Inclusive Innovation in UK city regions
The main objective of this Innovation and Research Caucus funded project is to explore the new era of central-local relations in innovation policy following the election of a Labour Government.
In summary terms, it consists of three empirical components:
- Mapping the new macro policy context for devolution, innovation and regional economic development;
- Assessing city-regional strategies in the new place-based innovation policy mix, which consists of the traditional Science + Technology model (e.g. triple helix arrangements in university-industry partnerships, cluster building, start-ups and scaleups etc) and the emerging Social Innovation model (e.g. new heterodox challenge-led experiments in community wealth building and foundational economy initiatives etc);
- The new roles that universities are beginning to play in brokering and convening place-based partnerships in the new innovation policy mix. In principle the two models are complementary, but in practice they can trigger tensions within city regional partnerships given their different constituencies and metrics (Morgan and Henderson, 2023).
Project team
- Professor Kevin Morgan
- Professor Rick Delbridge
- Dr Katherine Parsons
- Professor Elvira Uyarra
- Dr David Waite.
The project builds on a pilot project funded by the Research Caucus during 2023, see outcomes below:
- Parsons, K., Delbridge, R., Uyarra, E., Waite, D., Huggins, R., & Morgan, K. (2024). Advancing inclusive innovation policy in the UK’s second-tier city-regions. Review of Regional Research, 1-24.
- Parsons, K., Delbridge, R., Uyarra, E., Waite, D., Huggins, R., & Morgan, K. (2024). Regional economic growth through innovation policy and business engagement: evidence from three UK city regions Innovation Caucus Report.