Place-based innovation - powering growth and shaping the UK’s modern industrial future
In Glasgow, the Critical Technologies Accelerator has spun out two cutting-edge quantum firms: Kelvin Quantum and Quantcore - advancing technologies that underpin next-generation computing infrastructure. These projects show how innovation accelerators aren’t just transforming regional economies, they’re positioning the UK as a global leader in strategic technologies.
As the UK sharpens its focus on long-term growth and economic resilience, a quiet revolution is already underway in the regions. The UK Government’s Innovation Accelerator (IA) programme, launched as a pilot just two years ago, had a clear aim - empower regions with high potential to co-create solutions tailored to their local strengths and opportunities. Now with impressive impacts emerging from the pilot, it’s clear that this place-based innovation model is working - and it’s working fast.
Designed to drive growth in areas with globally competitive R&D strengths, the IA programme gave trailblazers in Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands the power to co-create innovation strategies tailored to local strengths and economic opportunities. The aim was not just to deliver outcomes locally, but to demonstrate how innovation at the regional level can directly support national priorities. Highly relevant as the UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy (Invest 2035) unfolds.
And it’s working. Early indicators show the programme has already delivered over £140 million in co-investment and created up to 250 full-time-equivalent high-value jobs across future-critical sectors including quantum computing, advanced diagnostics, health innovation, space, and clean transport. Real-world innovations, real companies, and real jobs powering up local economies.
Take the Clean Futures programme in the West Midlands. Projects like a next-gen EV battery coating and Moonbility’s AI-powered ‘digital twin’ for rail disruption are already pushing UK firms to the forefront of net zero and transport innovation. In Greater Manchester, the Centre for Digital Innovation spans all ten boroughs, while the Turing Innovation Catalyst is building AI skills for women - embedding inclusion into the very heart of the region’s digital economy.
In Glasgow, the Critical Technologies Accelerator has spun out two cutting-edge quantum firms: Kelvin Quantum and Quantcore - advancing technologies that underpin next-generation computing infrastructure. These projects show how innovation accelerators aren’t just transforming regional economies, they’re positioning the UK as a global leader in strategic technologies.
What’s key here is not just the ‘what’, but the ‘how’. Innovate UK has been at the forefront of championing the potential of place-based innovation. This pilot took that belief further - creating a new model of shared investment, where national ambition meets local insight and leadership. Local action plans developed by each region have played a central role, articulating long-term strategies built on evidence, collaboration, and the unique assets of each place. These plans are now live and in delivery, providing the framework for sustained impact over time.
Crucially, this programme aligns strongly with the Government’s vision in Invest 2035: a modern industrial strategy that is focused on unlocking growth through strong institutions, technology leadership, and place. The Innovation Accelerators bring this to life, enabling local institutions to lead, anchoring world-class research in practical outcomes, and building stronger, more resilient local economies that feed into national success.
Our role at Innovate UK is to connect these established and emerging clusters to national strategy, global networks, and each other. We’re using insights from the Innovation Accelerators to inform wider investment decisions, share what works, and build an innovation ecosystem that is both locally grounded and globally competitive.
The Innovation Accelerator programme is showing us what’s possible when local vision meets national support. And we are just getting started. An initial £100 million investment has already been extended by a further £30 million for 2025/26, reflecting the growing confidence in this model. What began as a pilot is fast becoming a blueprint for regional innovation, helping to shape the future of the UK’s industrial strategy and delivering on the UK Government’s growth agenda.
Dean Cook is Executive Director of Place and Global at Innovate UK
