Helen Lau, Director of Business Engagement and Research Impact at the University of Birmingham, corporate partner at the CBI Midlands Business Dinner 2025, reflects on the role of universities as drivers of R&D-led economic growth.
The UK is known for its innovation and entrepreneurship and ranks high in the WIPO Global Innovation Index (5th amongst high-income countries and 3rd in Europe). Yet between 2021 and 2023, business R&D expenditure in the UK dropped by 6%, a £3.4bn loss in real terms. In today's rapidly evolving global economy and with the recent renewed focus on the UK's industrial strategy, the role of universities increasingly extends beyond education, into supporting and driving local and national innovation.
Education is still the cornerstone of universities, but it is also deeply embedded in the local and national economy in other ways. In 2021/22, for example, the University of Birmingham contributed £4.4bn to the UK economy - more than the Midlands car manufacturing industry (£3.5bn).
The University of Birmingham has long incubated groundbreaking ideas and technologies and our engagement with business is integral to transforming those ideas and technologies into impact. Our collaboration with business helps to transform research from an idea or emerging technology into a new products or service that addresses complex challenges.
The West Midlands benefits from a strong local network of higher education institutions with complementary expertise that creates an array of opportunities to capitalise on R&D-led growth aligned to regional priorities around people, skills and infrastructure and emerging growth areas. A great example of this working in practice is the recognition for growth and innovation in . When public funding is leveraged for research in this way, universities help to drive private and capital investment, including around skills, where interventions are often more successful when integrated into a broader local stimulus package.
In other growth areas, such as life sciences, the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA) - part of the ambitious Birmingham Health Innovation Campus partnership with investor-developers Bruntwood SciTech - will be a step change for life sciences that enables business access to the region's thriving health excellence, infrastructure and clinical leadership cluster. As a result, it is set to create thousands of jobs and add £400m GVA to the local economy.
The maturity of partnerships with business attracts more investment to the region and it is through these partnerships that businesses can better navigate challenges of the wider R&D ecosystem. The success of the locally-led innovation accelerators thus far are a testament to the need for longer-term government intervention to enable scale-up and business support. Universities primarily focused on research excellence, like the University of Birmingham, are primed for supporting low technology readiness (TRL) activity. But from experiences with partners and university spin-outs, funding and support becomes more difficult when looking to move ideas and technologies into products and services that are ready for market.
University-business collaboration also has mutual benefits in ensuring the UK stays at the forefront of the talent development and workforce planning necessary to capitalise on technological advancements and scientific breakthroughs. Universities are uniquely placed to develop deeply technical knowledge and skills for next generation technologies and cutting-edge science, such as quantum sensing, fusion energy and, of course, the applications of AI.
The forthcoming industrial strategy is a key opportunity to ensure research, innovation and university-business collaboration is front and centre of government plans for the UK's growth and role as a global innovation superpower. As the University of Birmingham celebrates its 125th year, we also look ahead to the next 125 years, and to how universities and innovation from Birmingham, the West Midlands and the UK will shape the world in that time.