EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Innovation, science and the city

Innovation, science and the city

Introduction

Innovation is a key driver of economic growth, and over the past ten years policy makers at all levels of government have strengthened efforts to increase rates of innovation in the UK. Research funding has been increased; more investment has gone into science parks; partnerships between the public sector, universities and businesses have been improved; and a wide range of technology transfer and business support policies have been introduced.

Description

But the emergence of innovation as a specialist policy area has also generated risks around policy prioritisation and problems on organisational fragmentation and policy coordination. This report highlights these issues and explains how they can be addressed to improve policy effectiveness.

Supporting innovation is about more than specialist partnerships or business support initiatives. Policy makers also need to understand and deal with the wider barriers to innovation in their economies. Delivering on an economy’s transport, housing and planning needs must be seen as a key part of the innovation agenda. City-regions that fail to deliver the right infrastructure for growth risk stifling or choking off innovation in their economies.

Some good progress has been made on city and regional innovation policies, especially on the improvement of university-business links. But the organisational structures around business and innovation support have become too fragmented. This is confusing businesses and making policy coordination more difficult.

The introduction of Science Cities reflects national government’s desire to
increase rates of innovation. However, the value added of Science Cities has varied between participating cities and across policy areas. In some cities - such as Newcastle and Birmingham - the initiative has had a valuable catalytic effect, strengthening partnerships and sparking new activity. In others, particularly in Manchester, it has been more of an awkward add-on to what was already in place.

Conclusions

The report argues that policy makers need to deal with these issues by reviewing structures and plugging innovation policy back into the mainstream economic growth agenda. It makes four key recommendations:

City-regions need to tackle the wider barriers to innovation in their economies – in areas like transport, housing and planning. In many city-regions, dealing with pressing problems in these areas could have a greater impact on rates of innovation than introducing dedicated innovation support policies.
City-regions should rationalise organisational structures around business and innovation support, and national government should shelve plans to introduce Partnerships for Innovation. The Business Support Simplification Programme and evolving devolution agenda provide an ideal opportunity to simplify organisational structures.
The designated Science Cities should review their Science City status and drop the brand if they see fit. There are signs of strategic tensions and branding problems in all of the participating cities except for York and Newcastle. There is a strong case for Manchester to drop the brand.
City-regions should adopt a more realistic attitude towards the idea of university-led economic growth. As part of the review of their Science City status, the designated Science Cities should conduct an honest appraisal of the prospects for university-led growth in their city. Other city-regions should also adopt a clear-headed approach. In most cases, university related business activity will only ever be one part of a much wider growth story. Economic strategies and investments need to reflect this reality.

Contact info

Centre for Cities
Enterprise House; 59-65 Upper Ground
SE1 9PQ London
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0)20 7803 4300
www.centreforcities.org
Chris Webber (Analyst), tel. +44 (0)20 7803 4314

Publication date

09/10/2008

Researcher

Chris Webber

Links

Click here to download the article "Innovation, science and the city"Click here to visit the Centre for Cities website

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment

Keywords

Urban economy