Latest news with #Invest2035
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Business
- Scotsman
Powering growth and shaping industrial future
When local vision meets national support, great things can happen, says Dean Cook Dean Cook looks at the fruits of The UK Government's Innovation Accelerator programme for Scotland and beyond Sign up to our Scotsman Money newsletter, covering all you need to know to help manage your money. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... As the UK sharpens its focus on long-term growth and economic resilience, a quiet revolution is already underway in the regions. The UK Government's Innovation Accelerator (IA) programme, launched as a pilot just two years ago, had a clear aim - empower regions with high potential to co-create solutions tailored to their local strengths and opportunities. Now with impressive impacts emerging from the pilot, it's clear that this place-based innovation model is working - and it's working fast. Designed to drive growth in areas with globally competitive R&D strengths, the IA programme gave trailblazers in Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands the power to co-create innovation strategies tailored to local strengths and economic opportunities. The aim was not just to deliver outcomes locally, but to demonstrate how innovation at the regional level can directly support national priorities. Highly relevant as the UK Government's Modern Industrial Strategy (Invest 2035) unfolds. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And it's working. Early indicators show the programme has already delivered over £140 million in co-investment and created up to 250 full-time-equivalent high-value jobs across future-critical sectors including quantum computing, advanced diagnostics, health innovation, space, and clean transport. Real-world innovations, real companies, and real jobs powering up local economies. Glasgow is benefiting from the Critical Technologies Accelerator (Picture: Adobe) Take the Clean Futures programme in the West Midlands. Projects like a next-gen EV battery coating and Moonbility's AI-powered 'digital twin' for rail disruption are already pushing UK firms to the forefront of net zero and transport innovation. In Greater Manchester, the Centre for Digital Innovation spans all ten boroughs, while the Turing Innovation Catalyst is building AI skills for women - embedding inclusion into the very heart of the region's digital economy. In Glasgow, the Critical Technologies Accelerator has spun out two cutting-edge quantum firms: Kelvin Quantum and Quantcore - advancing technologies that underpin next-generation computing infrastructure. These projects show how innovation accelerators aren't just transforming regional economies, they're positioning the UK as a global leader in strategic technologies. What's key here is not just the 'what', but the 'how'. Innovate UK has been at the forefront of championing the potential of place-based innovation. This pilot took that belief further - creating a new model of shared investment, where national ambition meets local insight and leadership. Local action plans developed by each region have played a central role, articulating long-term strategies built on evidence, collaboration, and the unique assets of each place. These plans are now live and in delivery, providing the framework for sustained impact over time. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Crucially, this programme aligns strongly with the Government's vision in Invest 2035: a modern industrial strategy that is focused on unlocking growth through strong institutions, technology leadership, and place. The Innovation Accelerators bring this to life, enabling local institutions to lead, anchoring world-class research in practical outcomes, and building stronger, more resilient local economies that feed into national success. Our role at Innovate UK is to connect these established and emerging clusters to national strategy, global networks, and each other. We're using insights from the Innovation Accelerators to inform wider investment decisions, share what works, and build an innovation ecosystem that is both locally grounded and globally competitive. The Innovation Accelerator programme is showing us what's possible when local vision meets national support. And we are just getting started. An initial £100 million investment has already been extended by a further £30 million for 2025/26, reflecting the growing confidence in this model. What began as a pilot is fast becoming a blueprint for regional innovation, helping to shape the future of the UK's industrial strategy and delivering on the UK Government's growth agenda.
New Statesman
13-06-2025
- Business
- New Statesman
AI, employment, and the UK's industrial strategy
Photo by WPA Pool / Getty AI has emerged as both a panacea and the harbinger of a dystopian future. For policymakers crafting Britain's industrial future, the challenge is fully burnishing one side of that coin, while minimising exposure to the other. Nowhere is this more evident than in the UK's Invest 2035 strategy, setting out a vision of economic renewal rooted in advanced technologies and regional growth. 'Jobs will be at the heart of our modern industrial strategy,' wrote Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Jonathan Reynolds, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, in their foreword to the strategy's draft consultation. At the same time, it promises 'an ambitious approach to grow the AI sector and drive responsible adoption across the economy'. The question is how, or whether, those two ambitions can fully succeed in tandem. PwC's latest Global AI Jobs Barometer, published in early June, analysed close to a billion job postings across six continents. It found that demand for roles with high AI exposure expanded at a slower pace than those less affected by AI. The gap between these groups has widened since 2020, with jobs least exposed to AI experiencing a surge in listings. Invest 2035 focuses on eight 'growth-driving' sectors that are undoubtedly seeing greater AI penetration: advanced manufacturing; clean energy; the creative industries; defence; digital and technologies; financial services; life sciences; and professional and business services. PwC's report also found that roles with substantial AI exposure have undergone significantly more changes in skill requirements over the past five years. If jobs are to be at the heart of this new economy, one major challenge is how the UK equips its current and emerging workforce to fully engage. The government's primary response to such questions lies with Skills England. Formally launched in 2024, the body is tasked with coordinating a fragmented post-16 skills system, and aligning it more closely with national economic priorities – including, crucially, the opportunities and risks posed by AI. With a mandate to 'drive forward a skills system that meets the needs of employers, learners and the wider economy', it is a key lever in delivering not just more jobs, but better ones. 'Skills England… will ensure that our workforce is equipped with the necessary skills to meet the demands of the modern economy,' Phil Smith, Skills England chair, told MPs in a parliamentary debate in February. The idea of lifelong learning – once a political platitude – has become a central pillar of this transition. As the economic landscape shifts faster than traditional education systems can keep pace with, workers increasingly need access to flexible, modular training that fits around existing jobs and responsibilities. Yet, as the IPPR has pointed out, the UK's investment in adult skills still lags behind many OECD peers. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe In a widely discussed 2024 report on AI and labour market disruption, the IPPR argued that the UK faces a binary future. 'Already existing generative AI could lead to big labour market disruption or it could hugely boost economic growth. Either way, it is set to be a gamechanger for millions of us,' said senior economist Carsten Jung. In that sense, industrial strategy cannot be separated from social policy. The government's proposed Advanced British Standard – a unified post-16 qualification intended to replace A-levels and T-levels – must prepare young people not only with subject knowledge but with the adaptability and analytical skills required in a rapidly evolving labour market. As automation touches roles from radiology to retail, the core employability question shifts from what you know to how quickly you can learn. That shift is not evenly distributed across society. In towns with industrial legacies or fragile labour markets, AI is more likely to displace than create jobs – unless there is targeted, place-based intervention. Invest 2035 makes regional rebalancing a core ambition. But the delivery depends on ensuring that skills provision reaches not just growing tech clusters but also under-served communities. Community learning providers like the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) have a role not just in teaching but in building confidence and trust – especially for older or insecure workers who may feel alienated by the pace of technological change. WEA chief executive Simon Parkinson has called for long-term policy and funding stability so providers can scale up their work: taking training 'to where people are, not where policy is most comfortable'. There are, however, lingering gaps between strategy and delivery. While government rhetoric supports 'responsible adoption' of AI, it remains vague on how to mitigate job displacement in sectors most vulnerable to automation. Some analysts argue that Invest 2035, like its predecessors, risks overstating short-term innovation gains while underestimating longer-term disruption. Meanwhile, employer responsibility remains a crucial, under-addressed issue. If businesses are to adopt AI in a way that benefits workers, not just bottom lines, they must be incentivised to invest in staff retraining. At present, many treat upskilling as an externality – a public good best delivered by someone else. Models such as Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs), designed to give employers a greater role in shaping local post-16 training, have potential, but questions have been raised in regards to consistency of ambition and effectiveness. Without stronger national coordination, these initiatives may amount to well-meaning but fragmented efforts, rather than transformative change. Indeed, the overarching challenge is neither technological nor economic – it is political. AI, like past waves of automation, will not distribute its rewards evenly or inevitably. The outcome will depend on the state's ability to shape markets and institutions in the public interest. 'AI… will transform jobs, destroy old ones, create new ones, trigger the development of new products and services and allow us to do things we could not do before,' Jung writes in 2025's The New Politics of AI: Why Fast Technological Change Requires Bold Policy Targets. 'But given its immense potential for change, it is important to steer it towards helping us solve big societal problems.' Invest 2035 boasts similarly grandiose ambitions. Its success will not rest on ambition alone, however, but on how convincingly it connects the dots between technology, training and trust. For AI and jobs to serve as dual engines of growth, the UK must resist the temptation to treat them as separate problems. They are, in reality, two faces of the same future. Related
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tech secretary to slash red tape in bid to boost tech growth
Technology secretary Peter Kyle has pledged to strip away outdated regulations that delay cutting-edge technology like medical delivery drones and AI powered healthcare solutions. Speaking at the TechUK conference on Monday, Kyle said that 'there is no route to long term growth without innovation'. He also announced plans for the first ever dedicated strategy for the digital and technology sector, which is centred on pro-innovation regulation. Kyle highlighted the urgent need to remove unnecessary barriers that slow down new technology. He cited an ongoing trial in London where medical drones are speeding up blood sample deliveries, a project that could be derailed by a single nose complaint. Under the government's new approach, such regulatory obstacles will be removed to ensure tech reaches the market quickly and safely. To lead this transformation, former science minister Lord David Willetts has been appointed as the first chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO), tasked with modernising rules to accelerate game-changing technology. The government is also investing in cutting edge technology, with Kyle announcing £12m for ten winners of Innovate UK's quantum missions pilot, to advance quantum computing and networking. Kyle also outlined how the government's Invest 2035 strategy will harness engineering biology, AI, semiconductors, cyber, quantum, and telecoms to build a stronger economy and improve lives across the UK. He emphasised that the nation must be a stable partner for researchers and businesses, working alongside them to tackle the biggest challenges of the decade ahead. Lord Willetts, now leading the RIO, said he was 'honoured to shape regulatory approaches that empower new technologies'. This comes as the government announces its plans to hit regulators with performance targets to drive innovation.
