February’s Levelling Up White Paper announced three ‘Innovation Accelerators’ for the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and the Glasgow City Region, inspired by the Stanford-Silicon Valley and MIT-Greater Boston models of combining R&D with cutting-edge industry in a city-region, and funding of £100 million going to the three pilot areas over the next three years. Nearly six months on from the White Paper, what do these regions hope to achieve through their Innovation Accelerator programmes?

This event brought together people at the forefront of innovation strategy in each of the Accelerator locations on what they hope to achieve through the Innovation Accelerators programme, the strengths and weaknesses of the innovation system in each region, and what they would like to see from national and regional government to make the Accelerators a success.

Panellists:

Professor Richard Jones, Vice-President for Regional Innovation & Civic Engagement, Associate VP (Innovation & Regional & Economic Development), University of Manchester

Sarah Windrum, Chair, Coventry & Warwickshire LEP & Innovation Board Member at West Midlands Combined Authority

Graham Smith, Head of Investment, International & Innovation, Glasgow City Council

Chair: Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research, Centre for Cities