A reflection from the AI era
By Lily Lin
After more than two decades working between the UK and China—first in education and now in life sciences innovation—I’ve come to see a quiet but defining pattern: many founders have ambitions that grow faster than the systems around them. The more we work in frontier disciplines like biotech, therapeutics, and AI, the more visible this becomes. This reflection is for those building across geographies and sectors, especially in life sciences, where ambition often moves ahead of infrastructure.
The Reality Behind the Gap
Ambition is not the challenge. The problem lies in the systems—regulatory pathways, market entry routes, networks of trust, funding structures—which remain too local, too fractured, or too slow to evolve at the same pace.
Rose Luckin’s concept of interwoven intelligence has helped shape how I think about this. She describes three forms of intelligence:
- Academic intelligence: not only scientific expertise, but fluency in regulation, clinical priorities, market dynamics, data, and AI.
- Social intelligence: the ability to build trust, communicate across expectations, and work across cultures.
- Meta-intelligence: the reflective capacity to connect ideas, interpret unfamiliar systems, and decide when to use technology and when not to.
These abilities do not develop in isolation. They require scaffolding—networks, trusted relationships, and the right contexts to grow.
Why the AI Era Makes This More Urgent
AI is accelerating discovery and expanding what is possible in life sciences. But it is also exposing how uneven human systems are.
- A team in Cambridge may have access to groundbreaking research but limited visibility on how to navigate clinical adoption in China.
- A company in Shanghai may understand regulation and manufacturing but lack pathways into the NHS or European partners.
- Technically strong founders may not have the reflective space to integrate AI with ethics, relevance, and strategic judgment.
These are not personal shortcomings. They are structural gaps.
Where Many People Stall
I’ve met many capable founders and innovators who find themselves “almost there” but unable to cross into their next stage. Not because they lack will or skill, but because no structure exists to help them extend their intelligence beyond local systems.
When people speak about “bridging” ecosystems like the UK and China, the conversation often centres on trade missions, partnerships, or investment. These are important, but they don’t fully address the deeper need: a developmental environment where intelligence can stretch across contexts rather than remain confined to one.
Ambition struggles not when it is too bold, but when the environment around it is too limited.
The Role of the Hub
This is the impulse behind the UK–China Life Sciences Innovation Hub.
It is not designed as a traditional consultancy or accelerator. It is intended to be:
- A support system that helps life sciences ventures grow with the right pathways, not just access.
- A connector of systems, linking regulatory, clinical, commercial, and investor landscapes across the UK and China.
- A space for capability growth, where founders and innovators can extend their intelligence into new contexts.
- A catalyst that goes beyond transactions and enables transformation.
- A long-term partner rather than a one-off intervention.
The model does not need to be perfect from the start. What matters is creating environments where new forms of progress can take shape.
A Collaborative Journey
We do not see this work as a finished model, but as a shared construction. If you recognise these realities—as a founder, investor, policymaker, researcher, or ecosystem partner—we invite you to help shape what comes next. The Hub is not a fixed structure, but a collaborative space for building the systems that ambition requires.
That’s why our vision is to build infrastructures that match the scale of human ambition — especially in life sciences across the UK and China.
EFEC is a seasoned facilitator with decades of experience in building high-trust partnerships between the UK and China. We are surrounded by some of the world’s leading scientists, clinicians, regulators, and entrepreneurs — each offering the very best in their domain.
Our role is to connect them. We act as the bridge and the facilitator, ensuring that these diverse voices and capabilities come together in ways that are efficient, equitable, and strategically aligned.
Vision
The UK–China Life Sciences Innovation Hub is the trusted facilitator between two of the world's most dynamic innovation ecosystems. We enable meaningful partnerships, ensuring that world-class scientists, companies, regulators, and investors can work together in harmony to advance global health.
Mission
We exist to make collaboration possible. Our mission is to facilitate partnerships between the UK and China's life sciences ecosystems, enabling innovation to cross borders smoothly, responsibly, and with lasting impact.
