Greater Manchester was selected as one of three areas to the pilot the Innovation Accelerator programme by UK Government.
Led by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation, the pilot Innovation Accelerator programme invested £100m in 26 transformative R&D projects between 2022-25 to accelerate the growth of three high-potential innovation ecosystems – Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester and West Midlands. The programme was boosted by an additional £30m of public funding for 2025/26, spread equally across the regions. Innovation Accelerators are piloting a new model of R&D decision making that empowers local partnerships to harness innovation to drive regional economic growth, attract private investment, and develop future technologies.
Greater Manchester’s Innovation Accelerator programme is backing 10 projects across the city-region.
Find out more about Greater Manchester’s Innovation Accelerator projects here.
The Innovation Accelerator is advancing the many changes needed to achieve Innovation Greater Manchester's 2030 vision. It is a unique opportunity for local and national government and innovation agencies to work with businesses to co-design, deploy, and evaluate new approaches to place-based innovation.
Innovation Greater Manchester believes the biggest opportunity to fuel innovation-led inclusive growth is by exploiting synergies between cross-cutting technology families and frontier sectors, alongside strengthening the wider innovation ecosystem.
We have prioritised actions to make rapid progress in key technology families and to address the most critical gaps in Greater Manchester’s innovation ecosystem.
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