Innovation Evidence Review

This evidence review synthesises key research and policy questions related to place-based innovation, focusing on strengthening local innovation ecosystems across the UK. It examines national and local innovation policies, the varying capacities of different places for innovation, lessons from existing interventions, and international examples. The review aims to inform the design of effective place-based innovation strategies by identifying key challenges and opportunities.

Policymakers and researchers should prioritise developing robust frameworks for measuring the impact of place-based innovation policies, conducting comprehensive case studies across diverse regions, and fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations to address local innovation challenges holistically.

“Innovation policies are increasingly ‘shifting away from top-down and centralised approaches towards policies that favour cooperative, multi-actor and often more ‘place-based’ approaches”. Dr Chloe Billing, City-REDI Research Fellow II.

Innovation Evidence Review:

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Please reference this paper as:

Billing, C. (2024). Innovation Evidence Review. The Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub.

Meet the Author

Dr Chloe Billing

Chloe Billing joined the City-REDI team in November 2016 as a Research Fellow, working on the Urban Living Birmingham Project.

Chloe’s current research explores the routes to developing a regional innovation ecosystem, to better support the transfer of university technologies into key sectors and help grow our local regional economies.

Part of this involves understanding both the challenges that universities are facing with their technology-transfer mechanisms, as well as, the barriers to innovation amongst local firms (such as skills and other productivity constraints).

Chloe is the lead for the innovation theme for the Local Innovation Policy Partnership (LPIP) Hub. She is currently on maternity leave

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Publications

Green and Pleasant Land? Rural Resilience in the Welsh Marches

Throughout 2026, the LPIP Hub at City-REDI, University of Birmingham is examining the resilience of the Welsh Marches, the historic and intensely rural places that have long formed the border between England and Wales. The project comprises this first report, examining what published data tell us about the readiness of

Place Capacity and Institutional Thickness: Leadership, Agency and the Governance of English Devolution

England’s devolution settlement is entering its most active phase yet. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 has put strategic authorities on a permanent legal footing, and the incoming premiership of Andy Burnham — himself a former Metro Mayor — looks set to push power and funding out to

Development Corporations

This report provides a timely stocktake of how development corporations have been used across the UK, the emerging pipeline of new proposals, and the conditions likely to determine their future success. It reviews the experience of previous New Town Development Corporations, Urban Development Corporations and Mayoral Development Corporations, and considers

Building Civic Capability: A Life Course Framework for Place

Building Civic Capability: A Life Course Framework for Place argues that civic capability should be understood as strategic civic infrastructure rather than isolated participation initiatives. Drawing on theories of human development, democratic innovation, and public value, the paper introduces a practical life-course framework that helps places intentionally cultivate and accumulate