Making innovative places

Place matters to innovation. From Silicon Valley to Shoreditch, innovative places attract the brightest and most creative people to produce a ferment of new ideas and ways of working.

The distinctive qualities of innovative places make them poles of attraction in the economy. But too often innovation policy has been set at a national level, without taking account of the widely differing needs of regions and localities.

Recent reforms to regional and local government offer an opportunity to create regional innovation strategies that properly reflect regions’ distinctiveness.

Local authorities should use Multi-Area Agreements to implement cross-boundary innovation policy, and regions should take the opportunity presented by the new Regional Strategies to develop their own ‘regional innovation journeys’, building on their particular strengths.

Full Story: http://www.nesta.org.uk/informing/policy_and_research/policy_briefings/making_innovative_places.aspx