Innovate UK launches new local action plan in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority

The West Yorkshire Local Action Plan sets out Innovate UK’s approach to encourage more businesses in West Yorkshire to focus on innovating, which is essential for growth, building resilience against challenging conditions, and acts as the vital ingredient to unlocking the UK’s economic potential

Providing the right tools and resources businesses need to innovate will help create an attractive environment for both inward investment and private investors. This will create opportunities for the region’s most promising innovators.

The plan also gives enhanced commitments to share more data and to deliver more outreach activities. For example, through events in West Yorkshire; to actively work to inspire more businesses to invest in R&D; and to support the Mayor’s Innovation Prize – a funding competition for young people to generate new ideas to address the challenges in their communities.

West Yorkshire is not short of good ideas. From the first commercial steam-train – the Salamanca, to cats-eyes guiding our cars along dark roads, the region has a long history of being a leading pioneer of innovation. More recently, data shows that Innovate UK has invested over £63m in the region in the last five and a half years, mostly into businesses innovating in the health, manufacturing and materials industries, illustrative of the future opportunities ahead.

The region already has great strengths in manufacturing, life sciences and creative industries. The local plan hopes to inspire new diverse entrepreneurs and business leaders to innovate. With this plan at its aid, the latent power of the region will be unleashed to drive the economic growth we need for the whole of the UK.