The West Midlands Plan for Growth is the region’s short to medium-term economic plan, pinpointing economic clusters where the region can ignite above-forecast levels of growth. These are clusters where the West Midlands has a comparative advantage and businesses are confident to invest. Combining the power of private and public sectors around these opportunities gives the region a credible path to returning to the fastest-growing region in the country outside of London by 2030.
For this project, Birmingham City University will gain an understanding and communicate the contribution of Birmingham and wider West Midlands to the UKRI agenda and the future of next generation services.
From this understanding, SuperTech West Midlands will be able to:
- Attract private sector partners locally and internationally.
- Support public sector innovation funding applications with regional universities.
- Highlight opportunities to regional policymakers in alignment with the Plan for Growth.
- Showcase a unique regional story to elevate the UK ProfTech sectors globally.
Birmingham City University will be delivering the project across several activities, including:
- Developing a ‘Research and Innovation roadmap’ for next-generation services for the West Midlands across a 10-year horizon, providing a framework for guiding regional economic policy development to support financial growth.
- Using industry contacts and regional and national networks to inform the roadmap, carrying out interviews and roundtables to support the evidence base.
- Testing the roadmap as a policy instrument, sharing insights and collecting qualitative feedback.
- Launching a public version of the Research and Innovation roadmap.