Collaboration drives innovation. With Dimitra Simeonidou, University of Bristol

Collaboration drives innovation. With Dimitra Simeonidou, University of Bristol

From Senza Fili Sparring Partners by SenzaFili

April 17, 2026 · 38 min · Episode 109

About this episode

Dimitra Simeonidou discusses the importance of collaboration in driving innovation and her work with JOINER.

Money alone does not drive innovation. You need people with passion, creativity, and talent to work together. You need collaboration. And to foster it. In this Sparring Partners, I talked with Dimitra Simeonidou, Director of the Smart Internet Lab at the University of Bristol, and Chief Scientific Advisor at the European Commission, about her work, most recently with JOINER (Joint Open Infrastructure for Network Research), a UK initiative linking universities and industry to test networks, collaborate and innovate. Dimitra is not your usual academic, narrowly focused on a narrow research domain and on writing grant requests and papers (I know to recognize them, because I was one of them). She has been working with industry and public agencies throughout her career, and has the determination to pull everybody together to encourage innovation and, more specifically, to strengthen the connection between research institutions and industry. More on Senza Fili at https://senzafili.com Sign up for the mailing list at https://senzafili.com/senza-fili-mailing-list/ to receive invitations to Sparring Partners events and updates on what we do.

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