UK Places
Partnering with regions across the UK to foster innovation ecosystems that drive local impact and national capability.
What is ‘Place’?
Places are both an enabler and a driver for innovation. Place and place-based initiatives are important in delivering economic, environmental, and societal benefits across the UK, and we are committed to connecting national and regional innovation to enable these benefits.
This means looking at innovation from a place-first rather than industry sector-first perspective, working between national policies and local priorities. On a practical level, it means we’re doing things in places, for the benefit of those places. From our Innovate Local event series to our Launchpad programme, we are committed to delivering activities that make a difference to innovators across the UK.
What we do is aligned to the Innovate UK Plan for Action.
Strengthening UK capability in places
We support existing excellent local innovation strengths that are critical to overall UK capability, through investment support in strategic infrastructure, to building clusters of excellence.
Connecting national to local
We need local and national business support across the UK, to work together with better signposting and awareness of national and specialist support. We strive to make it easier for businesses to find the best support, whether local or national.
Driving local impact
We tailor our support to innovative business clusters to build capacity, stimulate greater connectivity between local businesses and the research base and deliver greater productivity and economic impact.
Our UK Places
East of England
We are delivering place-focused innovation programmes in the East of England to drive local impact.
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East Midlands
Working collaboratively across the East Midlands is key to our objective to strengthen UK capability in places.
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London and the South East
From Southend-on-Sea to Southampton, we are connecting national to local across London and the South East of England.
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North East England
We are working with leaders across the North East of England to strengthen UK capability in places.
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Northern Ireland
Working with Invest NI and Department for the Economy, we are driving place-based impact across Northern Ireland.
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North West England
We are driving local impact across the North West through key programmes like our Innovation Accelerator and Launchpad.
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Scotland
In partnership with Scotland's development agencies, we are connecting national to local across Scotland's innovation ecosystem.
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South West England
In partnership with local leaders we are driving local impact through our work in the South West of England.
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Wales
Working collaboratively with Welsh Government, we are connecting national to local across Wales.
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West Midlands
With an action plan, Launchpad and Innovation Accelerator, we are driving local impact in the West Midlands.
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Yorkshire and the Humber
Strengthening UK capability in places is key to our work with local leaders across Yorkshire and the Humber.
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Our UK Places team
Our colleagues across the Innovate UK system are dedicated to supporting innovators, no matter where in the UK you are based. In addition, we have a dedicated UK Places team working on building our strategic local partnerships and developing place-focused initiatives.
Meet the team
Contact us
For general enquiries regarding our UK places and regional growth, please connect with us.