Game Changers celebrates a decade of innovation at anniversary event

A flagship event at Energus took place in September, marking 10 years of Game Changers.

From the moment the doors opened, the energy and enthusiasm were apparent. The engagement from attendees, speakers, challenge owners and solution providers highlighted how much Game Changers has achieved over the past decade.

Across a packed day of talks, technology demonstrations, case studies, networking and discussion, the programme’s impact was brought to life – from innovative technologies and real-world deployment stories to conversations about the future of open innovation in nuclear decommissioning.

It was a fitting reflection of a programme built on connecting challenges with new ideas, bringing expertise from beyond the nuclear sector into the industry, and turning promising innovations into practical solutions.

A Decade of Impact, Brought to Life

The day began with an opening keynote from Euan Hutton, CEO of Sellafield Ltd, who reflected on the impact of Game Changers over the past decade and how the programme has shown that the nuclear industry doesn’t need to develop every solution itself. By bringing expertise and technologies from outside the sector into nuclear and supporting their journey towards business as usual, Game Changers is also creating opportunities for UK businesses, jobs and future capability.

FIS360 CEO Frank Allison then reflected on the programme’s development since it was established, looking at how the approach has evolved over the past 10 years. The anniversary provided an opportunity to demonstrate what a decade of open innovation can achieve – from bringing new ideas and capabilities into nuclear decommissioning to testing, developing and progressing them towards deployment.

Technology lightning talks gave attendees a rapid insight into solutions and research from organisations including Digital Concepts Engineering, ProDecon, Alfa Rift, Geoptic, Fraunhofer, the Universities of Bristol, York, Loughborough and Nottingham, VisionAlpha, Clifton Photonics, Lynkeos Technology, Arktis Detectors and RW Seals.

Across the exhibition, attendees could see demonstrations of some of the technologies from Cerberus Nuclear, Laser Optical Engineering, OVA, Hybrid Instruments, Metalectrique/RMS, Ice Nine Ltd, Amentum, University of Strathclyde, CC Informatics, HausBots, DDS/Ice Nine Ltd, Ross Innovation and Eadon Consulting.

The breadth of the programme demonstrated one of the fundamental principles behind Game Changers: the solution to a nuclear challenge may come from anywhere.

Open Innovation that Delivers

The event also explored why this approach is so important to the nuclear decommissioning mission.

For Nic Clarke, Technology & Innovation Lead, Remediation at Sellafield Ltd, Game Changers has helped open access to capabilities that would otherwise be difficult to reach.

“Before Game Changers, we were very insular. There's a whole host of capability out there that small and medium enterprises, universities have, that's very hard for us to access, but is absolutely key to changing the dial on nuclear decommissioning and making a step change in our mission.”

Bringing in expertise from outside the traditional nuclear supply chain was a recurring theme throughout the day.

“It's really great to see these non-nuclear companies come through. They've got different ideas, different ways of working, and that's really helpful for us.” Hilary Royston-Bishop, Waste Strategy Lead, Sellafield Ltd

And Game Changers is no longer simply a UK-focused programme. Stuart Brown, Head of Programme Delivery at FIS360, highlighted its growing international reach, with organisations involved from countries including Finland and Canada, alongside organisations from multiple sectors and geographies.

The result is an increasingly diverse innovation ecosystem, connected by a shared focus on addressing some of the most challenging issues in nuclear decommissioning.

From Ideas to Measurable Impact

A key message throughout the anniversary event was that successful innovation is about more than generating ideas. It is about demonstrating value and progressing solutions towards practical use.

“Celebrating 10 years of innovation was a reminder of just how much can be achieved when organisations are prepared to back great ideas and bring together innovators from industry, academia and the supply chain. The energy, passion and commitment on display over the two days was truly inspiring.” Phoebe Lynch, Head of Innovation, NRS

Helen Bayram, Chris Ford and Andres Alfaro explored this through Evaluating Open Innovation: A Scorecard Approach, introducing a framework for assessing the impact of open innovation.

Two Challenge to Deployment case studies then brought that principle to life, showing how technologies can progress through the Game Changers process and move closer to operational application.

That journey – from identifying a challenge, through innovation, feasibility and demonstration, towards deployment – was visible throughout the event.

The Future of Innovation in Nuclear Decommissioning

While the day celebrated what has already been achieved, there was a clear focus on what comes next.

Attendees heard How to Get Involved in Game Changers, saw a new challenge launched and heard directly from those involved in taking innovations from challenge to deployment.

The panel discussion, The Importance of Open Innovation in Nuclear Decommissioning, brought together Nic Clarke, Rav Chunilal, Chris Hope and Paul Hughes of Sellafield Ltd, David Stothard of Fraunhofer CAP, and Melanie Brownridge of the NDA to consider the role open innovation will play in the future.

The message was clear: there is still huge value in looking beyond traditional sources of capability and bringing new ideas into the sector.

“So it's advancing not just Sellafield's mission, it's advancing the national mission as well.” Rav Chunilal, Head of Technology, Robotics & AI, Sellafield

A Celebration of the Game Changers Community

The overwhelmingly positive response from attendees was a fitting reflection of the community that has grown around Game Changers over the past decade.

Kirsty Sloan, Senior Process Engineer at Sellafield Ltd, captured the atmosphere of the day:

“Game Changers has had such an impact on my work scope over the last 3 or 4 years so it was great to share some passion and advice on how to get the most out of the process to anyone who is about to embark upon it.

As always, FIS360 Ltd did an amazing job of hosting the conference and as expected, the most enthusiastic of the nuclear industry's innovators made the day interesting and entertaining! Here's to the next 10 years...”

Others described the event as “well-organised and stimulating”, an “excellent event” featuring “engaging talks” and “fantastic demonstrations”, while others highlighted the atmosphere and organisation of the day.

The celebrations continued with the Game Changers awards, recognising achievements across the programme, before Gordon Tait, Innovation Manager and NRS Dounreay, played the audience out on the bagpipes.

The networking reception that followed provided a chance to continue the conversations – with FIS360's Kate Barrie accompanying the end of the exhibition on piano.

Proven innovation. Measurable impact.

Over the past decade, Game Changers has helped create connections that might otherwise never have happened, supported innovative companies through the process of developing and testing their solutions, and helped bring technologies into the nuclear environment where they can deliver real operational value.

As Hilary Royston-Bishop put it:

“I would summarise a decade of Game Changers as having made a significant contribution to accelerating the mission at Sellafield.”

That is the story behind 10 years of Game Changers: a decade of derisking innovation, embedding innovation into how challenges are addressed, and bringing new capability into nuclear decommissioning.

And if the conversations, enthusiasm and ideas generated around the anniversary event are anything to go by, there is plenty more to come.