Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the announcement of the Innovation Clusters Pilot on page 173 of the Levelling Up White Paper, what metrics will be used to assess the success of the Innovation Clusters pilot; and what lessons he has learnt from the experience of Innovation Clusters in other parts of the UK.

We engaged widely in developing proposals to pilot Innovation Accelerators in three UK city-regions. This included learning from the R&D Place Advisory Group established in 2020, which included UK and international experts.

We expect to co-develop the pilot Innovation Accelerators in partnership with the three UK city-regions selected, and confirm the metrics used to assess their success as part of finalising the business plans for the pilots. Where appropriate, these will align with the mission on R&D published in the Levelling Up White Paper and the objectives of the Innovation Strategy

We will give decision-makers at all levels the information they need to grow thriving local innovation economies. Our new open data tool, co-developed by BEIS and NESTA, provides high quality and accessible evidence on sub-regional R&D systems in the UK.