Leaders from across Greater Manchester’s innovation ecosystem came together for a special event to mark one year since the start of a landmark partnership with the UK’s national innovation agency, Innovate UK.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, CEO of Innovate UK, Indro Mukerjee, and Manchester City Council Leader and Greater Manchester Economy Lead, Cllr Bev Craig, were joined leaders from Innovation Greater Manchester and across the city-region's civic, business, research and academic communities.

Attendees heard about how Greater Manchester and Innovate UK are working closely together in areas of mutual benefit and interest – to support business innovation, strengthen research clusters, and attract investment.

The event celebrated a number of significant breakthroughs since the Memorandum of Understanding was signed in December 2022:

  • Investing £33m through the Innovation Accelerator, supporting 10 ambitious projects in Greater Manchester, driving job creation and economic growth.
  • Further Education Innovation Fund – which awarded £2.5m to deliver innovation support through GMColleges and the city-region's further education colleges.
  • Allocating over £20m in additional Innovate UK funding into Greater Manchester’s frontier sectors – Clean Growth, Digital and AI, Advanced Materials, and Health and Life Sciences
  • Supporting over 500 companies with the Innovate UK Business Growth team, seamlessly integrating with Greater Manchester's The Growth Company, to assist local SMEs.