General Hockenhull opens new Strategic Command Innovation Space
General Jim Hockenhull opened the new innovation Central Collaboration Space (CCS) in a ceremony on 19 April 2023.
General Jim Hockenhull opening new CSS space.
The CCS is a new home for Strategic Command innovation following the closure of its previous offices in Aviation House, Holborn.
Designed to provide the ideal environment for innovation and growth, the CCS provides Strategic Command’s innovation community with the modern meeting, work, and event spaces it needs to come together and work with partners to collaborate and enhance co-creation and co-delivery.
General Jim speaking with StratCom innovation colleagues.
With innovation crucial to the Command’s role in Defence, the CCS will play an important role in helping Strategic Command move from innovating at the edge, to innovation at the heart of the organisation.
Stressing the importance of this at last month’s Now. Next. Future. conference, General Jim said:
Now innovating at the edge is really good. You get dynamism, you get invention, and you get imagination. But what we’re not doing is bringing that into our core business.
What we need to do is drive that change into the very heart of how we run UK Defence. That is a purpose and one of the key functions of Strategic Command.
Situated on the Imperial College campus in the heart of London’s White City Innovation District, the CCS sits alongside the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) and NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), opening the door to improved partnerships with experts in academia, industry, and from our international partners.
Hosted by UKStratCom’s Innovation Champion, Rear Admiral Andrew Betton, the ceremony also gave General Jim the chance to meet some of the innovation teams including the jHub and its newly appointed Head, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Sawyers.
UKStratCom’s Innovation Champion, Rear Admiral Andrew Betton at CSS opening ceremony.
If we’re to be successful innovators, we must continue to learn and adapt in partnership and recognise the need to work with experts around us, whether it be from industry or academia.
With its location and specifications, the now open CCS is a positive step in this direction, bringing innovation teams from across Strategic Command, and wider Defence, together to forge partnerships for the future.
Strategic Command Innovation logo.