Building innovative markets, places and networks

Innovation can come from anywhere, but it tends to be concentrated in certain areas. New technologies – from the steam engine to the internet – can generate waves of rapid innovation. New demands and challenges on the economy – such as ageing populations or climate change – provide huge opportunities for innovators. This means that some parts of the economy grow faster than others and that some places benefit while others struggle. If we are to build a national innovation ecosystem in the UK we need to understand these trends and reflect how innovation works in practice.

The Big Innovation Centre will pursue a wide-ranging research agenda in this area, broadly covering three areas:

  • Innovative markets – growth tends to be concentrated in relatively few industries. Which parts of the UK economy are most likely to experience rapid growth over the coming decades? What can we do to ensure their success?
  • Changing networks and business models – as the global economy changes, businesses are adopting new models and forming new networks with one another. How can we support these networks to make UK business successful?
  • Innovative places – some towns and cities are more innovative than others, which can create serious disparities within the UK. How can we help innovative places grow while enabling struggling areas to catch up?

Current research

  • What are the business models of the future in areas such as the digital economy and the low-carbon economy? How can government help to make new business models viable and work effectively without creating an unlevel playing field?
  • How does demand interact with and drive innovation? How can businesses respond to and shape consumer demand?
  • What is open innovation? What can be done by different players to foster and benefit from open innovation practices?
  • How can service firms harmonise open business models with intellectual property rights?
  • What is the UK's role in the design industry's international supply chain? How can UK design firms better interact with the intellectual property system?
  • How does increasing globalisation interact with the innovation system at a local level?
  • How can the UK build on its historical success in the creative industries? What can be done by various industry actors to foster innovation in this area?
  • How can an enterprising state take action to create new markets and make existing ones more efficient and dynamic?  

Related Reports

The Next Wave of Innovation: Five areas that could pull the UK clear of recession
Each part of the economy has its own innovation system, with different players and institutions. To take advantage of the UK’s biggest opportunities, we must put in place the conditions needed to make each of these work.

Andrew Sissons
14 September 2011

The Big Digital Dilemma: How should we pay for the web?
The internet has given rise to a hugely innovative digital economy, however, many businesses have found it hard to generate revenue from it. This paper explores the options available to content providers in the digital economy.

Andrew Sissons
13 September 2011

Missing an Open Goal? UK public policy and open innovation
Leading global organisations are increasingly viewing open ways of innovating as the key to cost-effective new product and service development, but what does this mean for our innovation system and policy?

Charles Levy, Benjamin Reid
08 September 2011

Related Events

Research Seminar: Mapping open innovation across organisations
This research seminar comes as part of the Big Innovation Centre’s cutting edge programme of work which examines the different approaches to Open Innovation used by the Big Innovation Centre’s corporate partners, exploring what good practice is and identifying barriers, enablers and policy changes.

Tuesday, 13 March 2012
14:00 - 17:00

The Contribution of Advertising to the UK Economy launch
This event marked the launch of Credos’ report "The Contribution of Advertising to the UK Economy", written in partnership with The Work Foundation.

Thursday, 03 November 2011
17:00 - 19:00

Silicon Roundabout to Silicon Valley? The future of Tech City
With the focus currently on the development of a technology hub in East London, what challenges and opportunities will Tech City provide? A high-level roundtable in partnership with Future of London.

Wednesday, 14 September 2011
13:45 - 16:00

Related Blogs

Are we really equipped for an export-led recovery?
This morning’s trade figures appeared to be disappointing reading, with the UK’s deficit on trade in goods and services rising to £3.4bn in February from £2.5bn in January. January’s figure itself was an increase from a previously estimated £1.8bn deficit.

Gareth Quested
12 April 2012

Where Now for Digital Content?
How to make money from digital content is a big challenge for the creative industries everywhere, and the UK is no exception. In the past we have explored innovative ideas such as a digital license fee as a potential way to ensure content producers get paid. Other methods, such as the standard freemium or paywall models, seek to limit the distribution of content to those who are willing to pay, attempting to replicate in a digital environment older product-based models of distribution. Some businesses have been successful at this, but it is increasingly difficult to control the illegal distribution of such content given the open architecture nature of the internet. The controversy surrounding SOPA in the U.S. illustrates the growing power of new ‘born-digital’ content brokers and their lack of appetite for strict policing of the internet for content-sharing.

Spencer Thompson
12 March 2012

Game Over... ?
For the gaming industry, it would be fair to say last week’s news was mixed, with a big split between the traditional and digital parts of the industry.

Laura O'Brien
06 February 2012

Related News

Big Innovation Centre welcomes the Government’s new innovation strategy
Charles Levy, Senior Economist at the Big Innovation Centre commented: “Today the government is rightly recognising innovation as the foundation of our modern economy. The government is a central player in the public and private networks that underpin innovation in our economy, and this strategy will enhance that role.

08 December 2011