For too long, Britain’s innovation strategy has been caught between two competing instincts.
We celebrate world-class research wherever it exists, but too often concentrate investment and decision-making in too few places. The result is a country that generates extraordinary scientific breakthroughs, yet struggles to commercialise them at scale.
If, or should I say when, Andy Burnham becomes the UK’s next prime minister, there is reason to believe that could begin to change.
Being fully immersed in the Greater Manchester innovation ecosystem, I’ve seen first-hand that he understands something many politicians still overlook – innovation is not simply about funding universities or announcing the latest AI strategy.
You have to create the conditions for businesses, investors, researchers and entrepreneurs to build companies over decades, not electoral cycles....
