The UK is not short of ideas, but it faces a persistent challenge in turning research excellence into commercial reality. Unlocking that potential requires a place-based approach, bringing together universities, investors, local authorities and businesses within connected innovation ecosystems.

At this year's UKREiiF, a panel session titled 'Universities as drivers of growth: Partnering to build the UK's innovation infrastructure' confronted this question head-on, exploring how research excellence, commercial partnerships and investment pathways can accelerate skills, productivity and place-based regeneration. Chaired by Scott Barton of Lloyds Bank, the panel brought together senior leaders from Newcastle University, the University of Leeds, London South Bank University and Sciontec. Here we set out the key insights from that discussion.

Why an innovation ecosystem approach?

The conversation opened with a fundamental question: why is an innovation ecosystem the right framework, and who are the key players?

The panel was clear that innovation is not simply about research and development, but about people and places to help commercialise the incredible ideas coming out of higher education. 

A place-based lens can bring together skills, access to finance and physical infrastructure. The Universities for North East England partnership is a strong example in which universities have recognised their potential as anchor institutions in their areas to function as a strategic growth programme. 

The five member universities are collaborating to make themselves more accessible for study, business, innovation and investment, while providing valuable evidence-based regional insight to inform national higher education policy. This illustrates the potential of combining universities’ hard capital assets with the softer ‘glue’ that holds an ecosystem together.

Innovation is not a linear process, and the systems that support it must hold space for experimentation. Universities have a critical stewardship role in convening innovation and creating public good. The panel was candid, however, about one of the sector's greatest challenges: getting education actors to work in partnership rather than in competition.

Place-based innovation in practice: Real-world examples

Newcastle Helix

Newcastle Helix, built on the 24-acre site of a former coal mine and then Scottish and Newcastle brewery, now stands as a world-leading innovation cluster, home to national centres for data and ageing as well as apartments. The project involved a joint venture with Legal & General and Newcastle City Council, but the challenge goes beyond bricks and mortar: ensuring an innovation district feels genuinely part of the wider community rather than functioning as an ivory tower. Viability gaps and the difficulty of attracting venture capital remain persistent hurdles.

Nexus, University of Leeds

Nexus is an innovation community for fast-growing startups. Initially focused on a capital building programme, the team paused to re-examine its value proposition, ultimately repositioning to attract international, high-value innovation-driven enterprises. The university benefits through intellectual property, talent acquisition and the ability to bring investment into the city and region. Nexus has worked with 355 organisations, attracted £155m in investment, facilitated 200 student placements creating over 300 jobs, and drawn in companies from 21 countries.

There were internal challenges — a new building inaccessible to academics was initially a difficult sell. The key was reframing the project: Nexus was not about the university itself, but about connecting it to a broader innovation ecosystem through investors and external organisations.

Knowledge Quarter and Sciontec, Liverpool

The Knowledge Quarter in Liverpool provided another compelling model. Sciontec was spun out of this ecosystem as a company specifically tasked with leading development and managing spaces for small businesses. The lesson is straightforward: do what you do best, and let others do what they do best. Place-based innovation requires trust and genuine partnership to allow everyone to thrive.

MediaCityUK, Salford Quays

Drawing on experience with Salford Council during the creation of MediaCityUK, the panel noted that during a consultation about the development's future, it became apparent that a university was needed to complement the launch of BBC studios. Despite initial plans for the university to be located elsewhere, it became instrumental in the project's success. The civic leadership dimension is essential: telling a coherent story about how businesses will contribute to the city is as important as the underlying economics.

Co-investment and shared risk

The panel highlighted that co-investment models must be built on a shared understanding of risk – not necessarily equal risk, but risk shared in the context of a longer-term vision where results may take time to materialise. This can be particularly challenging for local authorities.

The breadth of university co-investment was illustrated through examples ranging from green energy generation to training one in five nurses in London, community heating networks with councils, battery technology collaboration with Imperial College, and energy retrofitting for housing with rapid upskilling of workers.

Culture, policy and the right conditions for partnership

The panel's closing discussion turned to what is needed to unlock greater collaboration between universities and their partners.

One theme to emerge was 'institutional serendipity' — creating a culture attuned to recognising the potential in partnerships. The panel was frank about the sector's ingrained risk aversion and the need to elevate the 'third mission' of universities beyond research and teaching. The ivory tower perception is breaking down, but too many businesses still report getting lost in the system and giving up. What is required is genuine project management capability and a client-focused mindset.

The panel also stressed the importance of making universities easy to access, understanding the value of the knowledge universities hold, and ensuring that partners feel that knowledge is genuinely valued. Creating a ‘single front door’ – deliberately blurring the boundary between university and business – was put forward as one practical solution.

On policy, the erosion of business support funding was described as a catastrophe for innovation, with calls for Shared Prosperity Fund allocations to be increased. Pre-seed investment was identified as a critical gap: companies cannot access the small amounts of capital needed to prove a concept, and when they do, they often leave the country.

Our view

The panel made clear that universities are anchor institutions capable of catalysing regional transformation. The examples from Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool and Salford demonstrate that when universities collaborate with local authorities, businesses and investors through a place-based lens, the results can be transformative.

For investors, developers and public bodies working on complex regeneration or infrastructure projects, the message from the panel is to bring universities in early, invest in the relationship, and treat the partnership as a long-term strategic commitment rather than a transactional arrangement.

We work with universities, local authorities and the private sector across the full range of education, real estate and infrastructure matters. If you would like to discuss how the themes raised may be relevant to your projects, please get in touch.