Greater Manchester and Cambridge have announced a new partnership to boost investment in their innovation clusters for the science and technology sectors.
The strengthened links between the two cities aims to accelerate the growth and job creation of start-up and scale-up businesses associated with innovation and research spin-outs. The partnership pairs up Innovate Cambridge with ID Manchester, a joint venture between the University of Manchester and Bruntwood SciTech, to develop more strategic links between the two science and technology hotspots.
Greater Manchester boasts a rapidly growing tech scene, the UK’s largest outside of London and the South East, while Cambridge was last month named the most intensive science and technological cluster in the world for a second year running by the Global Innovation Index.
The new partnership will add to existing links between the two cities’ science and technology sectors: chip designer Arm and global streaming platform Roku, while bioscience giant AstraZeneca has major presences in Cambridge and just out Greater Manchester in Macclesfield. The University of Cambridge and The University of Manchester also collaborate on major national initiatives, including the Henry Royce Institute and the Productivity Institute.
The collaboration also has the backing of the mayors of Greater Manchester and Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, Andy Burnham and Nik Johnson. The proposals also support the Government’s ambitions for the UK to become a science and tech superpower.
Underpinning the partnership is a shared commitment from both Greater Manchester and Cambridge to an inclusive innovation-led growth agenda, leveraging business and political leadership, and accelerating growth in critical sectors like AI, digital tech, advanced materials, and health and biotech. The partnership will accelerate economic growth locally, regionally and nationally, and translate world-leading research into new jobs.
Lou Cordwell, Director of ID Manchester and chair of the GM Business Board said:
“This is a pioneering partnership that brings together two of the UK’s key innovation cities, with highly complementary offerings and ambitions to create an ambitious new cross-UK innovation cluster. Both partners have exceptional science and tech assets and ecosystems, including their globally renowned academic institutions, underpinned by our shared ambitions to deliver a more inclusive model of innovation. Our joint commitment to collaborating on this agenda will help ensure our respective local communities feel the positive economic and social impact of this growth whilst also helping to power the UK’s success as a science superpower.”
Tabitha Goldstaub, Executive Director of Innovate Cambridge said:
“Cambridge and Manchester have many established ties in the innovation space and deepening these connections is a win-win for both cities and the businesses operating in them. This collaborative effort leverages the respective strengths of both cities to ensure we are greater than the sum of our parts.”
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said:
“Greater Manchester and Cambridge are recognised globally as hubs for innovation. The partnership between ID Manchester and Innovate Cambridge can help us strengthen ties between our places, linking the pioneering research and outstanding businesses present in each. Our ambition is for Greater Manchester to be a high-growth, high-wage economy, where the opportunities created by innovation are accessible to all. By focusing on investment and business growth, this partnership supports that ambition.”
Mayor of Cambridge and Peterborough, Dr Nik Johnson, said:
“As a region, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s talents and innovations are matched only by our efforts and ambitions and we take great pride in being able to further our partnership with an equally well-resourced Greater Manchester. Being home to world-class academic and industrial institutions is as much a responsibility as it is an opportunity which this new venture signals our determination to live up to and realise.”
Innovate Cambridge was launched in 2022 as an ambitious Greater Cambridge initiative that aims to collectively agree on and define an inclusive vision for the future of Cambridge and its innovation ecosystem to be implemented over the next decade. ID Manchester will see The University of Manchester’s former North Campus transformed into a 4 Million square foot innovation district, combining the University’s world-class research strengths with the experience of Bruntwood SciTech.
