Business and university leaders have warned that devolution must strengthen the contribution of places to the UK's innovation economy without fragmenting the national capabilities needed to compete globally.

In an open letter to the Prime Minister, many high-profile business and university leaders call for a new partnership that combines stronger local leadership with sustained national investment and the ability to connect capabilities across the country behind opportunities where the UK can win.

The letter has been signed by many high profile senior business and university leaders, including Dame Clare Barclay and Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, Chair and Deputy Chair of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council; GSK Chair Sir Jonathan Symonds; SSE and Diageo Chair Sir John Manzoni; Sarah Walker, Chief Executive UK & Ireland, Cisco; and Amadeus Capital Partners Co-founder and Chief Executive Anne Glover. The letter has been brought together by NCUB, whose Chair Paul Walker also chairs RELX.

The intervention comes ahead of Andy Burnham’s expected speech at an ‘Innovation Nation’ summit in Manchester today, as the Government considers the forthcoming fiscal devolution settlement.

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. 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.

The UKRI Local Innovation Partnerships Fund provides an example of how local priorities can be combined with national expertise, networks and investment. The letter also welcomes the transformation under way at UKRI to make stronger choices, join up research and innovation and concentrate resources where they can have greatest impact.

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.”

Paul Walker, Chair, RELX, and Chair, National Centre for Universities and Business, said:
“Through my longstanding involvement in business and higher education in the North East of England, I have seen the strengths and ambition that exist beyond the Golden Triangle. Growth must reach every postcode. NCUB brings together university and business leaders across sectors and places, giving our Board a broad view of what is needed. We want local leaders to have the means to build on their strengths, alongside the national coordination that connects those strengths and makes the UK internationally competitive.”

Devolution 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 we cannot afford to let stronger local leadership come at the expense of the connections that make the UK’s research and innovation system greater than the sum of its parts. Many of the opportunities that will drive future growth will depend on businesses, universities and places working across boundaries, with the national capacity to bring complementary capabilities together and build the scale needed to compete internationally.

The challenge now is to get the balance right. Places need the freedom and long-term funding to develop their own strengths, while the country retains the ability to make strategic investments, join up expertise and focus resources where they can have the greatest impact. That combination of local agency and national coordination is essential if we are to turn our research and innovation strengths into commercial success, investment and good jobs across the UK.

The full letter can be read here:
NCUB-letter-to-PM-research-innovation-and-devolution.-8-Oct.pdf