The North of England has a rich history of innovation and entrepreneurship, with countless innovations that have helped shape the world we live in today. From the Industrial Revolution to the development of the computer, the North has been at the forefront of technological – and many other – advancements throughout history. Full steam ahead! 

The Industrial Revolution  

The North was home to many important inventors and entrepreneurs during the Industrial Revolution, including Scotsman James Watt, inventor of the steam engine (and namesake of the ‘watt’ unit of power) as well as Lancashire entrepreneur Richard Arkwright, who invented the spinning frame, an apparatus powered by water. Both innovations helped revolutionize the textile industry, making way for mass production and the foundations for modern manufacturing. 

John Walker, a British pharmacist from County Durham, accidentally discovered that a mixture of chemicals could be ignited by striking it against a rough surface, which led to the invention of the first friction match in 1826. 

The RSPB 

Frustration is often a great propellant for innovation. In 1889, Emily Williamson (Lancashire born and bred) had one aim – fight the growing popularity for feather fashion and the plumage trade that was driving the extinction of little birds, like her favourite Great Crested Grebe. She created the all-women movement, Society for the Protection of Birds, after it became clear the male-only British Ornithologist Union wasn’t going to take action.  

Lifeboats and lifesavers 

Development of purpose-built lifeboats (and thus the beginnings of the modern lifeboat service we know today) began in 1789, after locals helplessly watched sailors drown after their ship Adventure ran aground in the mouth of the River Tyne during a storm. 

A globally recognised exercise regime 

Joseph Pilates, a German boxer and circus entertainer created the Pilates training Method during World War 1 whilst serving as a prisoner of war in Jersey, Lancaster, and finally the Isle of Man. After observing the movements of the Island’s cats, Pilates devised a regime based around muscle-stretching exercises.  

Computing and technology 

The North was also a major player in the development of the computer. In the 1940s and 50s, Manchester University became home to one of the first stored-program computers, the Manchester Mark 1. Developed by Frederic Williams and Tom Kilburn, it was one of the earliest computers that could store and execute programs electronically – paving the way for the development of modern computing. 

Jonathan Ive, who studied at Northumbria University in Newcastle in the 1980s began his career as a product designer, working for several companies before joining Apple in 1992. Ive was responsible for the design of many of Apple’s most iconic products, including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. His work was instrumental in helping Apple become one of the most valuable and influential technology companies in the world. 

Nuclear power 

In 1956, The Calder Hall (located in Cumbria) was the world’s first commercial nuclear power station. A joint project between the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the electricity supply industry, it propelled the use of nuclear power worldwide. 

Renewable energy 

Today the North is well-known as a centre of innovation for renewable energy. It’s home to many of the UK’s largest wind farms, and companies like Siemens are developing new techniques for offshore wind power. The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult based in Blyth, Northumberland, is a world-leading research and development centre for offshore wind, tidal, and wave energy.  

Other clever stuff 

Graphene is a revolutionary material that was first discovered by scientists at the University of Manchester in 2004. It is an incredibly strong, lightweight and conductive material, with a wide range of potential applications, from high-performance sports equipment to medical devices. Alongside that, it has the potential to revolutionize industries such as electronics, energy, and even space travel. 

What’s next? 

It’s amazing to think that so much of the tech we use today has come from humble roots in the North… Whilst people are still quick to talk of our kindness, honesty and hard work, we’re carving a new face for the region – one that’s founded on creativity, innovation, collaboration and of course, a gold old dose of Northern grit. 

Innovation isn’t an easy undertaking, but we’re standing on the shoulders of an impressive set of inventors and entrepreneurs, who serve as good inspiration for what is possible. 

To find out more about how we can help you embed innovation in your business, in Lancashire, the North, and beyond, get in touch.

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Groundswell Innovation is thrilled to announce our sponsorship of the 2023 Lancaster Jazz Festival, a celebration of the vibrant and diverse jazz community in Lancaster and beyond.

As a company that values creativity, innovation, and community engagement, we are proud to support the arts and culture in Lancaster. The Lancaster Jazz Festival is an opportunity for music lovers from all walks of life to come together and enjoy world-class and progressive jazz performances in a welcoming and inclusive environment.

We believe strongly that innovation is fuelled by diversity and creativity, and the Lancaster Jazz Festival embodies these values, and brings an incredible celebration of jazz to our hometown.

The 2023 Lancaster Jazz Festival will feature an outstanding line-up of exciting and emerging jazz talent from across the UK as well as local and regional acts. 

“We are super pumped by Groundswell Innovation’s support of the 2023 Lancaster Jazz Festival,” said festival organiser Dave Shooter. “Their forward-looking commitment to community and creativity aligns perfectly with our mission to create spaces for artists to produce their best work, celebrate the art of jazz and bring people together through music. We look forward to a successful partnership and an amazing festival.”

The 2023 Lancaster Jazz Festival will take place from 6-10 September, 2023 at venues throughout Lancaster. Check www.lancasterjazz.com and sign up to the mailing list for updates as they become available.

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This is the second of three Groundswell Innovation profiles of women leading businesses in the North West who are creating change, generating social inclusion, and truly demonstrating inclusive innovation.

Kay Johnson MBE is the founder of The Larder and has worked for more than 20 years as a nutritionist managing food poverty initiatives nationally and overseas; she spent a brief spell as a chef and was brought up on a small farm in Lancashire.

The Larder is a women-led social enterprise that promotes food that’s healthy, local, and seasonal, innovating to tackle food poverty across Lancashire. It focuses on creating a sustainable food system at a micro level, tackling issues around food with a holistic approach, across four elements:

1. Tackling food poverty
2. Benefitting the environment
3. Supporting the local economy
4. General nutrition

Kay’s story

“I was brought up with good food around me, there was always a meal made with local produce, I ate really well. Although I didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up, we always had fresh, good and healthy food and I suppose I took it for granted really at the time. 

I went to University and studied nutrition. I then became a nutritionist and I started working for and managing food poverty initiatives, so a lot of my work as a nutritionist was managing these healthy food initiatives and disadvantaged communities.”

Kay knows the importance of innovating to address food poverty, particularly during the current cost-of-living crisis.

Her most recent project for The Larder is partnering up with the ‘Sewing room’, an organisation in Skelmersdale. They have innovated new thermal food bags, allowing cooked food to simmer and keep warm for over 8 hours. Alongside this, the Larder has also provided cooking classes teaching a range of different meals every week.

“All of our projects strive for innovation and creating new ideas on tackling food poverty. One of the projects The Larder did was face-to-face cooking classes over the holidays for children.

Quite often, families on benefits or low incomes really struggle during the holidays because of the children that are entitled to free school meals, so it’s difficult for parents to afford that extra money to pay for meals for their children.

Then Covid-19 hit, and The Larder were unable to teach face to face. In response we developed and innovated online cooking videos. We had volunteer delivery drivers that delivered the ingredients to people’s houses, and people were emailed a link to the cooking classes. It was a very successful and popular project.”

One of the key elements of The Larder is ensuring that there is positive and lasting community impact.

“The Larder has a good relationship with the community, we do a lot of community engagement and we have conversations with people. At the beginning, the team spent a lot of time going out and asking ‘what is it that you need to happen to help you with your situation’ so we have then been able to put our projects together based on what people have told us. I think that is the key aspect of why we get such a good response.”

But there are challenges that Kay experiences running her business.

“Sometimes I do think it is really difficult when you’re up against opposition, and if you want to create change, which is what I am trying to do, you just really need to stand up for yourself and stand up to people who have different opinions. What The Larder is trying to do is promote fairness, fight for a fairer food system, and sometimes it is quite hard to get your point across.

And I also think as a woman running this organisation you have to be quite resilient. Sometimes people like to make things more difficult for you because they may see you as a troublemaker because you’re trying to promote change. So that can also become very difficult at times because I feel like sometimes I have to be assertive just to make things happen, so as a woman it can be challenging.”

Social inclusion is fundamental to how The Larder is run – and that means involving everybody – and the benefits to Kay are clear.

“The Larder tries to be as inclusive as possible; we try to be inclusive of everybody who may need our help. We run credited hospitality courses to people who wouldn’t see college as an option, we work with people who have been in prison, we work with people with mental health needs. We have also supported work placement for people with additional learning needs and I’ve delivered food hygiene training for Syrian refugees. We always try to make sure we are always providing a service for the people that are involved.”

“The best thing about running The Larder, is seeing everybody wanting to get involved. The benefits are definitely from the people of this community. We now have all these ladies that have started coming after Covid into the café space in Preston. These women knit items which we can then sell in our little shop, that then helps us get the money we need for our project work. We now have this community building, and seeing people connect through my enterprise is truly amazing.”

Written by Eden Latimer, work experience student at Groundswell Innovation

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This is the first of three Groundswell Innovation profiles of women leading businesses in the North West who are creating change, generating social inclusion, and truly demonstrating inclusive innovation.

Nickala Torkington is the Co-Founder and Director of Flourish Together CIC, a social enterprise reinvesting surplus resources to support women to create the change they see needed in communities through peer learning, mentoring, crowd sourcing and investment.

Nickala has been shortlisted in the Northern Power Women Awards 2023 for the Levelling Up Leader award, recognising individuals who play their part in the Levelling Up Agenda to accelerate gender equality and wider inclusivity.

Founded in 2016, Flourish have a core network of over 500 women changemakers and have supported over 1000 into social venture developments, to help ‘women change-makers’ develop themselves personally and professionally.

Nickala’s story

Flourish was founded by Nickala Torkington after nearly 20 years’ of experience working in the voluntary and community sectors.

“I worked for national funding agencies and what I realised was although the organisation that I worked for gave 50% of grants to women, I learnt that that wasn’t the norm, and that actually in the business world, far less investment and funding was going into female-led initiatives.”

“We know that women are great leaders and entrepreneurs, so if we can empower more women to lead a change then it would really make a difference … we can enable women to feel more fulfilled, earn a good living and perhaps a better one than before.”

Nickala knows the importance of providing support for women who may have had struggles in their life, both professionally and personally.

“I have seen that a vast majority of the women we work with are women that have setbacks, they might be emotional setbacks, health setbacks, relationship setbacks, life in general setbacks, financial setbacks, age setbacks and so, we wanted to make sure there was a good place for women to achieve their potential and not be held back by the constraints of what gender inequality lies or their own individual initial baggage.”

There are challenges – and benefits – Nickala faces in a female-run business.

“I am a full-time working single parent, that has supported over a thousand other women in order to lead the change they needed in the past 5 years, so there is an element of empathy and having seen certain things, that aids what I do and means that I can take risks that other business support agencies or other training providers wouldn’t take. Flourish can be incredibly flexible and patient and take more risks because of the built experience that we have as women who have faced multiple setbacks and I definitely think that is a critical element of our business and USP in achieving the results we do.” 

“Because we have come from lived and professional experience, and a culture of empathy, those are the things that have set our business and leaderships style apart from some male-run businesses. I think this is a very important difference.”

Innovating is key to how she runs Flourish Together, alongside creating game-changing opportunities.

“The way we innovate is that we spot opportunities collaboratively, and we always go for it. I think as women, we are really good at that … one of our key aspects as a women-led organisation is that we jump to strategic opportunities which unlock potential in others and communities.

“Recently one of the opportunities we’ve taken is the Action Station project, a number of train stations are becoming derelict but we want to turn them around and use them as community ventures. We are looking to redevelop two stations and turn them into community and social enterprise hubs … an asset that we can repurpose and bring back to life using our networks, to redesign, redevelop communities.”

“We’re a game-changing organisation because we are a partner to the people we work with, we’re not just investors or support providers, we seek to collaborate in new ways of working and create new community-led supply chains across multiple sectors. We are not just telling people what social enterprise is, we are building communities constantly; we develop these sorts of collectives of knowledge, collectives of services and we are constantly seeking opportunities and innovate by investing in women as a force for social change.”

“Flourish is all about us investing our time, investing our knowledge and new learning. But it is also about cash and particularly about investing into our social networks, so that they can flourish. “

 “We try to offer enterprise opportunities, collaborative partnerships and hope, to build peoples self-belief and their track record quicker than they otherwise would and that then evolves, because we have this culture, that once you are in this Flourish network of ours, there is this osmosis and a set of DNAs that makes people feel part of something that can evolve, grow and make change happen.”

Alongside all this, being a northerner has its benefits.

“I do think as Northerners we have an inbuilt character of just getting on with it. We spot and create opportunities in alternative ways and I see that a lot in communities across the North when people are given the chance. I am sure that happens in the south as well, but up here it’s our pride, culture and heritage that makes us create and seize opportunities and step forward.  People up North often get underestimated, but I believe the people of the North have a sense of unity that makes us work together and push each other harder to get things done.”

And Nickala had one final piece of advice to give female business owners:

“If I had one lesson to give women business owners, it would be to take more time off, I am finally learning to practice what I preach, but I am not perfect on that front I’m afraid!”

Northern Power Women (NPW) is the collaborative campaign to accelerate gender diversity from the North of England. Their aim is to transform the culture of organisations; increase opportunities for all; showcase role models; and highlight best practice among organisations that are helping to drive and lead economic growth.

They engage people from all industries and business areas as ‘agents of change’ and connect, collaborate, and celebrate their achievements as campaign champions and advocates to drive gender balance from the North of England.

Go to https://www.northernpowerwomen.com/awards/#shortlist for more information on the NPW awards, celebrating their 7th year in 2023.

Written by Eden Latimer, work experience student at Groundswell Innovation

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For place-based innovation to generate positive impact, we need to work in a way that will benefit everyone. 

We’re all for economic prosperity as a goal, but innovation focused on a specific location must generate shared prosperity for the people already making that place their home.   

Jane Dalton (Groundswell Innovation Founder) joined a group of place-based innovation experts for a panel discussion as part of the Innovation Places Summit held by Connected Places Catapult. The panel provided insight and ideas around how we can work as communities to benefit everyone.  

Read on for our team’s key takeaways from the discussion panel: 

As we recover from the pandemic, innovation has a crucial role in aiding the UK economy’s growth and stability. Jane talked about the importance of baking in social and civic outcomes right from the start of an innovation project. She focused on what the outcomes of real innovation should look like, and how this relates to her current project with Preston Partnership and the Towns Fund Project… 

Economic growth is always going to be challenging, but through our work with two places in the North West we’re seeing people rise to the challenge.

“We need to be asking questions such as: what are the up-skilling elements, what are the new jobs that we can create?”  

– Jane  

Preston’s community wealth framework is all about putting the richness of life within reach for the people of Preston. Delivering on our ‘richness of life’ narrative both geographically and economically, is crucial.

When ideas align…

In theory, Place-based innovation is a very clear process. It’s important to start with the end in mind and to have very clear goals set out right at the beginning. 

“The main difficulty is with public / private collaboration. Even with all the right people in the room, all passionate about doing the best for the city, that doesn’t mean all the agendas collide.” 

– Jane 

Of course, we’ve heard the old adage ‘if you want to travel fast travel alone, if you want to go far, then travel together’. It is relatable in many aspects of life, but Jane highlighted this as a key consideration when thinking about innovation. 

Having a shared financial goal, like a funding bid with a strict timeline can really help people align those agendas at speed. 

“It can be helpful to take it back to the basics: ok we’ve got a deadline, we have a chunk of money we can go for and we have a shared goal… Now we’ve got to do this at speed with the right support in place.”  

– Jane 

With the right goals and metrics, the right people in the room absolutely help… But it’s crucial to have the process of community engagement designed as part of the answer, not an end in itself. It all has to connect, in order to get our desired outcomes.  

Listen – it’s important!

During the discussion, one of Jane’s main points centred around listening, and how it’s crucial to listen intently to what the local population need, rather than just making it a tick box consultation exercise. Creating shared prosperity for the people with real impact is ultimately what’s going to make a lasting difference.   

Claudette Forbes (consultant and advisor of Whitehall & Industry Group) mentioned the need to address the current deprivation due to failing high streets. She acknowledged that there’s a huge amount of responsibility for those who are leading this kind of work – particularly when there’s an impetus to address local needs and make a real change… 

Forbes emphasised how important it is to involve people who would never normally have a chance to take part (in things like innovation) so we can hear from the widest possible range of voices and opinions from locals. When a committee is formed the intentions are there, but we still need to draw in more sides of the community – what can we do that would allow other voices to be heard that wouldn’t normally be heard? Can we make it fun? Can we use those situations to simply listen?   

When we’re trying to think of solutions, more often than not the answers are already out there, within the established community. So, the innovation comes from using what’s already in the community – allowing those wide range of voices to come forward, often with very good solutions. Because there’s real social value coming from this kind of innovation. 

Building from the ground up

Melissa Mean (Director of We Can Make) noted the importance of creating a community-built infrastructure using shared power, resources and ideas. 

Greater emphasis needs to be placed on the importance of involving the community and co-production, a view that all the panellists shared: 

“Policies need to be made with people, not for people.” 

– Elvira Uyarra (Prof. of Innovation Studies at Alliance Manchester Business School)  

We also need to focus on the ‘outside-in’ perspective because it’s not about how much companies spend, it’s about where they spend it. Do they invest locally? Do they have policies which focus on inclusivity? Equality?  

How can we drive economic prosperity to an area? It all relates back to listening to the community – because the answers are already there. Which means innovation must build on the existing strengths of a place: its people and its businesses. It must build on an already established community. And then we can start to think: how can we use these strengths to action positive change? 

What do we mean by the word culture?

How can we deconstruct that and think realistically about what we want from places such as Preston? 

Here particularly, where UK Government Towns Fund money is being used for cultural regeneration, we need to understand what that broad term means to people from different standpoints. For some it’s about participation spaces. For others it’s about seeing world-class art. We want to hear how this community defines culture, we want multigenerational ideas and opinions. We can do that by focusing on the young people in these communities… 

For example, with the Youth Voice programme Groundswell is setting up in Preston, it’s about making sure young people here are coming through the ranks from UCLan / Preston College / Cardinal Newman / school and are collaborating all together. 

We want to push their voices forward and show them that their voices are valued. We want to let them start leading the conversation because if we don’t set out to be inclusive, then it’ll never happen. 

Alongside this kind of innovation, we also need to focus on an inclusive economic development strategy. Can we encourage local enterprise and ambition? If we do, we help to fuel a whole series of economic engines where prosperity is needed most.

It comes back to avoiding ‘tick-box’ consultation and community engagement: we can’t just go in, ask a few questions (often with a bias towards certain outcomes) and then leave. It’s about allowing different voices to be heard, carefully listening to them and generating that sense of ‘Hey, they are actually listening to us, they value our opinions’. We want the conversations we initiate – and then facilitate – to continue long after our project has finished… 

“When we draw back from a project, we need to make sure we have left something ongoing which has a legacy.” 

– Jane 

So, our core intentions are very important: we need to be collaborative, assertive and creative. Building trust is the basis we need to work from. That is the foundation stone, and it takes time to build.

Preston Partnership and Towns Fund info: https://www.prestonpartnership.org/key-projects/harris-quarter-towns-fund-investment-programme/

Podcast on the Innovation Places Summit: https://cp.catapult.org.uk/news/innovation-places-summit-connected-places-podcast/

Quotes: sourced via Groundswell’s transcription from the Innovation Places Summit.

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You don’t have to be a genius to be an innovator, but it certainly helps!

Alan Turing was most definitely both, standing as one of the most influential scientific figures in modern history. He’s recognised not only as the Godfather of the computer and computer science, but also a pioneer of the technology that has so dramatically altered the shape of modern society.

His innovations are what Peter Thiel would describe as a “10x innovation”: a solution to a problem that is ten times better than the previously available solutions.

We’d like to bring Turing’s achievements to light, enabling his place in scientific history to be fully recognised and appreciated… Alongside his remarkable mastery of thought leadership – the practice of being an informed leader and go-to person in their field of expertise.

Turing’s determination to learn and understand the world was like no other.

He grew up between London and Sherbourne in Dorset. Signs of Turing’s bright intellect were apparent early in his life: at school, the classics were prioritised over mathematics, so he took to teaching himself theoretical mathematics. Then at 13-years-old, Turing determinedly rode his bicycle 60 miles from Sherbourne to Southampton, unaccompanied, to join the 1926 General Strike. Aged 15, he condensed Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity for his mother.

After graduating from Cambridge with first-class honours in Mathematics, he was made a Fellow of King’s College in 1935 at the ripe age of 22 on the strength of his dissertation in which he proved the central limit theory.

The ‘Turing Test’ and Artificial Intelligence

In 1936, he published the paper that became the foundation for computer programming, “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem”.

The Entscheidungsproblem (the decision problem) asked whether there was an algorithm that could, given a set of axioms (accepted truths), determine whether a statement is definitively true or false within those axioms.

He mathematically proved that the problem was undecidable by a human. However, he announced that there was a hypothetical machine that, given a problem to compute, would either run forever or stop and give the answer. These became known as Turing machines and were a crucial tool in the Second World War.

He also birthed the field of Artificial Intelligence with his ‘Turing test’ which examined the behaviour necessary for a machine to be considered intelligent. He believed that a computer can be said to possess artificial intelligence if it can mimic human responses under specific conditions.

Leading by example…

Alan Turing was the brilliant mind at the forefront of cracking the Enigma code which was the catalyst for winning World War II. He had joined the Government Code & Cipher Squad (GC&CS) after studying cryptology at Princeton University for 2 years. The day after war had been declared, he reported for duty at Bletchley Park to break the Enigma cipher which was used by Nazi Germany to encode their secret messages. The code changed daily, making deciphering it seemingly impossible.

Turing was the vital powerhouse in the team assembled at Bletchley Park. He led the team by example and progressed the mission significantly with his inspirational innovative ideas and ability to turn those ideas into reality. The Turing Machine (or the “Bombe”, as he named it in homage to an earlier Polish machine, “Bomba”), searched for possible correct settings of an Enigma message (i.e. rotor order, rotor settings and plugboard settings), using a crib (a guess of probable text used in the message). The Bombe would perform a sweep of the possible 159 quintillion permutations using the principle of contradiction and extraordinary mathematical insight.

The first Enigma code was deciphered in January 1940 and gradually the code was eroded until they cracked it. Turing’s combination of intelligence and innovative skill has been estimated to have helped shorten the Second World War by at least 2 years and helped save millions of lives.

An influential innovator? Or a security risk?

Alan Turing was a gay man at a time when it was illegal to be homosexual. After the war, he was convicted under Victorian laws and had a choice between hormone therapy (i.e. chemical castration) or time in prison. Homosexuals were labelled as a security risk; thus, he lost his job code breaker.

In 1954, he committed suicide by biting into an apple laced with cyanide. At the age of 41, Turing’s death was tragic and untimely – he still had so much to offer the world. A man who had given everything for his country, saved countless lives, and created technology that fundamentally changed the trajectory of society, was wretchedly rejected for his sexual orientation.

Nevertheless, his legacy will live on far past the 41 years he spent on this planet.

“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done”

Alan Turing was an innovator that did not deal with incremental progression: he was a radical driving force of human evolution. His contributions to science are up there alongside the greatest in human history.

His innovations have changed the course of life on this planet as we know it.

The sad reality of Turing’s life is that he was persecuted by a society that was still nowhere near as evolved as he was. In 2009 the UK Government issued an apology for his treatment and he was subsequently granted a royal pardon in 2013. He was chosen by the Bank of England to be the face of the new £50 note which came into circulation in 2021.

Whilst his legacy is growing and becoming more appreciated, it is nowhere near where it should be.

Putting Turing on the £50 note (unfortunately the one people rarely see!) is a step in the right direction in terms of recognising his brilliance and importance. However, it would be far more apt to honour him by putting him in the school curriculum to give him the full recognition and respect that he and his work deserve.

The post A master of innovation, leadership and technology – Alan Turing appeared first on Groundswell Innovation.

What is inclusive innovation?

Innovation should be open to all and, like recruitment, is seeing a much-needed shift towards diversity. This shift, happening in firms and businesses around the world, is not just about workforce inclusivity – but also about having diverse ideas in the workplace. At Groundswell, we’ve talked about the benefits that inclusivity can bring to businesses for a long time.

Inclusive innovation is about providing opportunities to talented individuals from underrepresented backgrounds and helping ensure that the rewards of growth are shared equitably. After identifying the barriers to access many people are faced with, a recent report commissioned by the UK Innovation Districts Group and Connected Places Catapult recommends how the innovation economy can be made more inclusive.

The UK IDG works to ensure that place-based innovation drives inclusive urban growth. Their co-commissioners, CPC, with the growth of innovation economies at their core, ‘have seen first-hand the deep pools of talent across the UK’s varied places’ and are steadfast advocates of building on the talent, skills, and ideas already present in places. Both these parties believe that, especially in this post-COVID climate, inclusive innovation – utilizing the varied talents and ideas of people from all backgrounds – can help ensure that the UK has one of the world’s most advanced and dynamic economies for years to come.

Nicola Yates (OBE Chief Executive Officer, CPC) expresses her certainty that “with inclusivity at the heart of innovation, we will enable the new ideas, enterprises, and prosperity that our places are capable of”.

So … why is inclusive innovation important?

Innovation underpins advancements in productivity. Innovative ‘knowledge spillovers’ from one firm to another increase productivity across an industry, creating new jobs in-house and in related parts of the economy.

Increasing the access that individuals from poor or marginalized backgrounds have to roles in the innovation economy, expanding the talent pool of future innovators, can increase innovation productivity and drive economic growth. Just as important, doing so helps create a fairer balance between underrepresented demographics and overrepresented counterparts.

A case study

Let’s take the BUILD business accelerator pilot in Leeds as an example since, like us, it’s in the north of England.

This pilot, managed by Nexus (located in the University of Leeds), supported early-stage start-ups and entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups within innovation. The outcome of the twelve-week program was that participants turned their ideas, which were grounded in purpose and profit, into innovation-driven businesses that were investable. The consensus following the program was that it was an enormous success, demonstrating that making an effort to improve diversity and inclusion (at least in the Leeds enterprise ecosystem) can work in favour of the innovators and prosperity of a city.

The research

A successful inclusive innovation approach tends to have 3 key features:

1. An intention to embed inclusion beyond market requirements.
   • Treating inclusion as a priority and an essential component of innovation
2. Local engagement and tailoring.
   • Defining and understanding location and having objectives based on its unique characteristics and needs
3. Going above and beyond to unlock additional opportunities.
   • Opening opportunities for parallel projects, investments, and interventions

What you can do

The report suggests that, if you are a private organisation, you can:

• Model inclusion in all business operations through hiring and promotion practices
• Commit financial and human resources to the development of innovative funding models, valuing and internalising social and environmental returns (alongside financial)
• Reinvest and share the commercial and financial returns from successful innovation, at both fund-level and firm level, to create further inclusive and socially beneficial opportunities

With the understanding that implementing inclusive innovation can’t happen overnight, using these recommendations can be your starting point as you help lay the foundations for a future of more diverse ideas and increased productivity.

Key takeaway

Innovation districts often neighbour areas of deprivation, providing opportunities to harness the talents of individuals from diverse backgrounds; better utilisation of the skills of these individuals and their different perspectives and ideas can act as a catalyst for progress when ‘Levelling Up’ the UK.

Here at Groundswell Innovation, we believe in getting the right ideas to market faster and fitter for purpose. Being considerate of inclusive innovation can help you come up with more great ideas – we can help you get them out there.

The Report: Opening the Innovation Economy: the case for inclusive innovation in the UK

Written by: Kyle Kirnon, Groundswell Innovation

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