Metro Dynamics Consultants Fiona Tuck, Gillian O’Connell and Mary Dolphin are to join leaders working across place-based innovation roles, government teams and investors, next month, at the UK Innovation Districts Summit 2026.
The Summit, to be held on 5 June within the Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, will convene UK Innovation Districts Group (UK IDG) Members with a wider network of practitioners and stakeholders invested in the UK’s innovation ecosystem.
The Metro Dynamics team will be running one of three power-up sessions programmed into the day-long Summit, delivering an interactive workshop that explores how data drives inclusive growth. Other power-up content will be led by subject matter experts on themes including; ‘Crowding Investment’ and ‘Mapping and maximising entrepreneurial skills: lessons from Liverpool, Glasgow, Newcastle and Belfast’.
Principal Consultant, Gillian O’Connell, Metro Dynamics, said: “At this year’s UK Innovation Districts Summit we’ll be delivering an interactive workshop that explores applications for data collection and the power of data-led stories. Our aim is to support innovation districts and their partners to become more confident in using data strategically: to shape priorities, guide investment decisions, strengthen partnerships and articulate impact. Reflecting the wider theme of the Summit, the emphasis will be on practical delivery and peer learning.”
Metro Dynamics is a place-based economic development advisory business. They work with cities and city-regions to support inclusive innovation-led growth. In 2021 Metro Dynamics and Professor Neil Lee were commissioned by UK IDG to research how, as part of the levelling-up agenda and the Government’s 2022 Levelling Up White Paper, places right across the UK can deliver truly inclusive innovation. This culminated in a report published the following year – Opening the Innovation Economy: The case for inclusive innovation.
Of this Summit Programme announcement, UK Innovation Districts Group Chair, Emma Frost, said: “We are thrilled that Metro Dynamics will host the data and impact themed-power-up session at the Summit this year. Having worked with the MetroDynamics on a major research project exploring the case for inclusive innovation, I know how valuable their experience is for our Members and our wider stakeholders attending. Capturing good quality data and having the confidence to use it remains a significant challenge for innovation districts and knowledge quarters across the UK”.
The UK Innovation Districts Summit 2026 is being held at the Everyman Theatre, with support from UK IDG member Knowledge Quarter Liverpool during the city region’s Innovation Investment Fortnight.
This is an opportunity for curious people working across place-based innovation, to connect with other UK Innovation Districts, explore the year’s most relevant themes, share knowledge and make valuable connections. The Summit is for UK IDG Members, policy makers, placemakers, entrepreneurs, and changemakers designing and delivering innovation districts, economic growth and placemaking activity. Secure your place today: UK Innovation District Summit 2026
Following the publication of our policy action paper, ‘Unlocking UK Innovation Districts to accelerate Industrial Strategy outcomes’ in September 2025, the UK Innovation Districts Group (UK IDG) is delivering on the key recommendations, building our evidence base, and sharing best practice.
Developed in collaboration with industry leaders, universities, and local and regional government teams, the report recognised the unique role innovation districts play in delivering sustainable economic growth. It set out a series of practical recommendations to accelerate this growth, including: ‘Enabling more investment into innovation districts’.
Last week (14 May 2026), UK IDG convened Members for the first of a two-part workshop: ‘Crowding Investment into Innovation Districts’. The session focused on the mechanics of place-based investment, supporting Members to explore how city-regions are attracting vital private capital alongside other income sources, and how they are using it to build thriving innovation ecosystems.
We know ‘crowding investment’ is mission-critical when it comes to transforming the UK’s R&D excellence into long-term economic prosperity, and this UK IDG workshop series, along with other investment in innovation themed events, is designed to stress-test learning and build the case for places.
Last week’s session explored the bottlenecks to investment experienced by our Members and the root causes of these pressure points. Led by UK IDG Chair, Emma Frost, participants from innovation districts and knowledge quarters analysed the impact that local capacity has on attracting and administrating investment, and discussed what the national support offer should be. Two clear themes that came through the discussion were:
- The business journey is under-designed
One of the most important gaps identified was the lack of a clear, district-level pathway for firms from spin-out or start-up to scale-up and long-term anchor. The workshop suggested that many places still treat commercialisation, property, finance and growth support as separate systems, when firms experience them as one continuous journey.
- Public finance needs better coordination
Too often public finance institutions operate in parallel rather than in sequence. The workshop pointed to the need for clearer roles between the Office for Investment, the National Wealth Fund, Homes England, the British Business Bank, Innovate UK, UKRI and local partners, so that projects can move through a coherent pipeline rather than bouncing between agencies.
Two very useful reference documents were used to help inform this work and frame the conversation. The forthcoming Lloyds Innovation Foundations paper: The economic potential for financing the UK’s Innovation Infrastructure, and the Pioneer and ‘The Crown Estate report ‘Beyond the Capital Gap for UK Research Commercialisation’ (March 2026).
Other UK IDG-supported activities planned throughout the year aim to gather evidence and insight that will inform the ‘Crowding Investment into Innovation Districts’ briefing paper due to be published by the end of the year. Events include roundtables and panel discussions at UKREiiF this week, and a peer-led discovery session at the UK Innovation Districts Summit in Liverpool in June. The events are designed to engage government agencies, financial institutions and placemakers to join our innovation district Members, to capture best practice and lessons learnt. Our ultimate goal is to ensure every innovation district has the capacity, the connections, and the capital to deliver inclusive growth for their communities and the wider UK economy.
If you would like to join the conversation and can add to our shared knowledge-base, we’d like to hear from you too: hello@ukinnovationdistricts.co.uk
This April, we brought Members together to explore and learn from Innovation City Belfast. We work with our Member innovation districts and knowledge quarters to deliver the study visits bi-annually and the trips are always a popular addition to the UK Innovation Districts Group (UKIDG) activity programme. Why? Because, as a peer network we get most value from learning together, supporting each other, and sharing experiences and expertise in the places and with the people that are doing the doing.
This is the second time we have taken Members to Belfast. The first time was four years ago and it was evident to everyone who returned with us, just how much progress has been made since our last visit, and interesting to consider how a shift in funding might have expedited that change and influenced the focus on inclusive innovation. To quote a recent post by KQ Liverpool‘s Emiliy Robson, “It was clear how much transformation the Belfast Region City Deal has unlocked and also the focus on inclusive innovation.” The evolution of governance structures and the impact of devolved administrations is certainly something we are seeing as drivers for change across our Member Districts, and the visit to Innovation City Belfast and specifically the up close experience of the partnership between Belfast Harbour and Catalyst Innovation Centre, really brought this learning to life.
Key themes examined on the visit included an exploration into our host’s approach to translating innovation across sectors and industries. This is of particular interest to our Member Districts, who may have started with a specialism in one industry, perhaps born out of the place based talent and research assets located there, and who are now finding a pull to diversify, as their sector specialisms evolve. Innovation City Belfast demonstrated brilliantly how to achieve this transition by drawing on existing strengths. For example; how security and crowd safety monitoring tech is being applied to animal welfare and farm management with the development of FlockFocus; and gaming and deep tech is being transferred to high end film and TV visual production techniques. This led to further discussion and analysis of the roles our creative industries play across place based innovation districts and the power of positioning these as the new ‘heavy industries’ in our frontier economy.
Proactive inclusive innovation was high on the list of learning points for the visit as we delved into a range of approaches underway to deliver this regional priority. Amongst other useful case studies, we learnt about Innovation City Belfast’s grand challenge on ‘Housing and Homelessness’ and a ‘SURF project’ (Skills for Urban and Rural Futures). It was also clear that significant inroads were being made when it came to breaking down barriers and improving community integration through the use of dedicated PeacePlus collaborative R&D projects.
Another focal point of the visit that initiated much discussion and reflection amongst Members, was the importance of growing entrepreneurs locally and the increasing need to understand AIDEs (AI Driven Enterprises) alongside Innovation Driven Enterprises (IDEs) and Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This led us to examine more deeply, the role of innovation districts in supporting entrepreneurialism, regional economic growth and the transformation of places (often critical success measures of Innovation districts and knowledge quarters).
Of the study visit, Emma Frost, Chair of UK Innovation Districts Group, said: “The increasing depth, maturity and scale of investment into Innovation City Belfast over the last few years is truly impressive. It was wonderful to bring our Members back to see this first hand, and to learn from the Belfast team driving the change – a huge thanks to our hosts and speakers .”
You can learn more about Innovation City Belfast via their website and if you’re someone that works in place based innovation and would like to learn more about our study visits or the wider programme of activities we deliver for UK IDG Members, email us at hello@ukinnovationsdistricts.co.uk.