New cash boosts of £20m each for Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Glasgow City Region will help to deliver more of the regions’ game-changing local innovations like robotics to unlock new medicines or AI that can spot illnesses earlier, the Science and Technology Secretary has announced today ahead of this Tuesday’s landmark Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham.
The funding package will give local leaders in these three areas access to a total of £50m each to fund innovations in science and technology in their local areas, like the next lifesaving medicine or cheaper fuels that can keep bills down.
The new funding for three regions is the latest commitment from the Government’s £500m Local Innovation Partnerships Fund (LIPF).
It builds on the initial £30m earmarked for each place in June’s Spending Review, along with seven others across the UK, in addition to inviting further bids of up to £20 million from high potential innovation clusters in all other regions of the UK. This will support local leaders to invest in local innovation strengths – from advanced manufacturing and life sciences to digital technologies and clean energy – and in turn back our Industrial Strategy to boost jobs.
Taken together, this month’s bumper LIPF funding package will back teams across the country to scale-up and drive forward more discoveries, recognising the benefits they bring to people’s everyday lives – from keeping us healthy, to reducing delays on our commute, to building a greener planet with cheaper bills.
Previous regional funding has boosted Greater Manchester’s growth into a global AI hub, connecting university technical expertise to start-ups and SMEs so they can turn early-stage ideas into viable products – from tech which can predict disease progression earlier to work on net zero innovations to decarbonise buildings.
