Birmingham connects global investors to Midlands innovation

Next week, delegates at the inaugural UK Global R&D and Science Investment Summit will hear a drumroll for the Midlands region, which is becoming one of the UK’s most investible regions for deep tech, life sciences and advanced manufacturing commercialisation.

The event at the Royal Society, London, will take place on 8^th and 9^th June, and is designed to demonstrate a new place‑based approach to attracting international investment into the UK. It is the first of its kind, with showcases outlining strengths and capabilities at a regional level to a global audience of investors and industry leaders, and is being held during London Tech Week, one of the world’s greatest festivals of technology, innovation and investment, with a yearly attendance of nearly 30,000 delegates.

Representatives and senior leaders from University of Birmingham are participating in the Summit, including the University’s Vice Chancellor and Principal, Professor Adam Tickell, who will open the launch of the Commission on Devolution and Diplomacy report. The Commission, co-chaired by West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker and East Midlands Mayor Claire Ward and supported by the Campaign for UK University R&D – Midlands investigates how universities and local governments can attract investment and contribute to local innovation ecosystems.

Several University of Birmingham researchers and spin-outs will feature in the Midlands Showcase, that positions the region as the UK’s next economic powerhouse, with one of the UK's strongest growth ecosystems, combining research excellence, industrial capability, talent and innovation. The Summit will build on the wider regional momentum highlighted in a recent report from Midlands Innovation¹ which showed the Midlands is entering a new phase of innovation-led growth, driven by the regionwide alignment of universities, capital, talent programmes, and physical infrastructure.

As an anchor institution, the University of Birmingham has a key role to play, with world-leading expertise, specialist facilities, and collaborative research opportunities that enable evolution for Birmingham’s foundational industries, and deliver innovation in frontier industries that will drive future growth.

The Birmingham Health and Life Sciences District, a £5 billion medical innovation cluster, brings together researchers, clinicians, innovators, and investors and scaling businesses around Birmingham’s strengths in clinical trials, health data, genomics, diagnostics and advanced therapies. The Birmingham Health Innovation Campus provides a home for innovation within this, with its Precision Health Technologies Accelerator which opened last year to provide state-of-the-art Category 2 lab and office space to ambitious SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups, and to house the Industry Trials Hub.

The High Temperature Research Centre, funded by investment from Rolls-Royce plc and the UK Government, enables production-scale research and experimentation, supporting innovation in design, simulation, casting and advanced manufacturing.

Innovation in the Midlands rivals and often exceeds that of other areas in the UK, and Midlands based spin-outs compete (and even outcompete) with golden triangle spinouts across business performance metrics such as patent ownership, growth rates and productivity¹. Birmingham spin-outs including quantum innovators Delta.g, biomaterials company 4D Medicine, and precision medicine company Tagomics will be at sector specific showcases at the event.

The Summit is convened in partnership with Midlands Innovation, which has played a central role in developing and delivering the wider investment proposition. The link for registration is at: https://invest-uk-science.com/programme/.