future a dairy cow would and should be valued for more than just her milk. We framed a “suitcase of benefits” including harvested biomethane, meat, her crucial role in biodiversity within and without agro-ecological systems, green spaces enjoyed by people and in soil health. Our pitch to the Secretary of State called for government support to enable tech innovation and financial incentives to harvest enteric methane for local renewable energy generation on farm, as well as provide for education to bring the public closer to farming and embrace the crucial and wider benefits of ruminants in biodiversity, soil health and food production systems less reliant upon fossil fuel inputs. Teams then presented each of the Design Sprint ‘pitches’ to George Eustace MP, which was a great opportunity and experience. All of us would have relished even more time with him to follow up on answers to our various and wide-ranging questions, and to hone our own questioning and debating skills, but what time we did have was extremely beneficial to scholar development. One of the strongest take-aways from the experience was the wish to be better able to influence our government’s thinking and action within agriculture, at such a critical moment where agriculture is under enormous and sometimes conflicting pressures in a time of unprecedented challenge and change.