Ministers, Mayors and Midlands universities launch £3m campaign to attract global R&D investment

Midlands Innovation and the Midlands Engine Partnership have today launched a £3m campaign to attract global R&D investment and drive economic growth in the region. The announcement was made at UKREiiF , which has attracted nearly 13,000 investors, delegates and developers.

The Invest in UK University R&D – Midlands Campaign has been developed with a range of regional partners including the West Midlands Growth Company , Midlands Enterprise Universities and the East Midlands Freeport and will see seventeen universities across the Midlands join forces to leverage global connections and create a compelling offer to global investors.

Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, Andrew Griffith MP , announced an award of £1.5 million from the UK’s International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) to support the campaign over the next two years, which has been matched by universities and regional partners. The Minister said: “The UK is home to world class research hubs and by bringing together the expertise and connections of universities, government and industry, we can bolster our efforts to win international investment into some of the Midlands’ strongest sectors. Our country’s universities have directly attracted around £4bn of foreign investment into their research since 2015. Today’s new campaign, supported by £1.5m from the Government’s International Science Partnership Fund, will help bring in more backing for the region's excellent research.”

Alex Favier , Programme Director at Midlands Innovation, will lead the campaign.  He said: "We are thrilled to have secured Government support for this trailblazing campaign. Through our new Invest Universities Midlands team, we will be able to work with UK Embassies around the world, national government and regional partners such as the West Midlands Growth Company to provide a ‘concierge service’ for investors into our universities. Individually our universities all have outstanding innovation, talent, and state-of-the-art R&D facilities. But together, our collaboration and connections become a distinct competitive advantage for any investor seeking a partnership with a Midlands university.”

Aligning with the priorities of the new West and East Midlands Mayors and other local leaders, the campaign will help promote the region as an outstanding destination for global investment.

The campaign will also work closely with Midlands Mindforge , an independent patient capital investment company, established by the eight research intensive universities in the Midlands Innovation partnership. Midlands Mindforge aims to deploy £250m to “invest with impact”, founding and scaling transformational science backed companies in sectors such as Clean Technologies, AI & Computational Science, Life Sciences & Health Tech. It will create highly skilled jobs in the Midlands and support the UK’s ambition to become a science and technology superpower.

The award follows-on from the ‘Universities as Drivers of Trade and Investment’ Pilot, led by Midlands Innovation, Midlands Engine Partnership and Midlands Enterprise Universities, with support from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities . The programme helped lay the groundwork for the campaign by demonstrating the enormous potential universities have and how they can play a much greater role in driving overseas trade and investment into UK regional R&D.

The campaign is supported by UK Research and Innovation and the UK’s Global Science and Innovation Network (SIN), which is jointly funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

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