Innovation

Our strategic objectives for innovation are to brand the Manchester city region as a world-leading knowledge centre built on its reputation in science and innovation by:

• Leveraging the value of its history and current assets in these fields and in particular:
  - The city region needs to capitalise on and develop its deep labour markets where the big key note investments are being made in the city region’s economy such as MediaCity UK and the emerging demand for skills (at all levels but emphasis on high value – high skilled jobs).
  – The role of big science investment (Daresbury and The Corridor) in the North West and higher education institution’s ability to link into it.
• Increasing the level of research funding invested in the city region by the private sector and the UK government.
• Bringing about a business cultural shift which better recognises the value of innovation and investments in normal business operations.
• Attracting major international leading science programmes and institutions

A fundamental means by which this will be taken forward is the newly established Manchester Innovation Group, which is a merger of the Commission for the New Economy’s Innovation Sub Group and the Manchester Knowledge Capital Board, whose primary objectives are to guide the development and implementation of innovation across the city region, to continue to promote Manchester as a knowledge city and to increase the rate of innovation and knowledge based activity to drive Manchester forward as a global innovation hub.