Oxford+
Season Four Wrap and a Look Ahead to Ethics, AI and Season Five
Startups·AI·Ethics·Tech Policy

Season Four Wrap and a Look Ahead to Ethics, AI and Season Five

Susannah de Jager·Oxford, United Kingdom

Susannah de Jager reflects on Season Four's shift from problem-focused to solution-oriented discussions, highlights emerging initiatives galvanising Oxford's innovation ecosystem, and previews an ethics and AI miniseries plus Season Five featuring Gordon Sanghera and Hermann Hauser.

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Season Four Wrap and a Look Ahead to Ethics, AI and Season Five

Bonus · 23 Jun 2026

0:00−0:00

Featured

  • Susannah de JagerHost

Production

  • Matt Eastland-JonesProducer

Show notes

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 Oxford Tech Week as signs of an ecosystem finally galvanising itself and becoming easier to engage with.

The timing fits a buoyant national picture: UK startup funding reached $7.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 60 per cent year on year, the strongest start to a year since 2022, according to HSBC Innovation Banking and Dealroom. Susannah also looks ahead, previewing a summer Ethics and Innovation miniseries on how AI should be shaped for societies, children and workforces, and a Season Five from September featuring names including Gordon Sanghera and Hermann Hauser.

Susannah de Jager: Susannah is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in UK asset management. She has worked closely with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and government officials to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital.

Connect with Susannah on LinkedIn and Subscribe to the Oxford+ Newsletter for Exclusive Content

Oxford+ is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Mishcon de Reya, HSBC Innovation Banking, and James Cowper Kreston.

Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

Transcript

Susannah de Jager

We have just finished Season Four of Oxford Plus. I can't quite believe that a project that started two and a half years ago with Nicola McConville just as an idea has got this far to be honest, but I'm thrilled that it has and thank you for the support to date. I think what's been so interesting about Season Four for me is a sense of a change in the rhetoric. We're not talking about problems and things that are problems, we're talking about solutions and there's a shift. Things are moving at great pace. Part of that is to do with AI, but part of that is to do with a maturity of the innovation ecosystem in the UK in Oxford.

Many things that for a long time were deemed missing parts of the puzzle are finally arriving. Great examples would be Equinox, Equitable Innovation Oxford, talking about how we're going to galvanise this ecosystem. Oxford Tech Week, putting many of those themes into practise. How can we bring people together in one place rather than have Oxford as a place that people know is brilliant but perhaps don't know how to engage with. There's a real sense of momentum and that came out of Season Four.

As we look forward, I'm having really exciting conversations at the moment for the Ethics and Innovation miniseries that we're going to release over the summer. This is going to be bringing you thoughts on how we should be engaging with AI, how we can think about how it might be corralled and controlled to the benefit of our societies, of our children, and of our workforces, and whether indeed it should be. We're going to be speaking to leading academics, policymakers, and politicians, and we'll bring you that soon.

And we're also now in planning for Season Five of Oxford Plus, which will be coming from September. Starting some of those interviews with some great household names, Gordon Sangera from Oxford Nanopore and also Herman Hauser from Amadeus Ventures, talking about their experience of the evolution of the UK but also the Oxford and indeed in Herman's case, Cambridge Innovation Ecosystem.

Really excited to bring you more. If you don't subscribe already, please do at www.oxfordplus.co.uk or go onto our Substack. Thank you.

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