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Regional innovators backed by up to £20 million each through investments aimed at strengthening local economies and unleashing benefits across the country.

Targeted support for local ingenuity and talent will grow industries from Scotland to Cornwall, including defence, space, energy, artificial intelligence (AI) and the creative industries.

This is the latest investment confirmed from the £500 million Local Innovation Partnerships Fund (LIPF), delivered by UK Research and Innovation.

It aims to turbocharge local innovation to create jobs and grow both regional and national economies.

LIPF supports partnerships between local government, businesses and research organisations to turn existing local research breakthroughs into practical solutions that improve people’s lives.

Seven further regions confirmed for support

The seven further regions now confirmed as receiving investment through the LIPF competed element are as follows.

Tay Cities Region in Scotland

This will back the regions thriving creative technologies sector to drive forward innovation from computer games to virtual reality.

Great South West: Plymouth, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset

This will help the region become one of the best places in the world to develop, test and use autonomous technology like drones on land, at sea and in the air.

Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire

This will bring together strengths in autonomous vehicles, high-performance engineering and space technology, helping ideas move faster from test-track to real-world use.

Greater Lincolnshire

This investment will help develop the region’s mix of agri-tech and defence expertise into real-world products and growing businesses.

New secure facilities, testing environments and investment will support companies working on AI, robotics and autonomous systems, helping them move from prototype to market.

South West Wales

This will support two connected clusters:

• energy security: helping scale offshore wind, hydrogen and cleaner industrial energy using the region’s ports and infrastructure
• materials security: developing new ways to recover, recycle and process critical materials so UK manufacturers rely less on imports

East Midlands

This investment in advanced manufacturing and clean energy will help manufacturers across the East Midlands scale up clean energy and advanced production technologies.

Hull and East Yorkshire and Tees Valley

This clean energy and industrial decarbonisation investment is a combined award of up to £30 million.

It will support a powerful clean energy and industrial decarbonisation programme that brings together the strengths and opportunities across Hull and East Yorkshire and Tees Valley based on major ports, freeports and world-leading energy infrastructure.

Targeted investments to bring prototypes to market

Local partners will now work with UKRI to design projects that target this investment, building on existing local strengths.

It will help to fast track ideas from prototype to market, back collaborative research and development, attract expert talent, and open up clear routes to investment and new markets.

Transformational research, improving lives

UK Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said:

It is a tribute to the pioneering spirit in every corner of our country that we are backing regions across the UK to advance innovation in everything from defence to AI and clean energy to space tech.

This latest funding will help take local expertise to the next level, helping to create jobs while building on our backing for local innovation in all four nations of the UK.

By working with local leaders, researchers, and businesses, we can unleash transformational research and products that improve lives.

Strengthening regional capabilities

Professor Sir Ian Chapman, Chief Executive of UKRI, said:

These regions have long been home to world class ingenuity and a proud tradition of delivering real impact from great ideas. UKRI is delighted to work with each Local Innovation Partnership as they accelerate bold plans to build on their legacies and drive the next wave of innovation led growth.

By bringing together the region’s researchers, entrepreneurs and civic leaders, we are strengthening each region’s distinctive capabilities and championing their ambitions on the national stage.

These major investments will unlock new opportunities, boost productivity and create the high skilled jobs of the future. We’re excited at the prospect of achieving that together.

Adding to earlier investments already confirmed

This latest announcement builds on a first round of LIPF investment already allocated to 10 separate regions last year, each now working with UKRI to design individual projects.

Three places that previously ran Innovation Accelerators will each receive £50 million:

• Glasgow City Region
• West Midlands
• Greater Manchester

£30 million has been allocated to:

• South Yorkshire
• West Yorkshire
• Liverpool City Region
• North East
• Greater London
• Cardiff Capital Region
• an innovation corridor linking Belfast and Derry-Londonderry in Northern Ireland