Written evidence submitted by West Yorkshire Combined Authority (IGR0045)

Introduction

West Yorkshire is a dynamic, £67 billion economy at the heart of the North of England. A workforce of 1.2 million people is employed across a diverse range of sectors with has high numbers of jobs in health, manufacturing, and financial and professional services.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority works collaboratively across five local authority areas of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield to deliver regeneration and economic development, and co-ordinate long-term programmes to transform West Yorkshire.

The West Yorkshire Local Growth Plan brings together detailed evidence and sets out an approach to unlock growth and prosperity for all parts of the region. The West Yorkshire Local Growth Plan will address challenges across investment, skills and connectivity to unlock growth for the region underpinned by principles of inclusion, health and wellbeing, and sustainability.

Innovation will be a key to delivering growth ambitions. Priorities include unlocking growth through a targeted approach to sectors and clusters, establishing a transformative investment fund, positioning West Yorkshire as an Innovation Centre of Excellence and a producing an ambitious Compact agreement with Further Education and Higher Education partners.

Framing of our response

This response to the ‘Innovation, growth and the regions’ call for evidence is focused on the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s strategic and convening role across the innovation ecosystem and work to maximise the benefits of this diverse ecosystem for inclusive growth.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority works closely with local authorities, businesses and universities to connect the innovation ecosystem. The Combined Authority works in close partnership with businesses through forums that facilitate private sector input into such as the West Yorkshire Business Board which brings together the voices of SMEs in the region, and the Mayor’s Business Council, which represents large businesses in West Yorkshire. The West Yorkshire Innovation Network and other external networks diffuse knowledge of opportunities and encourage connections.

1. How does the Government drive research and innovation in our regions?

Innovation Driven Growth

• If the UK is to achieve its national growth ambitions, it needs West Yorkshire – the fourth largest urban area in the country – to drive up productivity growth. Successful regions are those that create a culture of innovation which enables institutions, entrepreneurs, and businesses of all sizes to create, attract, accelerate, champion and retain innovation.
• Support for leadership and management and access to a pipeline of talent and are vital to ensure businesses are innovating. Businesses need access technology, expertise, IP, licences and facilities, and the research community need a forum to market their services as well as specific projects and opportunities.

• Innovation support must be underpinned by investment in physical and digital infrastructure. Interventions which facilitate the more effective and efficient movement of people, goods and services create new opportunities, open new markets and bring new ideas and talent to the region.
• A fragmented support landscape limits capacity for innovation. Uneven and short-term funding can result in innovation support being time-limited, and centrally imposed restrictions may not meet the diverse range of local needs.
• Combined Authorities are ideally placed to facilitate a holistic approach to innovation support, embedding strategic long-terms plans that maximise individually recognised assets and ensuring a pipeline of skilled people sit alongside wider infrastructure improvements.

West Yorkshire as an Innovation Centre of Excellence

• West Yorkshire is home to a vibrant network of research and development expertise. This includes seven Higher Education Institutions, specialist networks, a leading Health Tech cluster, innovation assets including Nexus at Leeds, the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre in Huddersfield, and dynamic businesses creating everything from alternative proteins to specialist fashion.
• MIT’s global innovation ecosystem Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP) has embedded best practices regionally for ecosystem coordination leading in development of West Yorkshire programmes such as the Innovative Entrepreneurs accelerator. 

• Northern Gritstone provides vital investment capital for spinouts and other high-growth businesses, enabling innovation to scale and thrive within the regional ecosystem. The success of its start-ups, ranging from therapies for neurological diseases to renewable bioplastics, exemplifies the potential of university-driven innovation. 
• Despite a wealth of assets, rates of regional innovation in West Yorkshire on metrics including R&D and interactions with universities are low and the wider infrastructure to focus on the development and commercialisation of innovation across priority sectors needs strengthening.

• Targeting public innovation funding to places with increased flexibility and certainty will increase impact. Devolution of national innovation funding is critical to achieving a dynamic innovation ecosystem facilitating the flow of ideas and speeding up the commercialisation process.

• Boosting innovation driven growth requires concerted focus and attention to develop strong and productive relationships with key actors. Through devolution proposals, this will include strengthening existing mature relationships with UKRI, Innovate UK, and the Research Councils. It will also further develop collaboration opportunities such as co-investment. These partnerships will include joint working to support increased levels of research and development funding. They will enable a more joined-up approach to supporting the region’s businesses.
• The integrated settlement coming to West Yorkshire in 2026 will enable longer-term certainty for the delivery of the ambitions in the West Yorkshire Local Growth Plan and avoid the challenge of open funding competitions which pit areas against one another and prevent decisions being taken for the longer-term.

2. How does research and innovation in our regions drive growth and prosperity in those regions?

• Lower than average levels of investment in West Yorkshire is one of the key barriers holding back productivity growth in the region[1]. Attracting new investment will drive innovation and new market opportunities.
• Closing the productivity gap will require growth in sectors of the economy where West Yorkshire has existing specialisms, while simultaneously developing new frontiers.

• Across West Yorkshire there are recognised localised strengths in research and innovation, centred around key hubs or clusters. Through devolved powers and funding the Combined Authority can connect assets and present a compelling narrative about opportunities to stakeholders within the ecosystem and to external investors.
• A focused approach to sectors of strength and emerging clusters will maximise opportunities by targeting action to boost innovation, attract investment, unlock capital, drive international activity and support businesses to access new markets.
• West Yorkshire is well placed to develop placed-based innovation as it brings together the research hubs and knowledge centres engaging local businesses at the forefront of economic growth and sectors with the greatest potential for innovation.
• The Combined Authority plays a strategic role convening a diverse range of regional stakeholders, identifying and shaping a shared set of priorities and facilitating interventions where there are innovation gaps alongside development of the underpinning infrastructure.
• Place-based innovation requires a strong brand offer and identity to attract new investment to the region and drive innovation in existing businesses. The West Yorkshire Local Growth Plan sets out proposals to position West Yorkshire as an Innovation Centre of Excellence to galvanize the triple helix of the industry, academia and the public sector working together to drive the development and commercialisation of ideas.
• Pan-regional partnerships like One Creative North highlight the opportunities of working together at various geographies to connect clusters and support wider opportunities.

• The One Creative North collaboration with Combined Authorities across the North of England and stakeholders such as BBC, Channel 4 and Arts Council England will enable the creative industries to unleash their economic potential across the North. This will focus on securing funding for a Creative Bank/fund of £50m, skills, R&D and connectivity. This is with a view to creating 500k new jobs and contributing an additional £10bn to the economy from Liverpool to Hull, Sheffield to Durham.

Case Study: Health Innovation Regional Strengths

• West Yorkshire is exceptionally well placed to drive the growth of health innovation in the UK. It has a unique set of public sector assets and decision- making bodies, alongside world-leading academic strengths and strong industry clusters. This underpins a mature and innovative ecosystem with over 300 healthtech firms, centred on digital health, medical devices and diagnostics.
• The cluster generates around £3 billion a year in revenue and has a strong concentration of high-skill, high-wage jobs. In Leeds alone, since 2018, more than £200 million in health and care research and innovation has been awarded, with more than £100 million in translational research and infrastructure funding. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is developing the Old Medical School at Leeds General Infirmary into a globally recognised healthtech innovation hub.
• The West Yorkshire Investment Zone will help further strengthen this cluster, creating more than 2,500 new jobs across the region over the next five years and unlocking an anticipated £220 million in investment. Infrastructure developments across the region, including the Health Innovation Campus at the University of Huddersfield will add to regional opportunity.
• A ‘healthtech bridge’ memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed by the Mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County and West Yorkshire. The landmark partnership connecting both sides of the Atlantic will deepen cooperation on trade, investment and knowledge sharing. Both regions have a history of health innovation and by working together will deliver sustainable economic and community benefits and transform the lives of patients worldwide. This will increase the pace of innovation and bolster bilateral trade.

3. How is research and innovation diffused or supported to drive productivity and growth in the regions, wherever it may come from?

• Different types of innovation will occur within businesses and particularly amongst SMEs this will not always be led by formal R&D activity. As such other forms of knowledge creation and diffusion such as business networks and wider support are important. Improving absorbative capacity including capabilities to exploit knowledge and facilitate collaboration between firms are areas where Combined Authorities can add value locally.
• Catapults and RTOs can stimulate innovation in strategic sectors and clusters, it is important that national centres have a focus and metric to measure impact on regional engagement to ensure impact.

• Specialist networks, peer-to-peer networking and case studies facilitated through devolved powers and funding will enable innovation diffusion and effective knowledge exchange.
• There is an opportunity to build on what works and leverage existing infrastructure, assets and capability to facilitate the adoption of new innovations and technology and in doing do maximising public sector Value for Money and Return on Investment.  This includes projects, R&I facilities and finance driving the growth of regional clusters and start-ups & scale-ups, including Nexus, Northern Gritstone, Innovative Entrepreneurs, Place-Based Impact Acceleration Account for Medical Technologies, Strength in Places Fund investment in advanced manufacturing, regional Catapults/RTOs, West Yorkshire Investment Zone, West Yorkshire IUK Health-tech Launchpads, cluster initiatives (e.g. Space Hub Yorkshire) and national R&I centres located in the region, such as the UKRI funded National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre.
• In the development of the West Yorkshire Local Growth Plan ambitions to develop a Compact between the Combined Authority and the universities in West Yorkshire to strengthen existing collaboration to support the business and innovation ecosystem were outlined.
• Our collaboration with local universities builds on existing work on the development of a joint messaging framework to encourage SME-HE engagement to support business innovation and growth across the region. The framework covers raising awareness and changing perceptions of the support available and confronting the barriers to collaboration. The messaging framework also looks at appealing to different needs of SMEs that could be supported by engagement with universities, including wanting help with research or to develop new products or services.

4. How does the UK’s innovation ecosystem compare to those of other countries, and what lessons can the UK learn from international models in terms of commercialising research and innovation to benefit both regional and national economies?

• Regional clusters illustrate the UK’s strengths but require further scaling and integration to compete globally.  Participation in the MIT REAP programme by regional stakeholders demonstrates how global best practices in innovation ecosystem development can be localised to enhance scale and connectivity. 
• Through REAP, the ecosystem has embraced collaborative approaches that align with successful international models like Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany, showcasing how regional initiatives can drive national competitiveness.  The Innovation Entrepreneurs accelerator, supporting diverse Innovation Driven Enterprises, and tools such as Cluster Action Framework (CAF) align with international best practices for scaling clusters and fostering collaboration. 

22 January 2025