{"id":2180527,"date":"2026-10-09T14:56:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T13:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/?p=2180527"},"modified":"2026-10-12T07:50:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T06:50:43","slug":"business-and-university-leaders-warn-devolution-risks-fragmenting-uk-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/news\/2180527-business-and-university-leaders-warn-devolution-risks-fragmenting-uk-innovation","title":{"rendered":"Business and university leaders warn devolution risks fragmenting UK innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Business and university leaders have warned the Prime Minister that devolution must strengthen local contributions to the UK’s innovation economy without fragmenting national capabilities needed to compete globally, while the leader of a fund backing businesses has welcomed the direction of travel.<\/p>\n

An open letter signed by senior figures including Dame Clare Barclay and Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, chair and deputy chair of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, calls for a new partnership combining stronger local leadership with sustained national investment.<\/p>\n

Other signatories include GSK chair Sir Jonathan Symonds, SSE and Diageo chair Sir John Manzoni, Sarah Walker, chief executive UK and Ireland at Cisco, and Amadeus Capital Partners co-founder and chief executive Anne Glover.<\/p>\n

The letter has been brought together by NCUB, whose chair Paul Walker also chairs RELX.<\/p>\n

Sir John Manzoni, chair of SSE and Diageo, and board member of the National Centre for Universities and Business, said: “Through NCUB’s Business-led R&D Taskforce, we surveyed thousands of businesses and spoke directly to many more. The message was clear: the UK needs greater focus to attract more business investment. We cannot build international competitiveness if different parts of the country pull in opposite directions or all try to lead in the same areas. We must make clear choices, connect complementary strengths and invest at the scale needed to succeed. Devolution must reinforce that focus.”<\/p>\n

The intervention came ahead of Andy Burnham’s speech at an Innovation Nation summit in Manchester, as the Government considers the forthcoming fiscal devolution settlement.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Duncan Johnson at Rainmakers Summit<\/p><\/div>\n

Duncan Johnson, chief executive of Northern Gritstone, a fund which backs spin outs from northern universities was more upbeat after Burnham’s speech.<\/p>\n

“For me, the connection between regional innovation clusters and access to scale-up capital is central to making this work,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The Northern Arc, which consists of Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and Liverpool alongside Oxford, Cambridge and London, forms the UK\u2019s Technology Diamond. Connecting these centres\u2019 complementary strengths can help us turn world-class research into businesses capable of competing internationally,” Johnson added.<\/p>\n

“At Northern Gritstone, we see those opportunities emerging from our universities and the wider ecosystem every day. Turning them into enduring businesses takes patient capital. That\u2019s why the proposed \u00a31 billion commitment to innovation clusters, greater local control over innovation funding and the ambition to mobilise more UK pension capital are encouraging.”<\/p>\n

After the speech, the NCUB welcomed the ambition set out by Burnham to make the UK a world leader in innovation, and the recognition of universities as one of the country\u2019s greatest strengths in achieving this.<\/p>\n

The speech outlined plans to devolve the \u00a3500 million Local Innovation Partnerships Fund to established mayors from 2028, commit \u00a31 billion with UKRI over four years to support high-potential innovation clusters, and strengthen collaboration between complementary clusters across the UK.<\/p>\n

Dr Joe Marshall, Chief Executive of NCUB, said: \u201cIt is encouraging to see universities recognised as one of the UK\u2019s greatest strengths in building an innovation-led, research-driven economy. As senior business and university leaders have highlighted in our open letter to the Prime Minister, realising this ambition will depend on universities and businesses working together to turn research excellence into innovation, investment and growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevolution offers a real opportunity to bring together the distinctive strengths of different places, align research and innovation with skills, infrastructure and finance, and create the conditions for greater investment and growth. But stronger local leadership must go hand in hand with national coordination. We need places to complement one another, connecting expertise across boundaries and building the scale needed to compete internationally.”<\/p>\n

The letter argues that the record settlement for research and development in the last Spending Review sent a key signal to industry, but that the priority now must be to put that investment to work at scale and speed.<\/p>\n

The signatories highlight three priorities for the forthcoming settlement: greater local power and long-term funding to build on distinctive strengths, sustained national investment where scale and cross-regional collaboration matter, and stronger coordination to connect capabilities and opportunities across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Open letter calls for national coordination – Northern Gritstone chief more positive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":264565,"featured_media":2160197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120782,120903],"coauthors":[116163],"class_list":["post-2180527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-universities-and-business","tag-featured-story","tag-national"],"yoast_head":"\nBusiness and university leaders warn devolution risks fragmenting UK innovation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Open letter calls for national coordination - Northern Gritstone chief more positive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/news\/2180527-business-and-university-leaders-warn-devolution-risks-fragmenting-uk-innovation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Business and university leaders warn devolution risks fragmenting UK innovation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Open letter calls for national coordination - 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