Oxford+

Can democracies capture the economic benefits of AI while protecting citizens from the unintended consequences? In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox , host Susannah de Jager speaks with Lord Lionel Tarassenko, founding President of Reuben College and a pioneer of machine learning in safety-critical systems, about why the race to build ever more powerful mod...

How do we ensure technology serves society rather than society becoming subject to technology? And perhaps most importantly, what does progress actually mean? In this special Oxford+ Miniseries, we're going to speak to leading academics, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and practitioners working at the intersection of ethics, technology, and society. Together, we're going to explore questions includin...

What changes when an innovation ecosystem stops talking about problems and starts talking about solutions? In this wrap of Season Four, Oxford+ host Susannah de Jager reflects on a clear shift in rhetoric across the series, from missing pieces of the puzzle to a real sense of momentum in Oxford and the wider UK. She points to initiatives like Equinox, Equitable Innovation Oxford, and the inaugural...

How should we measure success in the place trying to scale Britain's best science? In this Oxford+ in Brief, Dr Ceri Morgan takes on the same four quick-fire questions every guest faces. She reflects on what success would mean after two decades spent at arm's length in investment banking, the advice she would give anyone entering the Oxford ecosystem, and what the city does brilliantly yet struggl...

How should we value a healthcare system that frustrates the very innovators trying to improve it? In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Dr Ceri Morgan, a doctor turned healthcare investment banker turned patient, about her three careers and what they reveal about UK life sciences. Ceri explains why, for years, companies pitching an NHS-first strategy were handed close to a...

What does success really look like when we get hiring right? In this Oxford+ in Brief, Susannah de Jager puts forward four questions to Riham Satti, co-founder and CEO of MeVitae. Riham describes success as a workplace where people feel they belong, feel empowered, and stay because their work feels like a career worth building. She offers candid advice for anyone entering the Oxford ecosystem, ref...

What if the key to fairer hiring lies not in better policies, but in understanding how our brains actually make decisions? In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Riham Satti, co-founder and CEO of MeVitae, about her journey from studying neuroscience at Oxford to building an AI-driven platform that transforms workforce decision-making. They explore how cognitive biases shap...

What would it take for Oxford to truly unlock its potential as a global innovation hub and what keeps getting in the way? In this Oxford+ In Brief mini episode, host Susannah de Jager puts four quick-fire questions to Dr Holly Reeve, co-founder and CEO of HydRegen. Holly shares what success looks like if Hydregen reaches commercial scale manufacturing, why Oxford's chemistry department has become...

What does it really take to turn a breakthrough in a university lab into a company that could transform how the world makes chemicals? In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Dr Holly Reeve, co-founder and CEO of HydRegen, an Oxford spin-out replacing precious metals in chemical manufacturing with bio-based enzyme catalysts. Holly shares her journey from a farm in rural Engl...

What does success really look like for Oxford's innovation ecosystem, and how do you build something that lasts? In this Oxford+ in Brief bonus episode, host Susannah de Jager puts the same four questions to Dr Christiaan de Koning and Michael Collyer, co-founders of Founders and Funders and the team behind the inaugural OX Tech Week. With UK startups raising $7.8 billion in Q1 2026 alone , the st...

What would it take for Oxford to rival Silicon Valley or Boston as a global destination for deep tech? In this episode of Oxford Plus, host Susannah de Jager sits down with Dr Christiaan de Koning and Michael Collyer, co-founders of the Founders and Funders community, to explore how Oxford is organising itself for a new chapter in innovation. What started as a small gathering during COVID has grow...

What would it take for Oxford to become the place where the companies that define global healthcare are actually built? In this Oxford+ in Brief, host Susannah de Jager puts four quick-fire questions to Benny Axt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Oxford Science Enterprises. Benny shares his vision of success for the ecosystem, his advice for newcomers, and a candid assessment of where Oxford excels an...

How does world-class science fail to become a scalable business and what can founders do about it? In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Benny Axt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Oxford Science Enterprises, about the complex relationship between healthcare technology and the systems it must operate within. They explore why healthcare's apparent inefficiency is often intentio...

What would success actually look like if Oxfordshire’s innovation ecosystem got the next phase right? In this Oxford+ in Brief bonus episode, Susannah de Jager puts four rapid-fire questions to Olga Kozlova, one of the leaders behind Equinox (Equitable Innovation Oxford). Olga shares what she believes the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor could unlock for the UK economy and what it would mean in ev...

How do you turn a brilliant but messy innovation ecosystem into something easier to navigate, stronger on the world stage, and fairer for local communities? In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Olga Kozlova, one of the driving forces behind Equinox (Equitable Innovation Oxford), a new partnership convened by the University of Oxford to align universities, investors, corpo...

What would success for UK innovation actually look like in practice? In this short Oxford+ in Brief bonus episode, host Susannah de Jager asks Lord William Hague four fast questions that cut straight to the future of Oxford, the Oxford ecosystem, and Britain’s ability to translate world-class ideas into lasting prosperity. Hague argues that the UK should aim to make the Oxford–Cambridge–London tri...

How does the UK turn world-class ideas into world-class companies, without selling the best outcomes abroad? In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Lord William Hague, Chancellor of the University of Oxford and former UK Foreign Secretary, about the UK’s scale-up gap and what it will take to build an innovation economy that keeps more value at home. They discuss why univers...

What would success look like if Oxfordshire got climate innovation truly right, not just in ideas, but in deployment at scale?  In this Oxford+ bonus episode, Susannah de Jager speaks with Hannah Scott, CEO of Oxfordshire Greentech, about the practical barriers that stop climate tech startups moving from promise to global impact. Hannah unpacks why scaling hardware and deep tech takes longer, cost...

How do you turn a county into a world-leading climate tech ecosystem, and why does collaboration matter more than competition when tackling the climate crisis? In this episode of Oxford Plus, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Hannah Scott, CEO of Oxfordshire Greentech and Co-Founder of the Climate Tech SuperCluster, about building networks that connect climate innovators with the funding, experti...

What would defence reform look like if we stopped overcomplicating it? In this Oxford+ in brief episode, host Susannah de Jager asks Alison Hawks questions that reveal how leaders think under pressure, what shapes their decisions, and what they are curious about right now. Alison argues that defence needs to get out of its own way: procurement should be a clearer transaction where the military own...

How do you sell to a customer where the decision-maker is actually five different people, and half of them might move roles before the contract lands? In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Dr Alison Hawks, co-founder and CEO of BMNT Ltd, about why defence innovation is becoming a structural opportunity, and why procurement literacy is often more important than the technolo...

What does success look like when world-leading research meets commercial sustainability? In this bonus episode of Oxford Plus, Susannah de Jager sits down with Lisa Flashner to explore the evolving landscape of one of the world’s most famous academic cities. Lisa shares her transition from the West Coast to Oxford, highlighting the unique intellectual diversity and the "incredibly talented women"...

How does one of the most significant private investments in UK science and technology history take shape on the ground in Oxford? In this episode of Oxford+, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Lisa Flashner, Chief Operating Officer of the Ellison Institute of Technology, about Larry Ellison's ambitious vision to establish a transformative research campus in Oxford. They explore why Ellison chose O...

Oxford has always been a place where ideas can shape the world. But right now the stakes have never been higher. In season four of Oxford Plus we're asking what UK innovation really means in an age of global uncertainty, rapid technological change, and a growing need for national capability and sovereignty. This season features voices shaping that future, including Lord William Hague and Lisa Flas...

Why do the critical conversations about founding and funding a business often happen behind closed doors, making the ecosystem feel impenetrable? In this special episode, Oxford+ host Susannah de Jager reveals the origin story and core premise of the podcast. Drawing on her extensive background as a former COO and CEO of a European equities hedge fund, and her later work in pension capital reform,...