An ambitious new strategy to nurture and grow the innovation ecosystem in Cambridge was unveiled on Wednesday.
The Innovate Cambridge Summit saw over 400 leaders from across the civic, business and academic working communities to support the science and technology cluster to maintain its position as a world leader amid fierce international competition.
Cambridge has evolved into a global innovation hub over the last 30 years, with over 5,500 knowledge-intensive businesses generating revenues exceeding £20bn annually and 23 billion-dollar unicorn companies born in the city. The University of Cambridge is also the number one university in the world for producing successful tech founders, ahead of Harvard and MIT, with over 500 alumni founders raising more than $10 million in funding.
Recognising this, the city and its innovation ecosystem is now presented with a generational opportunity to maximise economic and social return. International benchmarking indicates that Cambridge can do more to enhance its position in the global innovation landscape.
Speakers included Science Minister George Freeman MP, Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Tabitha Goldstaub MBE, Executive Director, Innovate Cambridge and master of ceremonies, Diarmuid O’Brien, Chief Executive, Cambridge Enterprise, Dr Michael Anstey, Partner, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Professor Andy Neely, OBE, Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cambridge.
This new home-grown innovation strategy, which has had input from 200 organisations, including Cambridge Enterprise, the University of Cambridge, Cambridge Innovation Capital, AstraZeneca, Microsoft, ARM, Darktrace, Cambridge City Council, and Cambridge County Council and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority will propel the ecosystem towards a groundbreaking future.
In the past twelve months, the Cambridge ecosystem has seen significant collaboration, with over 200 organisations endorsing an Innovation Charter and extensive consultations involving more than 500 individuals to craft an innovation strategy. The culmination of these efforts, Innovate Cambridge, seeks to leverage the city’s unique position as a driver of Britain’s growth, fostering collaboration, and catalysing innovation for the benefit of local communities and the broader UK.
In pursuit of this vision, Innovate Cambridge has identified three strategic goals: