R&D in Greater Manchester

Devolution offers great opportunities for regions across the UK. To understand the role that R&D can play in the future of city regions, and how the public can be brought into these discussions, we held a workshop with organisations across Greater Manchester.

Participants

• Bruntwood SciTech
• Greater Manchester Combined Authority
• Health Innovation Manchester
• Manchester Metropolitan University
• Rochdale Development Agency
• Rochdale Borough Council
• Science and Industry Museum, Manchester
• Siemens

Key Conclusions

• R&D advocates should connect research to local issues and priorities. City regions are uniquely well placed to do this, benefitting from strong and familiar regional leadership, and research organisations that have built trusted relationships with the community. For Greater Manchester, high potential priorities include health inequalities and Net Zero.
• Creating R&D messages with local relevance means understanding local audiences. City regions should map the issues which resonate with different residents, and also understand the level of ‘place’ that groups most strongly associate with – be that regional, borough or community-level.
• Major regional developments offer an opportunity to engage the public, ideally from the outset. Prime examples are the Greater Manchester Innovation Accelerator announced in the Levelling Up White Paper and the Atom Valley development. Building these initiatives around a shared, public vision for R&D within the city region will help secure success and longevity.
• City regions should involve residents when championing their contribution to the future of UK R&D. Our workshop demonstrated the benefits of working as a city region to build public and political support for R&D. Greater Manchester can show its stability and capacity for long-term planning, and take advantage of strong regional relationships and the levelling up agenda.