Connected Places Catapult – Written evidence (CAT0002)
The contribution of innovation Catapults to delivering the R&D Roadmap
Introduction to Connected Places Catapult
Connected Places Catapult is the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and places.
We provide impartial ‘innovation as a service’ for public bodies, businesses, and infrastructure providers to catalyse step-change improvements in the way people live, work and travel. We connect businesses and public sector leaders to cutting-edge research to spark innovation and grow new markets. We run technology demonstrators and SME accelerators to scale new solutions that drive growth, spread prosperity, and eliminate carbon.
Orchestrating innovation ecosystems
R&D strategy often concerns itself with the invention of the next breakthrough technology – new wonder materials such as graphene or harnessing the theoretical powers of quantum computing technology. However, this focus on invention risks overlooking the importance of wider interactions and enabling activities that both accelerate and anchor innovation ecosystems, and – through creation of clusters – can capture the spill-over benefits of innovation activity to produce sustained gains in regional productivity.
Similarly, the pathway for core technology R&D activity is often described as a linear process – from the germ of an idea, through research laboratory, trials and testing and finally a valuable commercial product. However, the pathway for systems level adoption and service innovation of these technologies is a much more iterative process, involving the matching of end user needs (market pull) with the art of the technically possible (technology push) through orchestration of regulation, engagement, collaboration and a coherent and aligned set of activities.
At Connected Places Catapult, we work to establish the mechanisms, programmes and networks required to enable the growth of highly productive, innovation ecosystems and to create shorter pathways to market for innovators.
Question 1: What are the latest science and technology developments underpinning your Catapult that will lead to commercialisation?
Connected Places Catapult is working with innovators, industry and asset owners to explore and accelerate novel applications of large-scale technology developments – artificial intelligence and autonomy; advanced modelling and data fusion enabled by ever-increasing computer power; next generation telecommunications connectivity; and energy generation, distribution and storage technologies. We examine how they impact on our six domains of focus – that is, decision making (governance), built environment, mobility, public realm, wellbeing and critical infrastructure. We have made significant investments (‘big bets’ in the language of the R&D Roadmap) in autonomy, specifically in connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV), where we played a pivotal role in establishing the UK as a global leader in CAV, and now increasingly in drones and larger applications of unmanned air mobility (UAM).1
We undertake regular assessments of the science and technology developments with greatest potential for commercial application by businesses in the connected places market as part of our strategic analysis programme which informs our business strategy and investments. This analysis includes using natural language processing to scan 4,000 research topics (‘fronts’) to identify those areas most aligned to our market building mission and scrutinising the R&D outputs of the most topical 250 areas for insights from the leading-edge of research.
The connected places market is being shaped by the same large-scale technology developments active in other sectors – artificial intelligence and autonomy; advanced modelling and data fusion enabled by ever-increasing computer power; next generation telecommunications connectivity; and energy generation and storage technologies, with the specific technologies and related new commercial models expressed in the table below.
1 Further detail on our impact on CAV is outlined in the accompanying document: From Lutz Pathfinder to HumanDrive Trend Specific Commercial models enabled technology Autonomy Connected and Driverless logistics e.g. delivery robots Autonomy road New taxi services Industrial applications in ports and factories Vehicles (CAV) Automated flight Urban Air Mobility (UAM) – flying taxis Drone (UAV) automation for e.g. asset inspection, blue light services etc.
AI / increase Data modelling Smart building management in computing Predictive models for usage e.g. people power flow through built environment, on- demand transport services Digital twins Predictive maintenance for infrastructure Large system modelling (e.g. city traffic)
Connectivity Comms e.g. 5G Enabling digital infrastructure which underpins other applications e.g. UAVs & data collection for digital twins Sensors Granular, real-time data capture to inform decision making & e.g. digital twins Energy Battery Electric Vehicles (including road based technology but also short- range electric aviation, shipping etc.) Unmanned Air Mobility (drones) Infrastructure deployment Hydrogen Energy dense transport e.g. Heavy Goods Vehicles, aviation & shipping and domestic heat Infrastructure deployment
CPC focus on supporting the scaling of new technologies based upon the anticipated size of the market and economic, environmental and societal benefits, as well as supporting the emergence of new technologies. Since there are also segments of the connected places market which have been slow to adopt even fairly well-established technologies (the long-tail of laggards in the classic graph of UK productivity), we are also working hard to accelerate the commercial uptake of these impactful technologies in sectors which have proved slow to integrate.
The digitisation of land use planning is a prime example of this: The technology to create dynamic, data-driven and machine-readable local planning services has been available for some time, but local government planning departments and the developers with whom they work, have been slow to adopt new tools and approaches. In 2016, Connected Places Catapult launched the Future of Planning programme to accelerate the application and adoption of digital technologies in local planning services. Through collaborations with innovators in the public and private sector to demonstrate the art of the possible, engagement with regulators to map and tackle outdated planning rules which hindered the use of innovative approaches, and partnerships with training providers and professional bodies to ensure that customers of ‘Plantech’ solutions have the skills needed to harness them, we sparked the creation of a whole new sector and drove changes to national planning policy – digital innovation is a central theme in the 2020 Planning White Paper, Planning for the Future, with more than 50 references to digitisation.
Question 2: How might such science and technology developments lead to a substantial increase in private sector funding of R&D in the areas covered by your Catapult?
The science and technology developments in artificial intelligence and autonomy; advanced modelling and data fusion enabled by ever-increasing computer power; next generation telecommunications connectivity; and energy generation and storage technologies relate to areas of capability in UK academia and industry. As the global markets for each of these services grows, there is a huge opportunity to attract domestic and inward investment in R&D. Connected Places Catapult is working to stimulate this investment in a number of ways, as illustrated by three examples below.
Firstly, by acting as an innovation catalyst, domain expert and connecter between organisations. For example, Connected Places Catapult launched its first CAV R&D project with industry and academia in 2014 – the LUTZ Pathfinder. Two years later, that project delivered a world first by demonstrating an autonomous vehicle in a public space. LUTZ Pathfinder stimulated an additional £435 million investment in UK CAV research and cemented the concept of ‘Intelligent Mobility’ in the traditional transport sector. The demonstration also generated £110 million in advertising value equivalent value, raising the profile of the UK as a global hub for the research, development and integration of automated and connected vehicles into society. LUTZ Pathfinder laid the foundation for further public and private investment in CAV. By December 2019, £900m of inward investment had been attracted to the UK, with major industry players (Nissan, Hitachi) consolidating their CAV capabilities here as a result of our pioneering activities. In January 2020, the HumanDrive consortium comprising Nissan, Hitachi, Cranfield University, University of Leeds, and several others – all coordinated by Connected Places Catapult – saw a self-driving car successfully complete a 230 mile Grand Drive in a £13.2M project (including £8.7M from Innovate UK)– the single longest and most complex journey undertaken by an autonomous vehicle on UK roads.
Secondly, SMEs are a considerable source of innovation in the connected place market. Our SME network consists of 2,500 SMEs selected against their alignment with CPC domains and their high-growth potential. This number is increasing at a rate of 200 new businesses per year and covers early stage to later stages SMEs in our domains. Connected Places Catapult provides its network support programme at no cost to the SMEs by leveraging the need of the private and public sectors to seek and deploy new products and services. In many cases considerable effort is required to get market incumbents to understand that need but when they do, we see some remarkable results. By applying CPC’s market and technical expertise, we can help smaller businesses engage with market incumbents to deliver solutions to industry challenges, providing them with access to real commercial opportunities that lead to investment and growth. An example of this approach is our Intelligent Mobility (IM) Accelerator Programme which, over three years and with the relatively small CPC investment matched by industry two to one, has provided direct support to 39 SMEs. These companies have benefitted from access to customers, validated their solutions and secured over 30 commercial contracts in many cases doubling their commercial pipeline and raised investments worth in excess of £44 million. One of our key partners in the IM programme is Hyundai who have not only invested cash and time into the programme – their first investment of this type in the UK – they have also invested £8M directly in SMEs in the programme alongside UK venture capital funds but have also gained further access to the UK innovation ecosystem subsequently leading to a (E)100M investment in Arrival (a UK manufacturer of electric vehicles).
Finally, working with industry, academia, regulators and other Catapults we have generated the roadmap for commercialisation of drone services, untangling and prioritising the practical hurdles on the path to scaled applications, and led the development of a series of pathfinder demonstrators tackling priority hurdles and validating use cases. Through this activity we have played a part in catalysing the £300 million Future Flight Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (of which £175 million is industry match funding). This shows a clear route from our interventions to dramatic increases in commitment of private sector R&D funding.
Independent econometric analysis commissioned by Innovate UK and undertaken by Frontier Economics shows that firms which receive support from Connected Places Catapult saw turnover grow 34% more quickly and headcount rise 40% faster than a matched control group over three years (2019 data).
Question 3: What should be the role of Innovate UK in enabling your Catapult to achieve more private sector investment in R&D?
Effective innovation ecosystems balance investments in fundamental research with funding for industrial translation – both in terms of technological applications but also the development of viable commercial models to sell and scale them. The focus on translation to sustainable deployment is particularly strong in the connected places market, where technologies may exist but remain unexploited as a result of business model, regulatory or other environmental factors. This is the space in which Innovate UK – and the Catapults – operate.
As others such as Prof. Richard Jones have argued, translational research – from academia to industry, SME to market – is significantly underfunded in the UK, limiting private sector R&D investment and the potential economic impact of our world leading science and research base. Simply put, other countries often offer a more attractive environment for globally mobile private R&D investment. Despite this, Connected Places Catapult has proven effective at leveraging public funding to stimulate private sector investment in R&D through our collaborations with organisations such as Hyundai, Nissan and the Belfast City Region consortia (the last of these stimulated more than £150 million of private sector investment). We have refined our operating model and strategy to maximise impact, but we could do more with more.
We support an increase in HMG investment on translational research, including through existing institutions such as Innovate UK to supercharge translational research and development activity. UKRI and Innovate UK should use these additional resources to fund more ambitious programmes (as advocated for in the UK R&D Roadmap). Innovate UK should also expand their innovation toolbox beyond the most commonly employed industry match funding CR&D activities.
At present, the processes through which Innovate UK and UKRI are required to operate can often slow down the response to emerging opportunities. For example, the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund opened its Expression for Interest for Wave 3 programmes in spring 2018, yet funded R&D projects for some of the selected programmes are only just beginning at the close of 2020 – a gap of 2.5 years. This is a significant amount of elapsed time and is arguably unaffordable in fast moving new markets. Well intentioned tools used to scrutinize value for money in public spending e.g. detailed investment business cases can be difficult to align with proposals for new R&D activities which will always contain a level of risk.
Constraints imposed upon the Catapults in terms of competition funding are another limitation – at present, Catapults are not usually permitted to lead UKRI-funded projects, and are only eligible for a share of up to a 30% share of total project funding. If multiple Catapults and/or other Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) are involved in a project, they must split the 30% share between them. Research has shown time and again that innovation thrives under greater autonomy, a principle that should be applied to both Innovate UK and the Catapult network in turn.
Innovate UK could also support Catapults to achieve more private sector R&D investment by revising the performance framework against which Catapults are judged. The R&D Roadmap outlines a clear ambition for the UK to make bigger bets, have a greater risk appetitive and support larger technology programmes. Our own experience shows that bigger bets tend to attract greater private investment from a concentrated set of highly engaged players. However, our current KPIs incentivise quantity over quality when it comes to industry collaborations. Far from encouraging bigger bets, these metrics rewards us for spreading our resources thinly across a greater number of projects.
Question 4: What is the split between large and SME industries with whom your Catapult would aim to collaborate to achieve substantial new innovation tie-ups?
In the connected places market, large organisations (whether public or private) tend to be asset- rich and innovation hungry. SMEs on the other hand, are bursting with innovative potential, but struggle to secure investment or commercial contracts, due variously to lack of proof points to give investors’ confidence, the dominance of legacy providers, and cumbersome approaches to public procurement. Between 2012-2017 there was a 476% increase in single bid tenders and 43% of SMEs believe that failure to understand technology is a key barrier to entry.2 The proportion of public sector contracts awarded without a competitive tender rose from 15 per cent in 2016 to 22 per cent in 2017 and then 23 per cent in 2018, according to research by the Financial Times and OpenOpps, a consultancy that advises on government outsourcing.3
Connected Places Catapult is pioneering an ecosystem approach to innovation adoption by convening and coordinating the chain of innovation support from universities to SMEs to larger industry corporates and government. Within that, we have an active and successful programme to connect large organisations and SME innovators to spark new collaborations and accelerate innovation in an environment that de-risks the development and adoption of innovative products and services for the vendor and the buyer. We call this process the ‘Innovation Factory’.
As with innovation programmes in the US and elsewhere, we use a challenge- based approach to broker tie-ups between large corporates and innovating SMEs. For example, in these ‘Innovation Factory’ projects we work with a large market incumbent, such as a tier 1, to identify and express their needs in a way which enables a range of SMEs with suitable solutions to respond to the challenge and engage with the challenge owning organisation. This concept has been successfully proven with national arms-length bodies such as Network Rail, which have traditionally struggled to match their significant R&D investment with access to cutting-edge technologies provided by the SME community, where we have supported a number of innovation tenders to ensure that we maximise the response from innovators. Three of those competitions covering station innovation, geofencing and passenger modelling, received over 90 responses. This is also the approach we adopt in our successful accelerator programmes.
Each Innovation Factory is configured to meet the needs of the large organisation setting the challenge, but usually includes a testing or demonstrator phase in which the proposed solution can be deployed, assessed, iterated and refined in dialogue with the challenge owner. As part of any Innovation Factory we consider the route to market exploitation by providing support to vendors and buyers to facilitate commercial engagement and, where appropriate, set up compliant procurement processes (whether Innovation Partnerships or Pilots) so there is a pathway to a commercial contract to implement identified solutions at scale – which can directly lead to economic impact. And because the process involves demonstration on real assets and operating environments, even those innovating SMEs that are not successful with one particular customer have evidence and continued CPC support which they can take to future investors and customers.
Our strong track record in running both innovation procurement vehicles and accelerator programmes is key to delivery of this support, allowing us to effectively match incumbents with innovators, reducing the distance to commercial implementation and contracting. By supporting both organisational types through one programme type we can mitigate against the traditional tensions of incumbents vs disruptors.
2 Procuring for Innovation and Growth, techUK (2019) 3 “Sole outsource bidders win more public sector contracts”, https://www.ft.com/content/0ecee894- 15a5- 11e9-a581-4ff78404524e. For each Innovation Factory activity on which we partner, we must engage with a sufficient number of SMEs of the level of quality and industry alignment that will enable us to identify solutions that are commercially viable. For example, at present, we work to a conversion rate of 10 applications per place for our accelerator programmes and many of the applicants are of sufficient quality to bring into our wider programme or direct to other opportunities. Therefore, CPC is working to increase not only our data on exciting, innovating SMEs across all our domains but also the number of genuine commercial opportunities we can offer to them from our industry partners.
Looking ahead, we would like to work more closely with Research Councils and Innovate UK to develop more coordinated, sector-focussed funding schemes (such as translational awards), designed to create a pipeline of innovation so that industry and investors can see a clear route to market which will encourage more private sector investment into the challenges.
Question 5: Should more universities be involved with your Catapult, and if so, how should they be incentivised?
The UK’s strength in academia is an essential part of the UK competitive advantage in the global R&D market and ought to be leveraged at every opportunity. To this end, Connected Places Catapult currently has a mature network of 375 academic partners working in fields relevant to the CPC domains, six Deep Academic Alliances with leading research institutions selected based on the strength and depth of expertise in CPC domains, and a cohort of Business Fellows who translate market requirements into new collaborative R&D projects between their universities and Connected Places Catapult in order to bring innovation to market.
We work with universities and research organisations to drive:
Thought Leadership – academics play a key role in informing our horizon scanning and technology scouting projects Market and technology research – contributing to market intelligence and analysis Idea generation – collaborations between academia and innovators can lead to novel technologies or new applications of existing ones Access to expertise – the complexity of academia can be a barrier to even large organisations accessing and benefiting from the work of academics Workforce and skills – to identify and build on the educational strengths of universities that benefit the industries and government bodies CPC works with, regionally and nationally, to support entrepreneurship and leadership development as well as technical skills
Our Deep Academic Alliances with Birmingham, Cranfield, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham and UCL were selected following analysis of UK research strengths aligned to innovation opportunities in the connected places market. Our relationships with Cranfield and Leeds led directly to economic impact through the CAV programmes. Investment in development of the relationship with Cranfield has been instrumental to development of Future Flight ISCF and our involvement in other collaborations.
A comprehensive refresh of our academic capability map is currently underway, with initial findings already delivered and further insights due in early 2021. Instead of relying on universities self-reporting their strengths to us for inclusion in our knowledge base, we have drawn on the natural language processing expertise of our Data Science team to scan 1.5 million published research papers across 4,000 research topics (‘fronts’) to identify those areas of research most applicable to our market. Using that initial analysis (complemented by our existing sector knowledge) we now have a more fine-grained understanding of where relevant academic strengths are located and will focus the development of future academic partnerships accordingly.
In addition to science and engineering departments, we are currently planning to increase our engagement with business schools and management training departments, careers services and university business incubators. Business schools have capabilities in areas like disruptive innovation, business modelling, innovation management. Harnessing those capabilities to amplify and extend our own support to the businesses with whom we work would be hugely beneficial. The same could be said for University Careers offices: any action to direct a larger share of the UK’s graduates leaving universities every year towards entrepreneurship or jobs in the SME community would have a significant impact.
UKRI’s introduction of the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF), in addition to the existing Research Excellence Framework (REF) and Teaching Excellence Frameworks (TEF), should provide an additional incentive for Universities and other Higher Education Institutions to direct more of their resources to activities which generate economic impact as well as novel research. Deeper engagement with the Catapult Network would be a highly effective way of helping these institutions to perform well in the measure of KEF, since several of the proposed KEF metrics are closely related to those of the Catapult Network, such as measures of industrial collaboration and impact.
One additional means of incentivising academia will be to draw their attention the benefits in terms of exploitation planning. Despite the world-renowned strength of the UK academia, they would often be the first to admit they are not necessarily fantastic at commercialising their work – although the introduction of the KEF may go some way towards addressing this. Through increased collaboration with the Catapult Network, we would be able to demonstrate methods for taking their work to market. Once this practice starts, it can effectively snowball as institutions become more adept at commercialisation, and market pull is developed as industry learns more about what value academia can offer. The combination of skills and opportunities SMEs can access across the UK, and support for more places to create the conditions for local innovation economies to flourish means that Connected Places Catapult is making it easier for successful businesses to stay in their ‘birthplace’ for longer. Successful Universities will also make a wider economic contribution to the places in which they are located through the spill-over benefits in areas such as support services.
Incentivisation is currently problematic for a number of reasons. Among which is the 30% cap on funding share to RTOs in many CR&D funding calls (as referenced in Question 3), this limits many valuable collaborations. A further issue is that the majority of Research Council funding calls exclude the Catapult Network from a partner role, which is a direct obstacle to effective partnering with Universities and provides a barrier to providing business led insights. In short, the Catapult network was created to help exploitation of UK academia, but barriers currently inhibit several aspects of our effective collaboration with universities.
Question 6: How might your Catapult’s activities help the Government’s proposed levelling-up agenda?
R&D strategy and its implied link to future productivity often concerns itself with the invention of the next breakthrough technology – new wonder materials such as graphene or harnessing the theoretical powers of quantum computing technology. However, this focus on invention risks overlooking the importance of wider interactions and enabling activities that both accelerate and anchor innovation ecosystems, and – through creation of clusters – can capture the spill-over benefits of innovation activity to produce sustained gains in regional productivity.
At Connected Places Catapult, we connect businesses to pioneering research in order to spark innovative applications, but we also work to establish the mechanisms, programmes and networks required to enable the growth of highly productive, innovation ecosystems across the UK. As such, Connected Places Catapult is uniquely placed to play a larger role in the re-gearing of the UK economy towards widespread innovation and prosperity.
Orchestrating effective innovation ecosystems
There are universities, business incubators and innovation centres scattered across the UK, but they have delivered varied levels of success in cultivating a local/regional innovation economy. There is therefore more to stimulating regional growth than simply establishing new facilities.
Understanding why innovation happens in one place and not another is vital to delivering levelling up. Connected Places Catapult’s CEO, Nicola Yates OBE, has personal experience of leading economic transformation in multiple UK cities:
In Hull, as CEO, she secured investment from Siemens for their wind farm production site and worked with the University and local Business to help catalyse the creation of a green energy cluster. This created the foundation and conditions which in turn has been exploited by the Offshore Renewable Catapult locating there. In Bristol, as CEO, she established the Bristol is Open fibre test bed and worked with local Universities to establish the Engine Shed (which is one of the most successful university incubators in the world) and led the negotiation of the devolution deal. This provided conditions which were exploited by HVM Catapult through creation of the National Composite Centre. In Belfast, where she led the Catapult’s work to align regional stakeholders around the successful City Region Deal bid which secured £500m of public and private sector investment in digital infrastructure and the innovation ecosystem. Digital Catapult have since been able to leverage these conditions to expand their presence in the city.
Similar expertise in fostering high-performing innovation economies and mobilising local and regional ecosystems exists across the organisation, Board and Associates Network. To complement existing knowledge, in 2018 Connected Places Catapult partnered with world-leading experts to gather and analyse the experience of more than 30 global innovation clusters in order to understand the demand pre-conditions, location requirements, and interventions or catalysts that enabled places to host successful innovation economies across different formats and scales.4 These are the ‘industrial commons’ which Prof Jones highlights in his paper as needing restoration in many parts of the UK.5 That analysis is currently being updated and will be published in early 2021.
With a track record in convening complex markets and experience working with place leaders and the wider ecosystem to shape whole place perspectives, the Connected Places Catapult is well placed to facilitate the restoration of these industrial commons in local and regional economies across the UK.
Furthermore, many of the technologies and innovations Connected Places Catapult is working across promise to stimulate regional productivity by improving environmental factors which attract and retain talent. These include:
Digitised land use planning (PlanTech) which optimises use of land and speeds the creation of new homes in the right locations – especially when combined with offsite construction technologies; Transport data models which reduce productivity-sapping congestion and related pollution;6 Next generation digital connectivity (including 5G) which enable new user services and economic opportunities; Place-based digital twins which enable more responsive services and user experiences, and more efficient use of public funds; New innovations in health, wellbeing and independent living which will enable more people to participate economically.
The scaling of innovations which deliver greater mobility and access, optimise land use, improve decision making, foster new public spaces and points of human interaction and improve local environments are as much a priority for regional regeneration as is the creation of new facilities or invention of new technologies. Such innovations will both support some parts of the UK to fire up
4 The Logic of Innovation Locations. This analysis presently being updated. 5 Prof Richard Jones, Resurgence of the regions (May 2019) 6 London’s transport information, provided through travel apps and real time alerts, saves £70-£95 million per year in time efficiency, reduced uncertainty and lower information costs. It is also estimated to have increased the GVA of the local tech economy by £14 million a year. Deloitte, 2017, Assessing the value of TfL’s open data and digital partnerships new innovation-led economies and help those places which are already engines of innovation and economic productivity to avoid becoming victims of their own success e.g. through lack of access to affordable housing or transport congestion. Connected Places Catapult is well placed to accelerate the development of the underlying ecosystems required for sustainable levelling up.
Stimulating opportunities across the UK
While most Catapults are tied closely to the physical locations where they have offices and other facilities, Connected Places Catapult provides innovators with access to R&D assets which work across the length and breadth of the country. This is possible because of our innovation-as-a-service partnerships with the likes of Network Rail, HS2, Highways England and the Department for Transport, which enable R&D activities on live infrastructure and assets from St Pancras to the Solent, Morecombe to Media City.
Recent Connected Places ventures include:
A new smart cities accelerator and testbed at Media City in Salford, delivered in partnership with The Landing and Up Ventures; Partnering with data modelling SMEs and Highways England to develop a ‘digital twin’ of the Strategic Road Network around Birmingham; Exploring the feasibility and market opportunities for autonomous passenger ferries in Southampton (MANTA); Testing crowding management on platforms and smart asset management tools at Manchester Piccadilly Station with Network Rail (Innovation Stations); Prototyping a tool enabling SME builders to more easily identify, assess and develop new sites for housing in collaboration with Gateshead Planning Department; Collaborating with industry and place leaders in Sunderland to assess market opportunities and productivity gains from 5G-enabled autonomous trucks; Reducing delays on the rail network and risk to staff through a first-of-a- kind demonstrator in Morecombe with Network Rail and an SME tackling standing water on the tracks (TrackWater).
The combination of R&D opportunities SMEs can access across the UK, and support for more places to create the conditions for local innovation economies to flourish means that Connected Places Catapult is providing pathways to market that don’t require a stop in London on the way to success, making it easier for successful businesses to stay in their ‘birthplace’ for longer.
25 November 2020