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Good practice Imported

Glasgow City Region Innovation Accelerator — A £100m UK Pilot to Devolve R&D Funding to City Regions

United Kingdom · Glasgow · See the United Kingdom profile · See the Glasgow profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 51% 67/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A UK government pilot put £100m (2022–25), extended by £30m for 2025–26, into regional R&D. Glasgow City Region's 11 projects engaged 250+ companies and secured £48m in private co-investment — a test of devolving innovation funding to city regions.

250+ companies
Companies engaged (2022–2025)
48 £ million
Private co-investment secured (2022–2025)
300+ jobs
Jobs supported (2022–2025)
100 £ million
Total UK pilot funding (2022–2025)
Glasgow City Region Innovation Accelerator — A £100m UK Pilot to Devolve R&D Funding to City Regions

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) / Innovate UK, with Glasgow City Region
Period
2022–2026 (initial pilot 2022–2025, extended 2025–26)
Keywords
advanced manufacturing, space, precision medicine, R&D funding, regional economic development

Context

The Glasgow City Region Innovation Accelerator is the local delivery arm of the UK government's Innovation Accelerators pilot, a £100 million programme launched in February 2022 by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, testing whether devolving R&D funding decisions to city-region partnerships accelerates translation of research strengths into private investment and jobs.

Results

Between 2022 and 2025, Glasgow City Region ran 11 locally selected projects in advanced manufacturing, space and precision medicine that, according to the region's own reporting, engaged more than 250 companies, secured £48 million in private co-investment and supported the creation of more than 300 jobs. UKRI independently confirmed the national scale of £100 million across three pilot regions, and a 2025 extension added a further £30 million shared between Glasgow, Manchester and the West Midlands for seven new Glasgow projects.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
Innovate UK / UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Glasgow City Region partnership

Conditions for success

  • sector prioritisation tied to each region's existing industrial strengths
  • parallel delivery across three UK city regions enabling comparison

Common failure modes

  • remains explicitly pilot-status with no confirmed permanent funding mechanism beyond the 2025/26 extension

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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