Bridging Academia, Industry & Research in the Digital Age

Reflections from Digit CoLab 

Last Friday was a perfect end to summer and the beginning of autumn.

I was delighted to attend the Digit CoLab at Eversheds Sutherland. One question kept surfacing: how do we make the digital transformation of work deliver benefits that are widely shared—not just efficiency? 

Digit convened cross-sector leaders—government, business, trade unions, civil society—alongside academia and research to kick off a multi-year programme on the future of digital work. The format mixed short provocations with rich, hands-on roundtable work across five lenses:

• Digital ecosystem governance 

• Digital adoption 

• Skills & rewards 

• Healthy working lives 

• Location & environment

I left with a stronger, multi-disciplinary perspective on governance, capability, environment, and incentives—and how they combine in practice. My simple filter coming out of the day:

Governance × Capability × Environment × Incentives = Real, sustained change. 

If one factor is weak, transformation stalls.

Is your organisation digital-ready? In my experience, only a small percentage truly are. Think of large, complex environments—Rolls-Royce, Heathrow Airport, Jaguar Land Rover—where readiness is an ongoing, enterprise-wide effort rather than a single project.

If you’re curious to explore more, you can find details about the research programme here:https://lnkd.in/eQqGbeMf 

Thank you to the key players who brought this together and to everyone who contributed in the room.

Abigail Gilbert, Dr. Becky Faith, Cassandra Bowkett, Danat Valizade, Emma Russell, Emma Banister, Esme Terry, Isabel Tavora, Jacqueline O'Reilly FAcSS, Jill Rubery, Julie Weeds, Kate Hardy, Laura Jarvis-King, Mark Stuart, Matthew Cole, Ödül Bozkurt, Rachel Verdin, Richard Dickens, Steve Rolf, Vera Trappmann, Wil Hunt, and Xanthe Whittaker. ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council | University of Sussex Business School | Leeds University Business School