£50m West Midlands R&D initiative launches to upscale and develop local businesses
The West Midlands is strengthening its position as one of the UK’s most investable innovation ecosystems, with £50 million of targeted R&D funding set to accelerate commercial growth in the local advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and creative technologies clusters.
Businesses operating in any of these three high-growth clusters can now submit expressions of interest for research and development funding support from the £50 million allocated to the West Midlands through the UK government’s £500 million Local Innovation Partnerships Fund (LIPF).
Each cluster is supported by one of three flagship innovation programmes, which will help businesses develop and scale near-to-market products and services:
- FORGE for Advanced Manufacturing: Led by the University of Warwick, the FORGE project will drive technology-enabled industrial transformation and supply-chain agility across future mobility and the clean energy transition.
- Clinical Trials Catalyst for Health and Life Sciences: Led by the University of Birmingham, the WM Clinical Commercial Catalyst strengthens regional expertise in clinical trials and near-to-patient biomanufacturing and regulation, leveraging regional strengths into global markets.
- Creative Industries Scale-up Lab (CISL) for Creative and Immersive Technologies: Led by the University of Warwick, WM CISL targets a fast-growth regional opportunity in immersive, AI-enabled and design-led innovation, diffusing adoption, with skills and market pull across multiple areas.
LIPF is open to innovative organisations of all sizes based in the West Midlands, including startups, scale-ups, SMEs, large companies, and research organisations. Eligibility is driven by the active role the organisation plays in developing, commercialising, or scaling technologies within the three priority sectors.
Businesses must also be part of a ‘triple helix’ partnership – a collaborative network between private industry, academic research partners, and the public sector. All projects must deliver real-world impact, advancing knowledge, improving lives and driving growth.
These three programmes have been co-developed by the West Midlands Combined Authority and the West Midlands Innovation Board, in partnership with the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The Fund will be delivered by the West Midlands Growth Company and Business Growth West Midlands alongside lead delivery partners the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham.
The West Midlands is one of seventeen places across the UK receiving support to deliver real-world impact, advance knowledge, improve lives and drive growth.
The Local Innovation Partnerships Fund exists to ensure that world-class research gets into the hands of local organisations and businesses to create real economic value in communities across the UK.
The West Midlands is demonstrating exactly how that works: taking deep scientific expertise in areas like health and life sciences, and advanced manufacturing and connecting it directly to industry and global markets.
– Professor Sir Ian Chapman, Chief Executive Officer, UKRI
In the West Midlands, LIPF builds on the success of the £43 million West Midlands Innovation Accelerator, which supported over 1,500 local businesses and generated more than a 2:1 private co-investment rate within three years. The initiative supported businesses such as the Global Nano Network, FuturEnergy, Osmium, and MICA Biosystems.
Following the LIPF launch, Lord Vallance, Minister for Science, Innovation, Research and Nuclear, formally opened the new laboratory for the Aston Institute for Membrane Excellence (AIME) at Aston University, which explores how membrane research from biological to materials science can be harnessed for breakthroughs in drug discovery, biomanufacturing and industrial processes such as water purification. The unique design of the new AIME laboratory brings together chemistry and biology research in one space, fostering collaboration and removing scientific barriers.
Wider academic partners in LIPF include Coventry University, Aston University, Birmingham City University and the University of Wolverhampton. Wider private sector, cluster, and industry partners include the Black Country Industrial Cluster, Midlands Aerospace Alliance, Jaguar Land Rover, the Primary Care Accelerator, Medilink Midlands and RESILIENCE, BBC, Banijay, Create Central and CWX partners, Cisco, and Capgemini.
Businesses can now register an expression of interest for funding and partnership opportunities