UK Innovation Districts Group Associate Members Arup, will be joining leaders working across the built environment, placemaking and economic development roles, at the annual UK IDG Summit this Friday (5 June) in Liverpool.

Arup and UK IDG have been collaborating on industry research and policy white papers for almost a decade and today UK IDG can announce that Jack Baker – Senior Urban Designer and Architect at Arup, and Charlotte Cutter – Arup Consultant, will be joining other place-based innovation specialists to facilitate two of the three workshops at the 2026 Summit.

Charlotte will be convening a conversation on ‘Crowding Investment into Innovation: developing prototypes’. Jack will facilitate a workshop – ‘Mapping and Maximising Entrepreneurial Skills – lessons from Liverpool, Newcastle and Belfast’.

Last week UK IDG reported that Metro Dynamics are to facilitate the workshop ‘From data to decisions: how good data drives good outcomes’ – you can read more on that news here: https://www.ukinnovationdistricts.co.uk/uk-innovation-districts-summit-power-up-session-with-metro-dynamics-announced/

Arup, is a global consultancy with 18 UK-based offices and they have been operating in the built environment space for 80 years. A thought leader in the innovation district space, Arup collaborates with UK IDG Members, government agencies, businesses, research partners and placemakers to deliver inclusive and sustainable growth for UK cities and regions.

The team brings with them a wealth of experience, from policy leadership and mapping innovation ecosystems, developing the spatial proposition and case for innovation-led investment, to partnering with universities and other anchor institutions that drive the research and commercialisation capabilities of innovation districts. This includes convening and accessing innovation talent, and identifying opportunities to connect businesses, skills, people and places. 

As long-time advocates of the ‘inclusive innovation agenda’, Arup will be sharing their experience working with innovation districts and ecosystems to support economic growth – creating local jobs for local people, and designing places and networks that attract people and investment. 

At last year’s Summit UK IDG launched the action paper ‘Unlocking UK Innovation Districts to accelerate Industrial Strategy outcomes’ highlighting the vital role innovation districts play in delivering key elements of the UK’s Industrial Strategy. This paper was co-produced with Members, including Associate Members Arup, who generously supported the development of the report. Lessons learnt from this and policy recommendations made, will feed into this year’s workshops facilitated by Charlotte and Jack.

Ciara Graven, Senior Economist at Arup is one of 100 delegates set to attend the Summit in Liverpool this week. Ciara said: “We are delighted to be both attending and facilitating workshops at the UK Innovation Districts Summit this year! These events convene place-based innovation district leaders and partners from across the UK, bringing people together who just wouldn’t get the opportunity to meet face-to-face otherwise. It’s a great opportunity for people to get together to share knowledge, insights and experiences – and to build those all-important relationships that help shape innovation-led economic growth across the UK.”

The UK Innovation Districts Summit 2026 is being held at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, with support from UK IDG Member Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, during the city region’s Innovation Investment Fortnight.  The Summit is for UK IDG Members, policy makers, placemakers, entrepreneurs, and changemakers designing and delivering innovation districts, economic growth and placemaking activity. The event is currently at capacity but you can join the waiting list and be notified if any tickets become available here: UK Innovation District Summit 2026

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: 

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

The UK Innovation Districts Group (UK IDG) has today published its latest action paper, highlighting the vital role innovation districts play in delivering key elements of the UK’s Industrial Strategy.

Developed in collaboration with industry leaders, universities, and local and regional government, the report sets out a series of practical recommendations to accelerate the growth of innovation districts across the UK. It recognises their unique role in translating research into commercial opportunities, scaling businesses, and fostering inclusive, sustainable economic development.

Recommendations in the paper are framed around three themes:

  1. Enabling more investment into innovation districts
  2. Building more partnerships across the UK
  3. Strengthening local capacity to support, scale and commercialise innovation

The paper calls for a step-change in partnership building, leadership, and coordination between government, academia, industry, and investors to unlock the full potential of innovation districts as strategic economic infrastructure.

The UK IDG is proud to have partnered with Arup, an Associate Member of the Group, which has generously supported the development of this report.

This action paper is also an invitation for further collaboration. With momentum building and growing policy alignment, now is the time to act. The UK IDG extends its thanks to the many contributors who have already helped shape the recommendations through meetings and roundtables, and welcomes further engagement with them and others who would like to get involved. 

Unlocking UK Innovation Districts to accelerate Industrial Strategy outcomes

Download report

How do we better understand and measure the value of innovation districts? 

The social and strategic value that Innovation districts can offer to their communities, cities and countries is starting to be recognised but is notoriously hard to measure. 

Robert F. Kennedy famously said that GDP measures “everything except that which makes life worthwhile”. 

Yet much of the standard measures of success for innovation activity and innovation clusters tend to be heavily skewed towards similarly narrow indicators such as GVA, no. of jobs, no. of patents etc. Individually, there is nothing wrong with using such measures. But they don’t give us a collective or full picture of the value being generated.     

How then, can we attempt to establish a more holistic value assessment of innovation districts in situ? How can we better evidence the whole value return they contribute to the places in which they are embedded? And how do we show this over different timescales and geographical scales in a meaningful and more standardised way that allows us to learn deeply about each place but also draw trends and learning between places? 

These were some of the very questions that the UK IDG set out to answer this year. The development of impact measures for Innovation districts became our primary research enquiry for 2023 – following on neatly from our previous research commission in 2022 on The Case for Inclusive Innovation in the UK.  

The case for why we need this sort of thinking is increasingly clear and is driving renewed focus on measuring the impact of innovation districts. Public, academic partners and increasingly private sector partners all wish to qualify and demonstrate the socio-economic value return of investing in Innovation Districts. Investors are looking for tangible measures to assess and compare innovation districts. City and district leaders need to demonstrate progress and potential to prospective funders, tenants and backers – as well as crucially to local businesses and residents.

So, there is a critical need to understand how best to frame success, gather data, and monitor progress. For this reason, the UK IDG with funding from CPC, commissioned The Business of Cities to undertake this work with the aims of:

  1. Producing a deep data dive for member district
    Robust and relevant data points that give a fuller read on the status and value of each Innovation District in situ. Go beyond standard GVA or occupancy stats to include a blend of metrics that work across the three interrelated value themes of: Innovation, Place & People.  Develop a framework that shows change over time and geography which helps isolate the added value of the innovation district in relation to its context. 
  2. Create a more consistent approach to place-based innovation value metrics
    Establish a more unified model for UK Innovation districts to help spot common patterns and trends and learn with each other. 
  3. Use evidence to inform conversations
    Use this evidence base to have focused conversations with city, regional and national government policy makers. Specifically linking into the UK Innovation cluster mapping work and thinking through broader applications connected to Innovation accelerators and Investment zones for example.

This work consisted of a global review informed by the UK IDG’s experiences and data architecture specialists. It also analysed the most appropriate blend of publicly vs privately available data sources, quantitative vs qualitative research work – with clear rational and guidance for each. The resulting data framework has now been produced and is being adopted by individual member districts. 

This will help individual innovation districts to:  

To find out more about this work please get in touch at hello@ukinnovationdistricts.co.uk or email Borane Gille boranegille@thebusinessofcities.com