Harnessing academia, testbeds and research

Greater Manchester has an ambitious plan to use innovation to level up.

The digital ecosystem is part of a broader innovation ecosystem that brings together businesses, universities, R&D institutions and public sector agencies to stimulate and support innovation across our city-region for the benefit of all our businesses, people and communities
GM’s innovation plan (Innovation GM)’s vision is that by 2030, dynamic and connected R&D intensive business clusters centred on our frontier sectors, including digital, creative and tech, will fuel productivity growth and prosperity across the North. Our Innovation Plan lays out a clear approach to achieving this
Greater Manchester has leading academic and research assets and anchor businesses that are working collaboratively with SMEs including start-ups, supported by public sector institutions, to  identify new opportunities for digital products and services
This ‘triple helix’ of industry-academia-public sector is well-established in Greater Manchester, and we will work to enhance and support this activity, including the IGM targets to increase business and public sector R&D, as a critical enabler of the blueprint priorities