The flip side of this paradigm is the huge economic growth opportunity that AI represents, with the International Monetary Fund estimating that the UK economy could grow by a staggering 16% as a result of AI adoption.
This sits against the backdrop of continued public sector backing of innovation. The government’s recently published AI Opportunities Action Plan sets out a huge ambition for the UK to “shape the AI revolution on principles of shared economic prosperity, improved public services and increased personal opportunities”. The plan outlines a series of actions to build on the strong foundations in place across the UK, including our vibrant startup and scaleup scene, global leadership on AI safety, prominent frontier AI companies in London, and our world-leading research.
But the raw ingredients are never enough. In order to unlock the economic growth we’re seeking, collaboration needs to be at the forefront of our thinking, underpinning our approach to ecosystem development.
The private, public and higher education sectors all have unique capabilities to offer, and finding ways to encourage AI innovation that crosses sector boundaries is crucial. This isn’t an easy ask, but it’s one that is critical to the future of the UK AI ecosystem. So, how do we do this?
Championing and supporting collaboration
When we think of driving innovation, our thoughts quickly jump to startup accelerator programmes, business support, and investment - and while they’re all an integral part of ecosystem growth, there’s huge untapped potential sitting in our higher education system.
25 UK universities are ranked in the global 200, with the universities of Manchester, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Oxford all leading exciting global AI innovation. Yet, across the UK, there’s often a collaboration gap between the higher education sector and the public and private sectors. The result? A lack of efficiency and missed innovation opportunity.
The Turing Innovation Catalyst Manchester (TIC) exists to harness this opportunity in Greater Manchester, and we’re already witnessing the empowering effect that collaboration across this trifecta has on a range of industries. Incubated within the University of Manchester, TIC has developed and implemented replicable roadmaps that help AI innovators, startups, scaleups and SMEs access unique support and insights from academic institutions, helping them to tackle some of the greatest challenges in AI innovation and sustainable growth.
The success of these foundations of support has been attested in the powerful, connected innovation hub that has been created, putting Manchester in the healthy position of being the UK’s most AI-ready city, surpassing London. Grafmarine and AINOSTICS are just two examples of businesses we’ve been working with that have embraced the concept of cross-sector collaboration and developed IP to drive meaningful innovation across the net zero and health-tech sectors. And they’re not alone, with one third of new patents in Greater Manchester driven by academic-private sector partnerships in 2023.
Taking an industry-first approach
To create a mature and developing AI ecosystem that contributes to economic and social growth, it’s pivotal that we understand the potential of AI research through an industry-first lens. For the UK to maintain its leadership in the tech sector, we must support the commercialisation of cutting-edge research, taking it out of academia and into the wider world where it can have a tangible, positive impact.
As one of the support bridges for Greater Manchester’s AI businesses and research institutions, this is a factor that we’ve prioritised, creating collaborative research mechanisms, specialist programmes, funding initiatives, and educational industry events that spotlight the game-changing innovations emerging from research environments, as well as creating a support platform to equip PhD researchers with the commercial skills to launch their research into successful, scalable AI products and services.
We are already seeing the benefits of taking an ecosystem-wide approach, continuing to build on Greater Manchester’s position as a launchpad for transformative innovation and promising startups that are delivering both private sector growth and positive impact.
A connected innovation ecosystem
We know that even more cross-sector collaboration, as seen in Manchester, has the power to supercharge the country’s standing as an AI powerhouse. However, for it to be successful and effective, we must have organisations sitting at the heart of regional ecosystems that are capable of facilitating connections across these sectors, creating mechanisms that fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle.
With the realisation of this need in Greater Manchester, the work we do acts as an essential bridge, bringing together commercial acumen, public accountability and cutting-edge research – and it’s an approach that other regional economies will benefit from with the right support in place. Understanding that collaboration between the public, private and higher education sectors is one of the greatest missed opportunities in the city region, we now have a replicable blueprint and a clear evidence base that can be used to encourage valuable research to be supported and commercialised in ecosystems up and down the country.
With challenges and opportunities unique to each region and ecosystem, it’s crucial that local and regional authorities partner with forward-thinking universities as some of the country’s most significant innovation assets.
With the right support and guidance in place, we can connect and navigate the regions of the UK to success through driving collaboration across the public, private and higher education sectors - increasing private sector investment in research and development; turning innovative ideas into investible startups; providing citizens with relevant skills and good prospects; and helping to deliver positive impact in our towns and cities.
Liz Scott MBE, Executive Director, Turing Innovation Catalyst Manchester.
