In the RSA’s historic Great Room – the home of ideas since the Enlightenment – cognitive scientist Gaurav Suri explores how both human and AI minds emerge from vast, hidden networks of neural activity. A clear, compelling introduction to the science behind intelligence, attention and learning.

• Gaurav Suri, Cognitive Scientist and Psychologist (Associate Professor, San Francisco State University)

• David Malone, Documentary Filmmaker and Author

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The 2025 RDI address will be delivered by incoming Master Johanna Gibbons RDI, founding partner of J&L Gibbons and founding director of Landscape Learn.

Johanna is a Landscape Architect, Founding Partner of J&L Gibbons established in 1986 and Founding Director of social enterprise Landscape Learn. She studied at Edinburgh College of Art and is a Fellow of the Landscape Institute and the RSA, and a Research Partner of Urban Mind with Kings College London with an international profile as design panellist, juror and speaker.

Jo was awarded Royal Designer for Industry in 2019 for her ‘pioneering and influential work combining design with activism, education and professional practice’. She is respected for routinely and seamlessly incorporating ecology, organismal biology, urban planning, conservation, community organising, the arts, and pedagogy, being driven by a keen awareness of climate change, biodiversity loss, and social need.

Her many award-winning, collaborative and innovative designs span over four decades of practice, mostly within the cultural and public realm sector. They range from urban regeneration, heritage and estate planning to artist collaboration and the landscapes of cathedrals and museums, including the Natural History Museum London, Inger Munch Pier Oslo, Horniman Museum and Gardens, St Albans Cathedral and The British Library.

Prior to the Address, 5 new Royal Designers for Industry (RDI) and 2 new Honorary Royal Designers for Industry will be welcomed to the Faculty.

The title ‘Royal Designer for Industry’ is awarded annually by the RSA to designers of all disciplines who have achieved sustained design excellence, work of aesthetic value and significant benefit to society.

The RDI is the highest accolade for designers in the UK. Only 200 designers can hold the title. Non-UK designers may become honorary Royal Designers.

The ‘Royal Designers’ are responsible for designing the world around us, enriching our cultural heritage, driving innovation, inspiring creativity in others and improving our quality of life.

• Johanna Gibbons RDI, founding partner of J&L Gibbons and founding director of Landscape Learn
• Charlie Paton RDI, founder and director of Seawater Greenhouse Ltd and RDI Master

• Sir Loyd Grossman CBE, chair of trustees, RSA

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As the Government looks to appoint a new Freelance Champion for the creative industries we delve into the findings of the latest State of the Nations report from Creative PEC on Arts, Culture and Heritage workforce.

Dr Mark Taylor will unveil the findings and plot the freelancer journey in the creative industries. A panel of guests including Yasmin Khan, Director for Individual Practitioners, Arts Council England, Philippa Childs, Deputy General Secretary, of the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union, Amy Tarr, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Creative UK, and Alexander Jacob, freelance television director, will explore how creative freelancers can be better supported and what the priorities should be for the new government champion. Chaired by Bernard Hay, Head of Policy, Creative PEC. Followed by Q&A and soft drinks reception.

The new State of the Nations report, Who stays and who leaves?: Mapping arts, culture and heritage careers, will be released and available to download on the day.

The Creative PEC is funded by the AHRC and led by Newcastle University with the RSA.

Speakers:

• Yasmin Khan, Director for Individual Practitioners, Arts Council England
• Philippa Childs, Head of Bectu
• Amy Tarr, Associate Director, Policy & Research, Creative UK
• Dr Mark Taylor, Research Lead for Arts, Culture and Heritage at Creative PEC, and Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Methods, University of Sheffield
• Alexander Jacob, Freelance television director

• Bernard Hay, Head of Policy, Creative PEC

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Ufi VocTech Trust and the RSA are delighted to unveil the recommendations of the Digital Badging Commission.

Over the past 18 months, the Digital Badging Commission has brought together leading minds across education, technology, policy and employment to reimagine and define the essential steps required for digital badges and credentials to transform learning, recognition, and opportunity in the UK. 

Our collective vision is clear: now is the time for digital badges and credentials to unlock a more inclusive, dynamic and skills-rich economy. 

The recommendations offer a clear roadmap to revolutionise the UK’s skills system by using digital badges to: 

• Make skills more visible, portable and economically valuable
• Support employers to source and develop the skills they need
• Enable the government to unlock talent and address the challenges of economic inactivity and regional growth

Join Ufi VocTech Trust, the RSA, Phil Smith and senior leaders from education, industry, politics and technology as we reveal the Commission’s far-reaching recommendations for practical, transformative system-wide change. 

The UK’s current systems for recognising skills and experience are not fit for purpose. They are failing to keep pace with the needs of learners, employers and the broader economy, contributing to persistent economic inactivity, skills gaps and stalled productivity. The weaknesses impact everyone: individuals cannot easily demonstrate their capabilities, employers struggle to assess them, and regions and national governments lack precise data on who has what skills and where they are located. 

Since its launch, the UK’s Digital Badging Commission has engaged extensively with forward-thinking employers, pioneering education leaders, influential policymakers and technology innovators. At its heart, the DBC has pursued a bold, game-changing ambition: creating a trusted, unified approach to digital badges and credentials with the potential to transform the UK skills system. 

Our recommendations outline a roadmap to empower individuals to clearly showcase their unique talents, help employers identify the skills they urgently need, and position the UK economy to thrive with increased agility, inclusivity, and productivity. The Commission suggests that a UK-wide digital credentialing ecosystem, which combines formal qualifications and digital badges in interoperable digital skills wallets, could generate substantial economic value by addressing inefficiencies in training, hiring, and workforce mobility. Analysis conducted for the Commission suggests that such a system could reduce duplicated training across sectors, lower recruitment costs through faster hiring, and improve workforce retention through better-recognised upskilling. 

We’re pleased to announce that Phil Smith, CBE REng, Chair of Skills England, will kickstart the conversation, followed by a panel discussion featuring some of the UK’s leading voices in skills and innovation.

• Phil Smith, CBE FREng, Chair of Skills England and the Digital Skills Council

• Dr. Patrina Law, Digital Badging Commission, The RSA
• Prof Sir Chris Husbands, Co-Chair of the Digital Badging Commission
• Rebecca Garrod–Waters, Chief Executive of Ufi VocTech Trust and Co-Chair of the Digital Badging Commission
• Alexandra Willans, Careers and Technical Education Partnership Director, Bradford Council

The Digital Badging Commission, a collaboration between Ufi VocTech Trust and the RSA, has explored how digital badges can be developed and adopted to strengthen the UK’s skills infrastructure. It is working to design a national approach to digital badging and credentials, helping to recognise learning, participation and skills wherever they happen. 

Find out more at www.badgingcommission.org

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Over 13% of 16-24-year-olds in the UK are now classified as NEET – not in education, employment or training – with a growing number also economically inactive and disengaged from the workforce altogether.

This crisis is costing the UK economy billions in lost productivity and social support, while placing young people at greater risk of poor mental health, lifelong unemployment, and social exclusion.

What’s driving this troubling trend? From falling apprenticeship opportunities and rising school exclusions to an overstretched mental health system and declining entry-level jobs, the challenges are complex and urgent.

A panel of leading voices is coming together at RSA House to unpack the root causes of rising NEET rates and outline what cross-sector collaboration can do to build real opportunity for a generation at risk.

• Dr Vikki Smith, Executive Director, Education and Standards at the Education and Training Foundation (ETF)
• Mo Isap, CEO of IN4 Group
• Jade Azim, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Good Growth Foundation

• Dr Patrina Law, Lifelong Learning Lead at the RSA

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Join us for the final event in our global partnership with the UK at Expo 2025.

With the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals fast approaching, the UK has made ambitious, mission-driven commitments to integrate climate change measures into national policies and planning and to accelerate a just transition to a net-zero, nature-positive future.

Linking speakers in the historic Great Room of the RSA in London and in the UK Pavilion at Expo 2025, this event will feature leading public thinkers, policy influencers and innovators who are driving breakthrough progress on climate action. From pioneering clean energy technologies to powerful, community-driven movements for regeneration and resilience, discover the ideas and solutions that are seeding a flourishing future for people, places, and the planet we all share.

• Prof Masako Konishi, Showa Women’s University, director at WWF Japan, former news presenter and weather forecaster (Osaka)
• Derek Walker, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales (Osaka)
• Mete Coban MBE, Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy (London)
• Rachael Orr, CEO, Climate Outreach (London)

• Ben Sheppard, Co-founder and Chair, Design for Good (London)
• Carolyn Davidson, Commissioner General for the UK at Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai (Osaka)

A bold new events partnership celebrating the UK as a place to come to study, visit and invest, and as a country of innovation and creativity where the world can come to build the future.

With the deadline to the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals just five years away, the RSA and UK at Expo 2025 partnership will tackle global issues from inequality to climate change, exploring the progress that has been made and the work still to be done to secure health and wellbeing, peace, justice, and prosperity for communities worldwide.

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With opportunities for digital connection at an all-time high, and loneliness now a public health concern, are we truly more connected – or just more networked?

Join us in the RSA Great Room for a panel exploring whether technology is helping us form meaningful relationships or simply keeping us online.

Journalist and founder of The Logging Off Club, Adele Zeynep Walton, shares a Gen Z perspective on stepping back from platforms to find real-world connections. Nicola Gunby, co-founder of friendship app Cliq, offers insight into designing tech that actually brings people together offline. Dr Tom Chatfield, author and tech philosopher, analyses our experiences and understanding of technology, with a particular focus on critical thinking, AI and ethics. The event will be chaired by leading tech strategist and researcher Rachel Coldicutt, guiding a discussion that unpacks the messy, hopeful, and urgent future of human connection.

Speakers:

• Adele Zeynep Walton, Journalist and author
• Nicola Gunby, Co-founder of Cliq
• Dr Tom Chatfield, Author and tech philosopher

Chair:

• Rachel Coldicutt, Researcher and strategist

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We’re delighted to welcome you to the 2025 RSA Spark Showcase – a month-long exhibition spotlighting the most outstanding ideas in response to RSA Spark’s purpose-led briefs.

From reimagining community spaces to innovative solutions for social connection and wellbeing, the showcase captures the energy and potential of the next generation of problem-solvers, creatives and designers.

The exhibition is open to the public in Suthers Court at RSA House from 24 September to 23 October, and we’d love for you to experience it in person.

Whether you’re an RSA Fellow, an educator, a design enthusiast, or simply curious about bold ideas for a better future, this is a unique opportunity to see innovation in action.

In partnership with:

Marketing Trust, RMIT University, Network Rail, The Rayne Trust, The Chacegrove Family Foundation, Hammersmith & Fulham, The JJ Charitable Trust

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With a population of 2 million people and a strategic location at the heart of the UK, the national growth story must include a prosperous East Midlands.

Join us at RSA House as we set out the recommendations in the final report of the East Midlands Inclusive Growth Commission, a bold, region-wide economic plan commissioned by Mayor Claire Ward and chaired by Andy Haldane.

The East Midlands is a region full of opportunity, but beset by some deep challenges and a history of underinvestment. It is not a typical city region like many of the mayoral combined authorities that were created before it. The East Midlands can act as a model for achieving growth that reaches beyond the city centres and into regenerated industrial heartlands and rural places.

At the heart of the Commission’s work is the Opportunity Escalator: a practical new toolkit to help people secure good work and progress to pay better and conditions, regardless of their starting point.

From overcoming entrenched barriers such as transport and housing, to more innovative, data-led career pathways and targeted skills investment, this approach offers a step change in how we think about inclusive growth, with applicability well beyond the borders of the East Midlands.

Discover a bold new model for regional economic development, grounded in the lived experience and practical needs of people and employers.

Hear from leading thinkers and practitioners on how we can make inclusive growth real- not just rhetoric.

Explore how policymakers across the UK can build on the Opportunity Escalator to drive sustainable and inclusive prosperity in their own areas.

• Think tanks, policy experts and public affairs professionals
• Local and national government officials
• Economic development professionals
• Further and higher education leaders
• Employers and business networks

• Claire Ward, Mayor of the East Midlands
• Andy Haldane, Chair of the Inclusive Growth Commission and former RSA CEO
• Dame Julia Cleverdon, Former CEO of Business in the Community
• Sarah Gordon, Founding CEO of the Impact Investing Institute
• Gillian Sewell, CEO of Derbyshire YMCA
• Sir John Peace, Business leader and Chair of the Midlands Engine
• Lord Marvin Rees, Former Mayor of Bristol
• Mark Lloyd, Head of Policy, RSA

Join us to explore the findings, shape the following steps, and help ensure inclusive growth becomes the standard- not the exception.

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As we face the challenges of climate change, inequality, and environmental degradation, we know that simply sustaining is not enough.

To achieve this, we need a radical reimagining of our current systems – from economic and political to food and energy. And we need a new collective story for humanity. One that celebrates our fundamental interconnection with all life on Earth and galvanises collaborative action.

Linking speakers in the historic Great Room of the RSA in London and the UK Pavilion at Expo 2025, this event will hear from the next generation of disruptors, influencers and innovators who are building new movements to move us from the passive ‘do less harm’ principle of sustainability, to the active ‘do more good’ principle of regeneration, and seeding a flourishing future for people, places, and the planet we all share.

• Lucy Siegle, Journalist and Author (London)
• Carolyn Davidson, UK Commissioner General for Expo 2025 (Osaka)

• Amy Meek, Co-Founder, Kids Against Plastic (London)
• Tessa Devreese, Programme Lead, ReLondon (London)
• Brendan Barrett, Professor, Centre for Global Initiatives (Osaka)
• Jesusoorefunmi Olaoye (Soore), Co-Founder, Energyz Black, Commercial Manager at OVO (London)

A bold new events partnership celebrating the UK as a place to come to study, visit and invest, and as a country of innovation and creativity where the world can come to build the future.

With the deadline to the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals just five years away, the RSA and UK at Expo 2025 partnership will tackle global issues from inequality to climate change, exploring the progress that has been made and the work still to be done to secure health and wellbeing, peace, justice, and prosperity for communities worldwide.

Donate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEa

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