Ten questions

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Joyce is Co-Director of the Innogen Institute and works in the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security, both at the University of Edinburgh. She is currently working on the circular economy and the bioeconomy, responsible innovation and regulation/innovation interactions.

Ten questions with Professor Joyce Tait

Can I say for starters that one of the things I really hate is being pigeon-holed, boxed into somebody else’s constraining framework, but here goes.

1. What does innovation mean to you?

Never wasting a good idea.

2. What is your greatest failure?

I failed to realise early enough in my career that I might have something useful to say that could influence the thinking of others.

3. What is your greatest success?

The letter from the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology on the regulation of innovative technologies.

4. What is your greatest fear?

That we will fail to do what is necessary to prevent disastrous climate change.

5. What is your favourite book?

My favourite author is Terry Pratchett and I particularly like ‘Raising Steam’, partly for its insights into how innovation takes off. I also like the Wee Free Men for its insights into human nature and the Scottish character.

6. What would your friends say your greatest strengths and weaknesses are?

Probably in both directions, never saying no to an interesting request for some of my time.

7. What is the most important thing to you?

My family, so far my husband, three children and seven grandchildren.

8. Is there any advice you wish someone had given you?

This is linked to my answer to Question 2. I’m basically quite a shy person and I think I could have benefitted from advice on how to manipulate a meeting, ‘work a room’ and things like that. But then I probably wouldn’t have taken the advice.

9. What future innovation would you like to see happen in your lifetime?

New genetic technologies successfully driving innovation in crops, animals, and micro-organisms, throughout the UK and the EU.

10. What is your greatest hope?

There are a lot, but it’s hard to prioritise and my answers all seemed either too trivial or too grandiose.