Investment Zones and
Innovation Clusters

The West Midlands has a proud history of innovation. From the birth of the commercial steam engine and Range Rover Sport to the World’s leading brain cancer drug and first Ibuprofen patch, our region’s longstanding reputation for large-scale technological transformation prevails today. Divergent thinking is in our DNA, driving progress and impact that resonates far beyond our borders.

Our cutting-edge industries are drawing ambitious, high-growth businesses from around the world and have led to the West Midlands becoming the UK’s top destination for foreign investment outside London. Add to the fact we are also home to the UK’s fastest-growing cluster of technology companies, acclaimed world-class R&D facilities servicing life sciences and future mobility sectors, and possess a close-knit, like-minded community that encourages collaboration and innovation across the academic, private and public sectors.

The region’s nine universities produce almost 65,000 graduates a year and have been the catalyst for a new form of innovation-led development across the West Midlands. Major developers are now bringing forward laboratory and innovation space across the region, including Lendlease, Bruntwood Sci-Tech, Muse, Stoford and Woodbourne Group. The West Midlands Investment Zone, focussing on advanced manufacturing, will bring another wave of major development schemes.

SPEAKING AT:

Delivering the West Midlands Investment Zone
22/05/2024 | 11:15 am – 12:00 pm

In this session at the WM Pavilion with Dr Julie Nugent, Chief Executive of Coventry City Council, and other Chief Executives from Local Authorities across the region.

The West Midlands Investment Zone is powered by three specific projects: Coventry and Warwick Gigapark, the Birmingham Innovation Quarter, and the Wolverhampton Green Innovation Corridor. The panel will discuss how the Investment Zone will drive forward growth across the region.

DON’T MISS:

Nurturing Creative Clusters | 21/05/2024
11:15 am – 12:15 pm

West Midlands Investment Prospectus Spotlight
21/05/2024 | 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Coventry Investment Prospectus Launch
22/05/2024 | 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

The West Midlands Investment Zone offers investors a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build presence within the UK’s most vibrant ecosystem, bringing together world-leading academic research with next-generation manufacturing. The £105bn West Midlands economy is already a global centre of R&D, at the heart of future opportunities in low carbon, battery tech, EV supply chain, future mobility, DeepTech, life sciences and MedTech.

Birmingham Innovation Quarter, Wolverhampton’s Green Innovation Corridor and Coventry & Warwick GigaPark promise to deliver up to £5.5bn of growth and 30,000 new jobs across the region.

The zone will benefit from a mix of tax incentives and direct funding to land, build, and resource investor operations, expected to help it attract more than £2bn of new investment into the regional economy, and a further £3.5bn overall. Alongside this, there is a £150m flexible Investment Opportunity fund to unlock, significantly accelerate or scale up private investment.

27/03/2024
Introducing Greenpower Park

Plans to place Britain at the epicentre of the green industrial revolution have taken a significant leap forward with the launch of Greenpower Park.

With the West Midlands Gigafactory as its anchor tenant, the ambitious project, designed to foster world-leading collaborations between industry, major academic institutions and stakeholders to drive the UK’s ambitions in leading the transition to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future, has unveiled plans to create an end-to-end electrification and clean energy ecosystem at its Greenpower Park campus in Coventry.

14/03/2024
University of Warwick to support the delivery of HealthTech campus at Arden Cross

The University of Warwick will help drive the delivery of a HealthTech Campus at Arden Cross. The Campus will form part of a wider Innovation District at the heart of the £3.2bn regeneration opportunity, facilitated by the HS2 Interchange station in Solihull.