Innovation
Priorities
Priority 1: Developing a thriving culture of innovation and creativity
To prosper, the region needs to increase innovation activity in all businesses. This must be matched by a culture of creativity and collaboration, in education and civic life. Many of the biggest challenges facing the region - climate change, inequality and an aging demographic - are resistant to conventional approaches and demand innovation. The public sector is an important driver of innovation - in terms of developing new and more effective services, promoting creativity in education and workforce development and, crucially, through using procurement to generate innovation and product viability. The third sector can also be a source of social innovation, improving and complementing mainstream public service provision.
Leading innovative companies and organisations share a number of attributes. These include recruiting innovative employees, providing training in creativity and innovation, developing a learning culture, empowering employees to take forward new ideas and rewarding successful innovation.
Priority 2: Commercialising R&D and adopting innovation
Despite the region’s strengths in R&D, evidence suggests a problem in translating new products and services into profit or scaling up innovative companies beyond niche markets. In part, this can be explained by the fact that innovation often takes time to have a major impact on economic growth. However, it also reflects the fact that the region and key cities are often ‘knowledge-generating’ locations as opposed to ‘knowledge-using’ locations. Business profitability and wider economic growth are often driven more by adoption of existing ideas, products or processes in the workplace and implementing them to improve quality and efficiency, or to develop new goods and services. Innovative companies are often prevented from becoming keystone companies of local economies through financial drives for early exit or acquisition, limited management, creative and technical skills pools.
Universities are a critical part of the regional innovation system. Close collaboration between universities, research institutes, businesses and the government is a feature of successful regions. This goes beyond knowledge transfer, spin-outs and licensing, to a wider range of interactions with businesses and society. Universities provide access to new ideas; skilled labour and internships; levering research funds and grants; consultancy services; public space and levering intellectual resources from a wider range of disciplines than a single business could do on its own.
Success in commercialising and adopting innovation can be increased through effective business support, access to a range of finance products, effective business and social networking and exposure to national and international markets. Collective public sector procument can also create demand for emerging technologies and services.
Priority 3: Strengthening clusters around leading private sector R&D companies and research-intensive universities
The East of England contains the major facilities of a number of global top 50 R&D companies, the internationally renowned University of Cambridge and the associated technology cluster in the Cambridge sub-region, with in excess of 1,400 companies and employing 43,000 people. The region has major ‘knowledge-generating’ clusters in health and life sciences, ICT, and emerging strengths in high-growth areas such as environmental technologies and renewable energy.
During the lifetime of this strategy, there needs to be a focus on the sectors and clusters in which the region has existing or potential international advantage. To retain, attract and nurture companies at the forefront of innovation and R&D, the region needs to develop networks and a leading innovation infrastructure. This includes ‘third-generation’ science parks and business infrastructure linked to major R&D companies, institutes and research-intensive universities. Beyond high-quality commercial, research and incubation space, these parks and enterprise hubs will offer businesses access to technology expertise, skilled labour pools, finance providers, support services and networks.
Development of key clusters will also require a positive planning approach to wider housing, infrastructure and utilities provision to enable the continued growth of high-value activity and employment.
Priority 4: Positioning the East of England and Greater South East as global innovation regions
Large-scale R&D and innovation is a global, open activity involving many players in many locations. Rising costs and skill shortages in traditional locations of R&D activity, growth in emerging markets such as China and India and advances in information and communications technologies are driving this trend. Research demonstrates that the investment decisions of innovation-based companies are heavily influenced by proximity to markets, suppliers and skilled workers. These are often in technology and research-intensive clusters.
The East of England must be at the forefront of places that are attractive to major innovators and investors. For global impact, the region can be marketed as part of the Greater South East, Europe's leading innovation super-region. There must also be a focus on developing and promoting the region's key strengths - health and life sciences, ICT and environmental technologies - and the benefits of location in, or collaboration with, the East of England's key clusters. This requires a bold approach to promotion in international markets, matching other leading technology locations, such as the US, Israel and Sweden.
Implementation priorities
- developing a positive planning framework, ensuring timely delivery of key infrastructure and utilities provision, and tailored skills provision to create research and technical talent pools to enable growth of existing and emerging clusters
- increasing rates of commercialisation of R&D, technology uptake and innovation in finance, marketing and distribution through an integrated business support and access to finance package
- maximising the productivity benefits of co-locating private sector, research institutes and universities and progressing the development of next-generation science parks
- expanding the full range of knowledge exchange, skills provision and business engagement of regional universities and increased investment in the international quality research departments and institutes
- promoting dense business and social networks to enable flows of ideas, advice and investment opportunities
- developing shared marketing propositions with key partners in London and the South East to promote international investment and talent attraction
- developing a suite of financial products, support for creativity and incentives to encourage social and public sector innovation.