Andrew Borland, Chief Innovation Officer at the VEC, University of Liverpool, explores the future of innovation in the Liverpool City Region, following the launch of Novel, a leadership initiative designed to drive growth through collaborative innovation.
The UK stands at a critical juncture in its innovation journey. While ranking 4th in the Global Innovation Index 2023, with strengths in research quality and university-industry collaboration, the landscape is complex.
The ‘State of Innovation 2024’ report found that innovation levels in UK firms are declining, with almost half (46%) of businesses blaming external factors as barriers to innovation activity, and national and local government interventions heavily focussed on university R&D, licensing and spin outs.
To tackle these innovation challenges and support wider economic growth, leadership, not technology, will be key. This inspired the launch of Novel, a leadership initiative aimed at stimulating and enabling the next generation of innovation leaders in the Liverpool City Region.
Funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) as part of the existing Horizons project, the programme’s inaugural session at the Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot, brought together leading innovation thinkers. Speakers including Simon May and Jim Dawton from Impeller Ventures, alongside Jim Shaw, former BDO of Bentley Motors, and Stuart Hetherington, CEO of Holovis International, dissected the UK’s innovation ecosystem.
A Novel approach to innovation
Novel focuses on innovation as “the successful commercialisation of a novel ideas”, which powerfully resonates when considering the UK’s research capabilities. The country ranks first globally for research quality among top universities, according to the QS World University Rankings 2024. If this research excellence can be mobilised to support our SME business, we have a robust foundation for businesses growth and economic development.
The approach to innovation has also changed in recent years, with Stuart Hetherington highlighting the crucial shift from innovation being just an activity, to being embedded as a mindset within organisations.
This cultural transformation is already bearing fruit – the UK has produced 144 tech unicorns as of 2023, third only to the US and China. More importantly, we’re seeing a new generation of business leaders who understand that innovation isn’t just about technology – it’s about creating sustainable value.
Novel’s distinctive approach, connecting business leaders with experts and R&D support from organisations like the Virtual Engineering Centre (part of the University of Liverpool) as well as other public sector decision-makers, reflects a new approach to business-led innovation and industrial strategy.
And there’s a reason we’re doing this. Regions with strong public-private partnerships typically experience 2-3 times higher innovation success rates.
The path forward demands us to challenge our existing assumptions about innovation. We must move beyond traditional thinking and focus on leadership and delivering growth from SME innovation. This requires cultivating an innovation mindset that permeates every level of business and government, creating an environment where sustainable, long-term innovation can truly flourish.
As we stand on the cusp of transformative change, Novel represents more than just an initiative – it is a blueprint for how we can collectively unlock the UK’s extraordinary innovation potential.
