Burnham tasks UKRI with diverting £1 billion to regional clusters

The prime minister has announced that UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will commit £1 billion over the next four years to back regional innovation clusters, as he set out the UK’s ambition to use its higher education sector to drive his place-based agenda.

Speaking at an “innovation nation” summit, Andy Burnham said he wanted to create a “globally significant cluster in every region” underpinned by the UK’s research’s strengths and coordinated by mayoral authorities.

“We will build on our existing industrial strategy, at a national level, by identifying the clusters around the UK, with the potential to become truly world leading,” he told the audience in Manchester.

“And with UKRI, [we will] commit £1 billion over the next four years, to back these clusters and these places,” he said, working with the agency “to take a more place-based approach to innovation – [this] is something the mayors have long called for, and it’s about to happen”.

Under Keir Starmer’s premiership, UKRI had previously committed £500 million to the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund, a pot supporting mayoral authorities to develop local “triple helix” partnerships between civic institutions, business and universities.

Burnham said he will hand control of the partnership to mayors in 2028, two years earlier than previously planned.

At the start of his speech, Burnham praised universities. He said: “the university assets we have in this country are… our strongest base when it comes to being a world leader in innovation”. He added that “all of them are conducting world-leading research and spinning out a stream of startups”.

Sue Ferns, senior deputy general secretary of the union Prospect that represents UKRI staff and scientists, said of the plan to move UKRI’s budgets to place-based hubs: “Making sure research and innovation supports every part of the country is a good aim.

“However, we need to understand the detail of these changes to the UKRI budget. We already have a situation where key facilities including those in the north of England, like Daresbury and Boulby Mine are under threat from cuts.”

She called for UKRI leadership to look at working with partners on a new strategy for the funder.

Before Burnham’s speech, university and business leaders sent a letter to Burnham, warning that greater local leadership must be combined with national coordination to avoid the pitfalls of fragmented investment.

The letter, led by the National Centre for Universities and Business, said: “Translating our world-leading curiosity research into commercial application and opportunity requires greater connectivity between the national and local.

“Without coordination, we risk duplicating investment, encouraging places to pursue the same sectors and spreading scarce resources too thinly.”

The letter signatories included Nancy Rothwell, former University of Manchester vice-chancellor and now deputy chair of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, Chris Day, the vice-chancellor of Newcastle University and Koen Lamberts, vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield.

Earlier today, Burnham also announced that the government’s flagship £600million Health Data Research Service, co-funded with Wellcome Trust, will prioritise work on dementia, the disease his late father batted with.

“And this is a move that I hope will make the UK the leading nation in dementia research. I want Britain to be the country that makes the breakthrough. and delivers the dementia cure, the world has been waiting for,” he said.

frances.jones@timeshighereducation.com