UK growth centres report launched by Connected Places Catapult

Connected Places Catapult has today launched a new report that examines how proposed investments in research and development might be best directed to realise the government’s levelling up ambitions.

Authored by Centre for Cities, a non-partisan think tank, ‘Identifying potential growth centres across the UK’ also identifies how places themselves can harness the levelling up opportunities presented to them by the Government proposals.

The report begins by highlighting the characteristics which define the UK’s highest performing innovation economies, grouping the UK’s cities and largest towns into different ‘types’ – including all-rounders, university-led innovators, commercialisers and applied innovators.

It then turns its attention to which places have the most potential to join the likes of London and Cambridge as innovation engines.

Building on this, the new piece of work goes on to suggest that while some places might not be able to absorb and effectively utilise R&D funding, those that can need to be identified and efforts made to concentrate investment and energy in order to achieve an economy-wide levelling up effect.

‘Identifying growth centres across the UK’ aims to move the focus of the R&D spending, which in previous years has been predominantly focussed on the South East (41% of all public R&D spending has historically gone to areas like Oxford, Cambridge and West London). Though this has been for good reason (ie, the best-in-class research and innovation capacities in those regions), there are other locales across the country that could be transformed into growth centres, and as such, contribute just as much to the UK economy.

Those interested in reading the report can do so by clicking the button below.