Innovation in the West Midlands
A world-class R&D ecosystem. The UK’s leading region for 5G coverage. A powerhouse of tech hubs, accelerators and test facilities.
The West Midlands is trailblazing innovation.
With more start-ups in Birmingham than any other UK city outside London (for seven consecutive years), companies can access an industry-led R&D powerhouse of 100+ tech hubs, commercial test beds, accelerators and collaboration facilities.
This includes eleven science parks and nine world-class higher education institutions, to scale innovative products and services into the UK market.
Science and technology superpower 2030 & Quad Helix
The West Midlands is home to the UK’s fastest-growing tech sector, worth £15.3bn. The region will play a crucial role in how the world of tech will look by 2030 – the date the UK Government has set a goal of becoming a ‘Science and Technology Superpower’. The West Midlands is a top-performing region for inward investment, where business R&D investment doubled between 2010 and 2019.
Our region’s unique ‘Quad Helix Approach’ – an interlinked ecosystem combining academic R&D institutions, public sector organisations, private sector firms and a deep tech talent pool – enables innovative companies to accelerate sustainable business growth and develop next-generation products and services.
The combination of talent, research institutions and market opportunities in high-growth industries of the future are proving to be real-world key differentiators in cultivating a new ‘knowledge economy’ across nascent clusters, such as CleanTech, MedTech and AdvancedTech.
Spotlight on CleanTech
The birthplace of the first industrial revolution, the West Midlands, is now developing and commercialising the technologies driving the decarbonisation agenda.
Home to world-leading research centres across energy, transport, water and materials, low carbon represents the region’s fastest-growing sector. It has the UK’s largest green talent pool and is worth £12bn per annum to the local economy.
The region is capitalising on its manufacturing prowess and agile supply chain to stimulate and demonstrate commercial viability.
Spotlight on MedTech
The West Midlands is leading on the global mission to develop the products and services for tomorrow’s health needs, backed by world-leading research institutions and teaching hospitals.
Access to the UK’s largest multi-site testbed for 5G applications enables digital health innovators to pilot and stress test new, real-time mobile applications and services.
The region is also home to one of the most advanced electronic patient record systems in the UK, with digitised healthcare data drawn from a non-transient population of 4.7m people and the largest genomics R&D cluster in the country. This is driving new technology-led solutions, including predictive health and personal medicine.
Spotlight on AdvancedTech
A coherent, integrated network of technology clusters across the West Midlands, ranging from the Birmingham Innovation Zone and Leamington Spa’s gaming cluster to Wolverhampton’s Green Innovation Corridor, is powering unprecedented convergence in advanced technologies.
With commercial hubs home to as many large tech-enabled businesses as there are found in Kuala Lumpur, Santiago and Zurich, the West Midlands offers unrivalled opportunities for innovative firms to pioneer next-generation products and services.
Innovation accelerators
Announced as part of the UK Government’s 2022 Levelling up White Paper, the £33m Innovation Accelerator programme will bolster the West Midlands’ innovation and R&D capability and spark private-public-academic partnerships by clustering research excellence with direct adoption by industries.
I’m delighted to see the £33m Innovation Accelerator fund land in our region which will unlock a further £150m of private sector co-investment.
The funding will inject momentum into the delivery of the West Midlands Plan for Growth which sets out how we will unlock hundreds of thousands of new jobs and be home to major global companies in this decade.
Disruptive technologies
Serving as an exemplar for nationally significant testbeds (including the UK’s first Future Mobility Zone and multi-city 5G testbed) the West Midlands’ world-class expertise in next-gen technologies covers a vast range of disciplines. Local knowledge and talent facilitates cross-sector tech convergence across a host of new market opportunities.
5G coverage
Leading the way in 5G coverage, two-thirds of locations across the region can access 5G via at least one network operator.
The West Midlands’ 5G offers unrivalled low latency, high capacity and increased reliability for unparalleled developments in transformative technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles and Digital Twins.
Cyber security
Home to ‘pure play’ and diversified cyber companies, the West Midlands has significant experience servicing international cyber security operations. Our ‘Cyber Valley’, brings together the largest vibrant community of cyber experts (outside of London) to conduct collaborative research, develop commercial expertise and contribute to critical national infrastructure and commerce.
Immersive tech
With Leamington “Silicone” Spa in Warwickshire responsible for 25% of the UK’s games market output, the West Midlands is perfectly placed to expand immersive technologies beyond traditional uses of VR, AR, AI and gaming.
Through the convergence of applications, our region can help transform the ways in which we live and work within low carbon, healthcare, education and other sectors.
Industry 4.0
Harnessing big data provided by new technologies, combined with expertise from 3 of 9 UK Catapult Centres – Energy Systems, High Value Manufacturing (MTC & WMG), and Connected Places Catapult – the West Midlands presents significant opportunities in advanced manufacturing, digital health and personalised healthcare, smart cities, sustainable technologies, and intelligent transport.
Quantum
To reach new frontiers in sensing, timing, imaging and communications across transport, health and net-zero, the West Midlands is poised to maximise the adoption of quantum technology (QT) in commercial products.
The UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, led by the University of Birmingham, has enabled an ecosystem of over 70 companies to engage in QT research.
Free support services
We bring together a project team from relevant organisations across the region. This team includes property agents, recruitment consultants, public sector departments and universities. It delivers a comprehensive support package to quickly and easily help you establish and scale your business in the UK.
