Policy Exchange invites you to

a keynote address by 

Professor Richard Jones 
Vice-President for Regional Innovation and Civic Engagement
University of Manchester 

Can We Level Up Research and Innovation?

Research and innovation is a significant driver of productivity growth, so it’s significant that the distribution of R&I investment in the UK – especially in the public sector – is highly skewed to the already prosperous Greater South East.  The government has committed that a higher proportion of the uplift in public R&I investment announced in the CSR will be made outside the Greater South East, where productivity currently lags. How can we ensure that this investment most effectively is translated into private sector innovation – and into productivity growth, good jobs and other tangible benefits for communities in left-behind places?

This is the third in the Policy Exchange lecture series on Levelling Up. Can we level up Research and Innovation? follows leading economist Paul Ormerod’s talk on levelling up in one town (Rochdale, where he chairs the Rochdale Development Agency) and Head of the Government’s Levelling Up Taskforce Andy Haldane’s bird’s eye inaugural talk in the summer.

Future talks in the series will include Dr Raghib Ali, Clinical Epidemiologist, University of Cambridge, and adviser to CRED on health and longevity; and HM Chief Inspector of Schools Amanda Spielman on schools and levelling up.

The address will be followed by a Q&A.