Business Leadership team to lobby for Turing Institute

THE North West Business Leadership Team is pledging to lobby hard for the proposed Alan Turing Institute for big data research to be based in the region.

The £42m investment in the new centre was announced by Chancellor George Osborne in the Budget last week.

The location of the facility, to focus on big data and algorithm research, has not yet been decided  – a tender to house the institute will be issued later this year.

Speaking ahead of a major report, called Exploiting The Excellence,  which looks at the science and innovation potential of the North West, Juergen Maier chair of the North West Business Leadership Team, said: “The report notes a number of world class innovation strengths in the North West.

“Amongst these are advanced materials and high performance computing. The NWBLT will therefore be making a strong case for the £42m Alan Turing Institute for big data to be centred around the North West’s existing excellence in this area.

“Similarly, research activities around Graphene should be focused around the North West’s current world class activities on Advanced Materials. By creating such ecosystems we have the best chance for the UK as a whole to lead the world in these areas and create an innovation revolution that maximises local jobs and wealth creation.”

Exploiting the Excellence will be launched at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester on Friday.

Keynote speeches will be delivered by Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester, and Andrew Miller MP, Chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee.  

The NWBLT companies, which employ more than 50,000 people in the region, collaborated with universities, centres of R&D excellence alongside Local Enterprise Partnerships to highlight the region’s capability to be at the heart of an “innovation revolution”.