Oxford+

Hosted by Susannah de Jager

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Aug 2026

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Welcome to Oxford+, the podcast series that explores the myths and truths of the Oxford investing landscape hosted by Susannah de Jager. Since moving to Oxford, Susannah has collaborated with experts, entrepreneurs, and government to shape the conversation around domestic scale-up capital. Oxford+ aims to inform, inspire, and connect. We'll talk to Founders, investors, academics, politicians, and facilitators and explore how Oxford is open for business.

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August 17, 2026Episode 738 min

Ethics & Innovation: Can Trust Keep Up With AI?

What do you do when the technology arrives faster than the plan you wrote for it? In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox , host Susannah de Jager speaks with Professor Anne Trefethen, Professor of Scientific Computing at the University of Oxford and Trustee of the Alan Turing Institute, about leading a university through the arrival of generative AI. Oxford published its digital strategy in 2022, weeks before ChatGPT appeared, and Anne explains why it then took courage to stop, rethink planned investments and add the governance she had hoped to avoid. The conversation moves from student adoption and equal access to what national resilience now means: sovereign capability, models we can trust because we know what they were trained on, and enough trained people to use them well. It lands in the middle of a live policy push, with the UK government expanding free AI training to reach 10 million workers by 2030 . Anne also makes the case for optimism, and for changing how we prepare graduates as entry-level work shifts. Useful listening for anyone setting AI strategy inside a large, complex organisation. (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+ (01:31) - A Career in Scientific Computing (02:41) - Oxford's First CIO and the Road to Digital (04:21) - When ChatGPT Overturned the Strategy (06:39) - Rethinking Investment and Governance (09:12) - Pilots, Rollout and Equal Access (12:57) - Hinton, Altman and the Race to Superintelligence (19:41) - The Turing as National Convener (22:02) - What Resilience Means in the Age of AI (25:45) - Sovereign Models, Distillation and Trust (28:57) - Sovereign Data Sets and British Values (36:18) - Entry-Level Jobs and the Next Generation Anne Trefethen: Anne Trefethen FREng is Professor of Scientific Computing at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of St Cross College and a Trustee of the Alan Turing Institute, the UK's national institute for AI and data science, appointed to its board in November 2024. She joined Oxford in 2005 to establish the Oxford e-Research Centre, which she directed for over six years, became the University's first Chief Information Officer in 2012, and went on to serve as Pro-Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for gardens, libraries and museums, then people, then digital, leading Oxford's digital transformation programme. Before Oxford she spent almost 20 years in industry and academia, including research roles at Thinking Machines Corporation and the Cornell Theory Center, Vice President for research and development at the Numerical Algorithms Group, and leadership of the UK e-Science Core Programme. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2017 and has served as a non-executive director of the UK Statistics Authority. Connect with Anne on LinkedIn 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 Equinox . Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

August 10, 2026Episode 627 min

Ethics & Innovation: Building an Innovation Ecosystem That Includes Everyone

Who really benefits when an innovation ecosystem succeeds? In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox , host Susannah de Jager talks to Dr Olga Kozlova, Director of Innovation and Engagement at the University of Oxford, about Equinox, Equitable Innovation Oxford, the regional partnership she has helped drive since its launch. Olga explains why Oxford wants to avoid repeating San Francisco's mistakes, where economic success sat alongside rising poverty and crime, and how Equinox is instead building a skills agenda, an inward investment unit and a founders' pledge to spread the benefits of growth more widely. The conversation lands as the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor gains fresh momentum , with government plans to double funding and unlock up to £78 billion for the UK economy by 2035. Olga argues that Britain needs more national pride in its innovation strengths, and a clearer story about why Oxfordshire's growth should matter to everyone who lives there, not just those inside the university's walls. (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+ (01:13) - Introducing Equinox and Equitable Innovation (02:29) - Bringing Equity and Innovation Together (05:54) - Taking Stakeholders on the Growth Journey (06:38) - Focusing Equinox's Delivery Priorities (07:50) - Telling Innovation's Local Success Stories (09:07) - Opening Up Oxford's Communal Spaces (10:21) - Supporting Founders Outside the University System (12:31) - Building an Inward Investment Unit (16:34) - Backing the Ox-Cam Rail and Growth Corridor (19:59) - Keeping Sovereign Talent and Capital in the UK (22:32) - National Pride and Self-Belief Olga Kozlova: Dr Olga Kozlova is Director of Innovation and Engagement at the University of Oxford, where she leads work on technology commercialisation, start-ups, investment and inclusive innovation ecosystems, and is one of the driving forces behind Equinox, Equitable Innovation Oxford. She previously established and led the Innovation and Industry Engagement Directorate at the University of Strathclyde and founded Converge, Scotland's national company creation and entrepreneurship development programme. Olga is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an experienced board member and adviser across the UK innovation ecosystem. 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 Equinox . Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

August 3, 2026Episode 542 min

Ethics & Innovation: Can AI Close the Justice Gap?

What if the biggest barrier to justice is not the law itself, but who can reach it? In this episode of Oxford+, part of the Ethics and Innovation miniseries sponsored by Equinox, host Susannah de Jager speaks with Professor Philippa Webb, co-founder of the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice, about whether artificial intelligence can close the global justice gap rather than widen it. Philippa explains why only a small fraction of people who need a lawyer can access one, how her team is building legal tools for women and girls in Malawi, and why judges in Brazil and Argentina are already teaching themselves to code and building their own agents. The conversation also confronts the risks. Deepfakes are now trivially easy to produce, digital evidence is piling up unused in atrocity prosecutions, and 130 states have suffered cyber attacks. With the World Economic Forum reporting that 87% of organisations see AI-related vulnerabilities as the fastest-growing cyber risk , Philippa makes the case for legal routes to accountability, better training, and closing the perception gap that still keeps AI out of the courtroom. (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+ (01:55) - A Career Across Academia and Practice (03:33) - Inside the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice (06:19) - Cyber Attacks, Critical Infrastructure and Accountability (10:00) - The Digital Evidence Gap in Atrocity Crimes (13:22) - Training Judges, Prosecutors and Defence Counsel (16:18) - How Easy It Is to Make a Deepfake (19:32) - The AI Justice Atlas and Courtrooms Worldwide (21:48) - Building a Fair Trial Advisor for Judges (25:48) - Malawi, a Legal Desert and a Testing Ground (33:47) - Protecting Journalists in the First 48 Hours (38:50) - What the Institute Needs Next Philippa Webb: Philippa Webb KC is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government, a Fellow of Exeter College, and a barrister at Twenty Essex. With Amal Clooney, she is co-founder and Director of the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice, the first global initiative dedicated to harnessing AI for justice, launched in October 2025 as a partnership between the Blavatnik School and the Clooney Foundation for Justice. She has served as Special Assistant and Legal Officer to the President of the International Court of Justice and as legal adviser to the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, and she appears regularly before the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights and the UK Supreme Court. She co-wrote The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law with Amal Clooney, was named International Law Junior 2025 by Legal 500, and was elected to the Institut de Droit International in 2025. Connect with Philippa on LinkedIn 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 Equinox . Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

July 27, 2026Episode 437 min

Ethics & Innovation: What Makes Us Human in the Age of AI?

What do our conversations with machines reveal about what it means to be human? In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox , host Susannah de Jager speaks with Professor Edward Harcourt, Director of Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI, about the parts of human life that no algorithm can reproduce. Edward argues that the real risk of chatbots is not that they reshape social life, but that people mistake them for something real. Recorded as the UK government confirmed a ban on social media for under-16s from spring 2027 , the conversation moves from embodiment and mortality to attachment theory, pluralism and the limits of machine minds. Edward warns of two quieter dangers: cognitive atrophy, as we outsource our thinking, and social atrophy, as we trade human contact for efficiency. Edward Harcourt: Edward Harcourt is Director of the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, where he is also Professor of Philosophy and a Fellow of Keble College. His work sits at the boundary of ethics and the philosophy of mind, and his research at the Institute focuses on AI and humanity: how human values should shape the design, governance and use of AI, and what philosophical reflection on AI reveals about what is unique to human beings. From 2018 to 2022 he was Director of Research, Strategy and Innovation at UK Research and Innovation's Arts and Humanities Research Council, where he helped develop its Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) programme. He is the editor of Attachment and Character (Oxford University Press, 2021) and has written widely on moral psychology, child development and Wittgenstein. He was appointed MBE. Connect with Edward on LinkedIn 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 Equinox . Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

July 20, 2026Episode 341 min

Ethics & Innovation: Civic AI, Data Soil and Digital Democracy

What if AI could strengthen democracy instead of concentrating power? In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox , host Susannah de Jager speaks with Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s Cyber Ambassador and former Digital Minister, about civic AI, digital democracy and the practical alternatives to extractive big tech models. Audrey explains why data should be treated as soil, not oil, and how smaller, community-shaped models can serve families, cities and nations without forcing everyone into a single technological dependency. The conversation moves from Taiwan’s pandemic response to deepfake fraud, social media portability, local Kami models and the 6-Pack of Care, offering a hopeful but grounded vision for AI governance. Recent reporting on Taiwan’s anti-fraud work shows why this matters now: Audrey has said Taiwan’s civic AI approach helped reduce deepfake scams by more than 94%, as reported by MIT Solve . For policymakers, founders and citizens, this episode asks a practical question: how do we design AI systems that increase participation, transparency and trust, rather than deepening dependency, polarisation and surveillance? (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+ (01:13) - Audrey Tang’s Role in Taiwan and Oxford (03:16) - Data as Soil, Not Oil (05:14) - Replacing Rage Algorithms with Consensus (09:10) - Community Notes and Commercial Bridge-Building (13:00) - Singleton Models, Kami and Local AI (17:19) - Sovereign Models and Technology Dependency (22:29) - Building Trust Around Public Data (27:34) - Transparency, Data Altruism and Shared Purpose (31:16) - The 6-Pack of Care (33:45) - Barriers to Civic AI Adoption (36:58) - Rewilding the Web Audrey Tang: Audrey Tang is Taiwan’s Cyber Ambassador, Taiwan’s first Digital Minister from 2016 to 2024, and a Senior Accelerator Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI. Audrey is a civic hacker, open-source contributor and co-author of Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy, with work focused on digital democracy, public-interest technology, civic AI and collaborative governance. TIME named Audrey to its inaugural 100 Most Influential People in AI list in 2023, and Audrey received the 2025 Right Livelihood Award for advancing the social use of digital technology to empower citizens, renew democracy and heal divides. Connect with Audrey on LinkedIn 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 Equinox . Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

July 14, 2026Episode 240 min

Ethics & Innovation: Does AI Actually Understand Our World?

What does it really mean to say that an AI system understands, reasons or thinks? In this episode of Ethics and Innovation by Oxford+ brought to you by Equinox , host Susannah de Jager speaks with Dr Raphaël Millière, Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Oxford, about the deep conceptual questions behind today’s AI systems. Raphaël explains why strong performance on a benchmark does not always prove real competence, why language models learn in a profoundly different way from humans, and why common sense remains such a revealing fault line in AI research. The conversation moves from consciousness and anthropomorphism to the geopolitical stakes of sovereign AI. Recent research from Anthropic on global workspace-like structures in language models shows why questions about internal representations are becoming more urgent, while the European Commission’s 2026 technological sovereignty package underlines how AI capability is now tied to economic resilience, national security and democratic control. (00:00) - Welcome to Oxford+ (01:01) - Raphaël Millière’s Work in Philosophy of AI (03:24) - Performance, Competence and AI Evaluation (07:01) - Testing Analogy and Reasoning in AI Models (08:56) - Why AI Learns Differently from Humans (13:13) - Language, Embodiment and the Path to Intelligence (17:02) - Common Sense and the Jagged Edge of AI (19:39) - Should We Build Human-Level AI? (22:29) - The Utopian and Arms Race Cases for AI (28:31) - Sovereign AI, Europe and Strategic Dependence (34:01) - Public Investment, Private Incentives and Democratic Governance (37:21) - Moving Beyond Polarised AI Debates Raphaël Millière: Raphaël Millière is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Jesus College and affiliated with the Institute for Ethics in AI. His research sits at the intersection of philosophy, cognitive science and artificial intelligence, with a focus on the capacities and limitations of contemporary AI systems, including language understanding, reasoning, planning, consciousness and AI safety. He also holds an AI2050 Fellowship from Schmidt Sciences, and his recent work includes The Philosophy of Language Models, published in Philosophy Compass. Connect with Raphaël on LinkedIn 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 Equinox . Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

July 7, 2026Episode 135 min

Ethics & Innovation: The Social Media Ban, Sovereign AI, and the Race We Can't Stop

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 models increasingly resembles an arms race. They explore whether the UK's long focus on ethical AI has become a competitive advantage, how Britain should position itself between the United States, Europe and China, and why sovereign AI and sovereign data assets matter for defending national values. The conversation lands at a pivotal moment. Days after the UK government announced a ban on social media use by under-16s modelled on Australia's, Lionel explains why he changed his mind and now sees a ban as the only real leverage over platforms that have resisted safety by design for a decade. From AI literacy in schools to the case for putting the AI Security Institute on a statutory footing, this is a clear-eyed look at governing a technology moving faster than policy. Lord Lionel Tarassenko: Lionel Tarassenko, Baron Tarassenko CBE FREng FMedSci, is the founding President of Reuben College, Oxford, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Research Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. A world-leading expert in the application of signal processing and machine learning to healthcare, he was among the first to apply machine learning to real-world, safety-critical systems, from Rolls-Royce jet-engine health monitoring to NHS patient monitoring. The critical-care system he designed was the first machine learning system to gain FDA approval, in 2008. He founded four University spin-out companies, directed the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and edited the 2019 Topol Review of NHS technology and the workforce. He was appointed a non-party-political life peer in 2024 and sits on the crossbenches, where he speaks on AI, healthcare and digital policy. Connect with Lionel on LinkedIn 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 Equinox . Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

June 30, 2026Episode 12 min

Introducing the Ethics & Innovation Miniseries

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 including how should we govern powerful new technologies? What does human flourishing look like in the age of AI? How is technology shaping childhood, relationships, and mental health? And how can innovation ecosystems ensure that prosperity is shared more broadly? The aim of this miniseries is not to provide definitive answers, rather to help all of us ask better questions. Because the future is not something that simply happens to us, it's something we can choose to build. Ethics and Innovation is proudly sponsored by Equinox, Equitable Innovation Oxford. Equinox brings together leaders from across business, academia, local government, and civil society to ensure that the benefits of Oxford's remarkable innovation ecosystem are shared more widely across communities helping to create more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable future for the region. 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 The Ethics & Innovation Miniseries is hosted by Susannah de Jager and supported by Equinox . Produced and Edited by Story Ninety-Four in Oxford.

June 23, 20262 min

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

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.

June 16, 2026Episode 106 min

Oxford+ in Brief with Ceri Morgan, Partner at Dalloway Partners

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 struggles with: it brings you face to face with astonishing, modest people, but connects them far too rarely. Looking ahead to 2050, Ceri wants Oxford closer to the Boston benchmark, with more companies scaling outside the university and acquirers reinvesting locally rather than draining talent abroad. Her timing is apt: UK university spin-outs have nearly tripled in value to £49 billion since 2020 , with activity now spreading beyond the golden triangle. From mentorship and the Lamb and Flag to a magic-wand investor database, this is a short, candid window into how a natural connector thinks. Ceri Morgan: Dr Ceri Morgan is a Partner at Dalloway Partners, the advisory firm founded in 2025 by Vanessa Colomar and Helen James to help foundational science and first-time founders scale at speed. A medical doctor by training, she practised in cardiology and trauma medicine before moving into the City, where she spent more than two decades in healthcare and life sciences investment banking, building and leading top-ranked life science teams at firms including KBC Peel Hunt and Deutsche Bank and advising companies such as Oxford Nanopore and IP Group. Most recently she was Head of Late Stage Portfolio at Oxford Science Enterprises, and she is a Senior Advisor to LifeScience ORG. Based in Oxford, she also sits on a London hospital patient advisory group, drawing on her own experience as a cancer patient to push for stronger patient advocacy. Connect with Ceri on LinkedIn 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.