1.5 Building on the evidence, and energy amongst partners and stakeholders, developed through the earlier activity, the purpose of the West Midlands SIA was to develop a robust and tailo
Introduction
In 2015, the UK Government launched Science and Innovation Audits (SIAs) to catalyse a new approach to sub-national economic development SIAs enable local consortia to analyse their strengths in science and innovation and identify areas of existing or emerging excellence that can be built on to drive long-term productivity gains and enable local areas to realise their full economic potential.
The Midlands Engine SIA, developed for the Midlands Engine Innovation Group, was among the first initiatives completed, reporting in September 2016 It mapped a spatial footprint across 11 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas in the Midlands, including internationally significant cities such as Birmingham and Nottingham, growing regional hubs like Coventry, Wolverhampton and Leicester, as well as important market towns and large rural areas.
The Midlands Engine SIA has identified the region’s capabilities, mapped the challenges, and highlighted substantial opportunities for future economic growth It points to key market opportunities in Next Generation Transport, Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals, Future Food Processing, and Energy and Low Carbon These opportunities are supported by enabling competences in Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering, Digital Technologies and Data, and Systems Integration, which collectively underpin a more resilient, innovation-driven Midlands economy.
1.4 However, the Midlands Engine SIA also recognised explicitly that within the large and diverse
Within the Midlands Engine geography there is widespread science and innovation capacity, excellence, and opportunity that require a more spatially fine-grained and in-depth analysis This SIA report for the West Midlands is a supplementary study that complements the Midlands Engine SIA, responding directly to this intent It is designed to help partners identify and shine a spotlight on the science and innovation assets in the West Midlands.
Building on the evidence and energy generated through earlier activity among partners and stakeholders, the West Midlands SIA was designed to develop a robust and tailored evidence base on science and innovation activity across the Black Country, Coventry and Warwickshire, and Greater Birmingham and Solihull The assessment was undertaken on behalf of the three Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), and their innovation partners.
The West Midlands SIA will guide both local and national investment decisions, helping to make the case for additional public and private funding to unlock the region’s productivity potential, identify opportunities to cultivate more pervasive collaborative cultures, and set out concrete pathways for building a more resilient, outward‑facing innovation ecosystem.
1.7 This study was funded by the three LEPs, steered by the WMCA Innovation Working Group and managed by Birmingham Science City
1.8 The area covered by the LEPs of the Black Country; Coventry and Warwickshire; and Greater
Home to around four million people, Birmingham and Solihull accounts for over six percent of the UK population and features some of the country’s most diverse communities The region’s demographic richness highlights its multicultural character Birmingham, the area’s centerpiece, is widely recognised as the UK’s second city.
Our strategic road and rail networks, including the M5, M6 and the West Coast Main Line, are of national importance for the efficient transport of goods and people and for sustaining supply-chain relationships across the country HS2, headquartered in Birmingham, with Phase One delivering a high-speed link between Birmingham and central London, will further strengthen our position at the heart of the UK’s strategic transport network Our strong international linkages underpin our appeal as a place to invest, work, live and play, and Birmingham Airport handles more than 10 million passengers each year and, with HS2, will become the UK’s first and only high-speed rail–connected airport.
Figure 1-1: Map of the study area
This SIA draws on a robust evidence base and has undergone extensive testing and validation with partners and stakeholders across the West Midlands region, including the Innovation Working Group of the West Midlands Combined Authority, with representation from the three Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), universities, local networks, and Birmingham Science City.
1.11 The SIA process has been shaped through two core strands of complementary evidence:
Data collation and analysis draw on publicly available science and innovation data from national sources such as the Research Excellence Framework (REF), Research Councils, and Innovate UK, complemented by the latest Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) data and information provided by local partners We also analyse research quality and collaboration patterns using SciVal data to deliver a nuanced picture of regional and national research capacity This integrated approach combines multiple datasets to reveal strengths, gaps, and opportunities for collaboration across sectors, with updates aligned to the most recent figures to support timely decision-making.
• Stakeholder engagement: two workshop events were held in January and February
2017, which together were attended by around 80 stakeholders, to secure feedback on the underpinning evidence base and inform the identification of key strengths and opportunities for the future
Qualitative and quantitative evidence informed the development and population of a bespoke West Midlands Science and Innovation Framework, approved by the WMCA Innovation Working Group and used as the basis for the SIA report The Framework is described in detail in Section 3 of this report, while subsequent sections set out the underpinning evidence base and provide a practical characterization of how the Framework operates and is being realised—through the Innovation Ecosystem, Enabling Competences, and Market Strengths.
Before turning to the Framework, Section 2 offers a concise overview of the scale, breadth, and nature of the economic and research landscape in which science and innovation occur across the Black Country, Coventry and Warwickshire, and Greater Birmingham and Solihull.
In today’s fast-changing world, we’re urged to innovate across economic, social, and environmental fronts With rapid change and mounting pressures on both public and private sectors, few organisations have the breadth and depth to innovate alone, so we rely on collaborating with customers, suppliers and partners in an innovation ecosystem The West Midlands possesses substantial capacity in science, technology and business innovation, reinforced by strong regional ties that have earned trust and fuel ongoing collaboration The West Midlands Science and Innovation Audit records these strengths objectively, giving national and international funding agencies and investors confidence that the region can deliver a measurable return on their investments in innovation.
1.14 Dr Rick Robinson FBCS CITP FRSA AoU, Director of Technology, Amey
Economic and research landscape
Together, the Black Country, Coventry and Warwickshire, and Greater Birmingham and Solihull form one of the UK’s major economic drivers, delivering an estimated £90 billion GVA each year and ranking as the most significant single functional economic area in England outside London Manufacturing remains a core strength, accounting for 9% of all manufacturing employment in Great Britain, while the region is increasingly diversifying its economy In addition to manufacturing, construction, financial and professional services, and cultural and creative sectors are expanding, building a more resilient and dynamic economic base for the region.
Across our area, around 350,000 people are employed in science and technology sectors, making up roughly one in five jobs and aligning with the national pattern While these roles are spread widely, there are notable concentrations in Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton city centres; in Edgbaston (with a particular focus on life sciences); in the area surrounding Birmingham Airport; in Gaydon, Warwickshire (a hub of automotive activity and home to JLR and Aston Martin); and in Warwick and Leamington Spa (including the Silicon Spa cluster of computer game software developers).
Despite strengths, productivity sits well below the national average and has not improved in a decade There is no quick fix, but leveraging science and innovation to boost productivity is a core focus of the SIA process, underscoring the commitment of regional partners across the area.
Across our region, the research landscape is multi-faceted, spanning the full Technology Readiness Level spectrum—from basic and experimental inquiry to applied R&D and commercial deployment Our area includes eight universities, including two Russell Group institutions that consistently rank highly in national and international assessments of research quality and are among the country’s most successful in securing competitive research funding These universities show particular strengths in engineering, physical sciences, and the biosciences, driving innovation from foundational research to market-ready solutions.
Known collectively as the Black Country, Coventry and Warwickshire, and Greater Birmingham and Solihull—referred to throughout this report as the 'area' or the '3-LEP area'—the region is one of the UK's major economic drivers It comprises around 160,000 businesses, supports about 1.8 million employees, and generates a gross value added (GVA) of nearly £90 billion annually.
2.2 Together, the SIA geography forms England’s second largest functional economic area after
London; generating higher levels of GVA than either Greater Manchester, the Leeds City
Region, or the South East LEP geography We have also benefited from faster GVA growth than these comparator areas over the period 2010 to 2015 (Table 2-1)
Table 2-1: GVA in 2015 and growth 2010-15 for the area and comparators
Area GVA in 2015 (£bn) GVA growth 2010-15
Source: ONS, Gross Value Added (GVA) for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs)
2.3 Encouragingly, our employment performance has also been strong in recent years, despite the challenging external economic climate; over 2009-2015, private sector employment increased by over 160k employees, with the proportion of all employment in the private sector at 82% in 2015, equal to the national level (and 85% in Coventry and Warwickshire)
“The West Midlands economy is larger than Greater Manchester’s and nearly as large as the Scottish economy The region has highly innovative supply-chains in existing and emerging markets and world-class universities supporting the research, technology, talent and facilities which enable them to innovate further.”
2.4 Prof Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor, University of Warwick
Our region has long been recognised as the heart of the UK’s manufacturing and engineering sectors, a status we retain even as the economy diversifies Table 2-2 shows manufacturing supported 210,000 work-based employees in 2015, with an employment Location Quotient (LQ) of 1.45, indicating that manufacturing remains more deeply embedded in our economy than the national average (GB level = 1.0) This concentration signals a significant economic advantage and underlines the potential for manufacturing to drive export-led growth in our area.
Other important business sectors from which sustainable economic growth will be generated and where the location quotient (LQ) exceeds 1.0 include Transportation and Storage and Construction The scale of the Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities sector is also significant, supporting over 130,000 jobs; although the economy remains under-represented in this broad sector, this partly reflects the dominance of the manufacturing base Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply is a significant employer as well, supporting about 11,500 jobs and boasting a high LQ, underscoring the area’s strength in energy and its link to the Energy Capital development discussed in Section 6.
Table 2-2: Workplace based employment by industrial Section (2015)
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply 11,500 1.52
Water supply; sewerage, waste management & remediation activities 12,000 1.06
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles & motorcycles 301,000 1.07
Administrative and support service activities 162,000 1.04
Public administration & defence; compulsory social security 66,000 0.86
Human health & social work activities 214,000 0.92
Source: SQW analysis of BRES data Note: Table excludes agriculture
The HVM Catapult was created from seven existing centres, each rooted in a strong manufacturing heritage and clusters of expertise and opportunity, with two centres located in the West Midlands Our longstanding collaborations with West Midlands partners and companies have already contributed significantly to our performance and economic impact, and we will deepen these partnerships over the next five years to build a vibrant manufacturing sector that drives growth and creates jobs.
2.7 Paul John, Business Director, High Value Manufacturing Catapult
2.8 Looking beyond manufacturing, energy and construction, our area is home to world-leading firms across a wide range of other industries For example:
The financial and insurance sector employs over 50,000 people and acts as a direct driver of economic activity while supporting growth across other industries Notable players include NFU Mutual, headquartered in Warwickshire, and Deutsche Bank, based in Birmingham, with HSBC planning to relocate 1,000 staff to a new UK head office for its ring-fenced bank in Birmingham in early 2018.
The arts, cultural and creative sector already represents a major employer with strong future potential in Birmingham, which is also becoming the home of BBC Three The Custard Factory and the wider Digbeth area act as a hub for startups and in-movers, with ASOS, a global online fashion retailer, establishing a key technology hub there Research shows that the WM SIA area has experienced greater growth within digital and creative sectors over the past five years than any other comparative region within the UK.
The Office for National Statistics has established a formal definition of the Science and Technology sectors While no sector-based framework is perfect—businesses increasingly operate across multiple classifications and technologies are converging rapidly—this definition nonetheless provides a useful indicator of the scale of employment devoted to science and technology activity.
In 2015, approximately 350,000 people were employed in science and technology sectors across our area, constituting about one in five jobs and highlighting the sector’s central role in the local economy This share is similar to the national average, though growth has been slower here, with a 4% uplift from 2009 to 2015 compared with 9% nationally Science and technology employment is spread across our geography, as illustrated in Figure 2-1.
Figure 2-1: Science and technology employment at LSOA level (2015)
Science and technology hotspots span multiple locations across the region, including the city centers of Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton; Edgbaston—home to the University of Birmingham and a cluster of health and life sciences assets; the area surrounding Birmingham Airport; Warwick and Leamington Spa, home to the Silicon Spa cluster of computer games developers; and Gaydon in Warwickshire, a major automotive innovation hub housing Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin.
The West Midlands SIA Framework
Building on the equivalent framework developed for the Midlands Engine precursor, the West Midlands SIA (WM SIA) is designed as a more detailed supplementary analysis The ME framework was heavily informed by the science and innovation strengths identified in the WM SIA area, while also reflecting broader strengths across the wider Midlands geography.
As a first step for the West Midlands SIA, the relevance of the earlier framework was tested both quantitatively and qualitatively, identifying the parts where evidence remained strong for the WM SIA area and where it did not, while also considering the strategic priorities, economic strengths, and science and innovation assets of the region.
The WM SIA areas were mapped against the Midlands Engine SIA framework using a blend of quantitative and qualitative analyses, with stakeholder feedback gathered at two workshops designed to test, probe, and develop the framework This iterative process ensured the framework was evaluated from multiple angles and refined accordingly Three key messages emerged from this work, highlighting the framework’s strengths, the gaps that need addressing, and the actions required to move forward.
• First, the structure and logic of the earlier framework developed for the Midlands
The approach remains well-suited for the West Midlands, built on three interrelated components—ecosystem factors, enabling competencies spanning multiple industries and markets, and areas of market strength and opportunity—each equally weighted and interacting This architecture has been retained to ensure strong strategic alignment with activity progressed in the region and elsewhere over the past six months, following the Midlands Engine SIA report The innovation ecosystem factors identified in the earlier framework are confirmed as consistent, covering the key hard and soft conditions and factors needed for the area's potential to be fully realised.
WM SIA has, however, gone into more depth on the ecosystem factors, as this is an area of potentially effective intervention at a LEP or WMCA scale, as appropriate
• Second, at a headline level, the cross-cutting enabling competencies identified in the
The Midlands Engine framework is highly relevant and applicable to the West Midlands geography The detailed emphases differ for our local area from those identified across the wider geography, as detailed in Section 5 However, this local specificity can be harnessed to tailor implementation while preserving alignment with the broader regional strategy.
‘Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering’, ‘Digital Technologies and Data’, and
Systems integration remains a core competency that will continue to underpin and accelerate innovative business activity across our region, leveraging a critical mass of assets and deep expertise This strength enables seamless integration of complex technologies and data flows, driving competitive advantage for our clients and partners, and positioning us to capitalize on emerging opportunities in the regional market.
West Midlands market strengths and opportunities show a mixed picture: in some cases they mirror the Midlands Engine framework, while in others they diverge, reflecting the region’s diverse industrial structure and its science and innovation assets The strengths identified for the West Midlands Strategic Investment Area (WM SIA) reveal a distinctive offer and capabilities across the WM SIA, as outlined in Section 6, and explain why the WM SIA profile both aligns with and differs from the Midlands Engine framework depending on the sector.
Figure 3-1 presents the WM SIA Framework, which emerged from the analysis—combining quantitative and qualitative insights and incorporating extensive feedback from partners across our ecosystem The framework identifies where our area already has strengths and specialisms, and it is designed to be forward-facing It was developed in the context of a wide range of market and technology drivers of change that are reshaping how businesses research, commercialise, produce and distribute their products and services, and respond to the rapidly changing demands of consumers.
Under the WM SIA Framework, the component parts interact and complement one another, and the convergence of market strengths and enabling competences within a well-developed ecosystem is where the best science and innovation in our area occur This integrated setup demonstrates how these components work together to leverage synergies and deliver impactful results, with Annex A providing case studies that illustrate on-ground applications of these coordinated elements.
Figure 3-1: The West Midlands SIA Framework
The underpinning evidence base, together with detailed profiles and analyses for each component of the SIA Framework, is discussed in Sections 4 to 6 of this report, while Table 3-1 provides summaries of the coverage for each framework element These sections deliver the evidence, component-specific analyses, and concise element summaries necessary to understand and apply the SIA Framework.
Place holder text Place holder text Place holder text
Driving-up WM productivity through science
Table 3-1: Coverage of the components parts of the West Midlands SIA Framework
Innovation Ecosystem Factors Enabling Competencies Market Strengths
Covering the area’s assets for science and innovation including science parks, incubators and accelerators, and those other assets that facilitate business growth and development, e.g key transport assets, Enterprise
Zones and super-fast broadband connectivity
Covering private sector investment including early-stage finance for start-ups, scale-ups and R&D investment, and public sector science and R&D investment, including Research Councils and Innovate UK
This overview covers labor market engagement and the skills profile driving regional growth, including graduates, science and technology employment, and the broader culture and quality-of-life offering that attract people to live and work in the area By mapping graduate pipelines, high‑growth tech careers, and lifestyle advantages—from cultural amenities to education and housing—the region positions itself as an attractive destination for professionals seeking meaningful work and a satisfying quality of life.
This overview maps strategic alliances, networks, and groups in science and innovation in which our universities participate, and highlights research collaboration across and between universities and industry It also showcases industry engagement in knowledge exchange and commercialisation, including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs).
Covering national, sub-national and local policy priorities, and the regulatory framework with direct relevance to science and innovation
Our area combines pervasive leading-edge technical knowledge with practical know-how across the research and industry base, enabling the design, validation, production, and servicing of new products and industrial processes This competence supports a diverse and integrated range of sectors and markets, including food and drink manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, rail, electronics, construction, energy, and medical technologies.
The region has a strong academic, research, and industrial base that exploits and understands big data, analytics, simulation and modelling It also leverages digital technologies and media to drive product, process and service development and commercialization across the full range of markets and sectors.
Leveraging the area's academic, research, and industrial base, our assets, expertise, and insights explain how increasingly complex systems—including energy systems, manufacturing processes, service delivery, and logistics—can be better designed, managed, and operated to achieve improved performance and outcomes.
Innovation Ecosystem
Built on a strong research base (Chapter 2), our region benefits from a well-developed network of science parks, innovation and incubator centres, and accelerator programmes Coupled with widespread access to superfast broadband, this infrastructure provides businesses—wherever they are located—with the physical assets and hard infrastructure needed to support their growth and development.
The regional funding landscape is improving, with rising business expenditure on R&D and growing venture capital investment signaling stronger support for innovation; to boost productivity, further increases in R&D funding, VC investment, and follow-on capital to scale up processes are needed.
Across our region, organisations backed by private finance secured 8% of all Innovate UK grant funding during 2010–2015, totaling around £247.5 million This share is proportionally higher than would be expected from the region’s share of firms and higher education institutions, underscoring the innovative character of our businesses and the strong commercial engagement of our academics However, there is a perceived fragmentation in the availability of support and funding, with a small cluster of institutions—Warwick and Birmingham universities, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and WMG Catapult Centres—accounting for a large portion of Innovate UK and related funding secured in the area.
• Our area faces multiple skills challenges This is a major issue for the development of innovative businesses, with too few people with high-level qualifications relative to the
UK, and too many with no qualifications
We boast an expansive network of local institutions actively engaged at regional, national, and international levels, supported by significant industrial and academic collaborations and partnerships Our innovation ecosystem is anchored by a proactive local policy framework designed to boost innovation and maximize the potential of our key assets, including major research‑intensive universities, RTOs, and R&D‑active firms.
Science and innovation do not occur in isolation; they thrive at the interfaces between people, businesses, and knowledge institutions, and are supported by solid infrastructure, public and private funding, and a conducive policy and regulatory environment The experience of leading innovation economies—from Silicon Valley to Cambridge—shows that the working interfaces between the knowledge base and these enabling factors drive long-term success Aligning these elements to work together builds a robust knowledge-based economy and helps our region fully unlock its science and innovation potential.
Five key broad factors underpin effective science and innovation in the West Midlands, identified through the WM SIA process and informed by experience from the region and beyond: Physical assets and infrastructure; Funding and support; and three additional strategic areas that together strengthen the local research, development and innovation ecosystem.
This analysis covers three key domains—People and Skills; Networks and Knowledge Exchange; and Policy and Regulation—and presents both quantitative and qualitative evidence on assets, excellence, and, in some cases, challenges in each area, with the findings laid out sequentially to support clear insights and decision-making.
Our area benefits from a large network of land and property assets and infrastructure that support innovation, including science parks, business incubators, and Enterprise Zones (Figure 4-1) This innovation ecosystem is underpinned by a well-developed transport network with external links via the M5, M6, and M40 (and the M1 just to the east), plus the West Coast Main Line, and strong internal connectivity through the M42 and our suburban rail network.
Figure 4-1: Key physical assets supporting science and innovation
Source: Produced by SQW Licence 100030994 Contains OS data © Crown copyright [and database right] [2016]
Science Parks, incubators and accelerators
Within our region, 11 UK Science Park Association (UKSPA) member sites offer a competitive land and property market for start-ups and grow-on space, with four of these forming part of the University of Warwick Science Park network The portfolio blends sector-focused parks—Innovation Birmingham Campus for digital and technology, Birmingham Research Park for biomedical ventures, and Stoneleigh Park for science-based rural industries—with broader, technology-rich parks that support science-based firms across sectors, including those connected to Coventry, Warwick, and Wolverhampton universities The wide geographic spread matters because many start-ups prefer to be close to home or to their parent organization.
Incubators, often located within science parks, provide flexible property space and value-added business support to early-stage startups A BEIS study identifies 14 incubators in our area—about 7% of the UK total—with the distribution detailed in Table 4-1.
Table 4-1: Incubators in the WM SIA area
• Barclays Eagle Lab (located in Serendip)
• BizzInn Business Incubator (part of
• e4f.Incubator (part of Innovation Birmingham
• ignite incubator, Binley Innovation Centre
(part of Warwick Science Park)
• ignite incubator, The Venture Centre (part of
• ignite incubator, Warwick Innovation Centre
(part of Warwick Science Park)
• i-SE - Women's Enterprise Hub (Digbeth)
• i-SE - Women's Enterprise Hub (Sparkbrook)
• Serendip (part of Innovation Birmingham
• SPARK Business Incubation Centre (part of
• The BioHub Birmingham (part of
• The Enterprise Hub (part of Coventry
Source: SQW analysis of Business Incubators and Accelerators: The National Picture, BEIS, 2017
BEIS’s research mapped accelerators—like incubators—that support the growth of early-stage firms through a highly selective, cohort-based programme of limited duration, which may or may not include physical space The study identified 10 accelerators in the area, all based in the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP geography, set out below.
Table 4-2: Accelerators in the WM SIA area
• Aston Programme for Small Business
• The Birmingham Skills for Enterprise and Employability Network (BSEEN)
Source: SQW analysis of Business Incubators and Accelerators: The National Picture, BEIS, 2017
4.7 Notably, the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP had the highest number of accelerators per
10,000 new businesses of any LEP/equivalent area across the UK (at 1.43), including above the number in London (1.32)
Birmingham stands out as a key hub for incubators, accelerators, and related infrastructure that nurture knowledge-based firms with high growth potential The research places Birmingham third in incubator numbers (eight), behind London (27) and Edinburgh (ten) Including all assets examined, Birmingham has the second-largest asset portfolio (22), ahead of Edinburgh (14) and Manchester, Belfast, and Oxford (each ten) Collectively, the data indicate that the area, with Birmingham as the sub-regional core, offers a strong mix of property solutions and value-added services to support early-stage firm growth.
4.9 The science parks and incubators for technology-rich businesses are complemented by
Enterprise Zones (EZs) which provide further space for our businesses to grow and develop:
• Birmingham City Centre Enterprise Zone, comprises 26 sites in seven clusters at
Westside, Snow Hill District, Eastside, Southern Gateway, Digbeth Creative Quarter, Birmingham Science Park Aston and the Jewellery Quarter
• The Black County EZs is based at two sites, at Wolverhampton North (including i54), and Darlaston
• The most recently designated EZ is DY5, Dudley's Business & Innovation Enterprise
Superfast broadband connectivity is increasingly vital for businesses across the country Our area enjoys high access to the fastest speeds (above 30 Mbits/s), but only three of our nineteen districts have SFBB availability below the national average of 89% Those districts—East Staffordshire, North Warwickshire, and Stratford-upon-Avon—reflect the broader national issues with SFBB coverage in rural areas.
4.11 Our geography benefits from the work of three programmes funded via the national Superfast
Broadband Programme dedicated to increasing access to superfast broadband via infrastructure development: ‘Superfast Staffordshire’, ‘Coventry Solihull Warwickshire (CSW) Superfast Broadband’, and ‘Black Country Broadband.’
4.12 Looking forward, a WMCA Digital Connectivity Group is working on ambitious plans for ultrafast (100Mbps) broadband, and a fit for the future approach to digital connectivity across our area
Science, technology, and business markets are continually evolving, and our businesses, RTOs, and the research base rely on private and public funding to sustain innovation The innovation ecosystem comprises levels of expenditure on R&D by firms, early-stage finance for start-ups and scale-ups—largely focused on technology-rich and knowledge-based businesses—and public funding from Innovate UK, all of which underpin the development and commercialisation of new ideas.
4.14 Business investment on R&D (BERD) is available at a regional level only i.e the ‘West
Midlands geography includes areas beyond the WM SIA’s spatial focus, such as the Marches LEP, Stoke and Staffordshire LEP, and Worcestershire LEP, so the data should be treated as indicative for the WM SIA.