Driving Innovation in Cities
A blog by Dr Cathy Garner
“96% of local government leaders believe nurturing innovation is very
important for their city’s growth"
The Perfect Storm – the greatest challenge to local government finances in a generation, PWC
Manchester’s leadership not only believe innovation is key for city growth but have put this belief into practice. Over the last three years a partnership of NESTA, Manchester City Council, The Northwest Development Agency, Commission for the New Economy and Manchester: Knowledge Capital have been stimulating a range of actions on innovation across Greater Manchester.
This has put Manchester in a good place to use the tools of innovation to deliver transformation in services and in its approach to eceonomic development – the £350k Fund announced yesterday is just one of a range of examples of the kind of thinking that will ensure Manchester can rise above the tide of regional funding cuts.
Working with private and academic sectors we have identified and designed over 25 interventions that bring us closer to meeting our ambition. To view a selection of the projects click here. We have also galvanised a large number of Manchester businesses to get on board with us and be part of the journey towards greater innovation.
You can view some of the learning generated and policy lessons from our work so far, in this NESTA report
Innovation is never easy – having an idea or some new thinking about how to change things is necessary but far from sufficient. The hard work of innovation comes in getting people to change their ways of working , change their ideas about the nature of the business they are in or the markets that they can best seek to supply. The learning that Innovation Manchester has enabled across literally hundreds of people across Greater Manchester puts everyone in a better place for the years ahead. Manchester has always been an innovative place, a place of ideas and inventions that have changed the world – building on that spirit and the attitudes of Mancunians will be crucial in driving our economic and community’s futures.