Agenda item

Mr S Pringle, Director from Steer Economic Development, gave a presentation on the background to the formation of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Innovation Plan, its key activity areas and how it operates within the wider strategic framework of the LEP.

It was reported that in 2017 the LEP Board had commissioned the production of an Innovation Plan to bring a more informed and structured approach to its existing innovation assets. The subsequent evidence gathering process and development of a plan had culminated in a report to the LEP Board in January 2018 where it had been recognised that a priority for Lancashire was to increase productivity (which was below the UK average) through innovation.

At that meeting the LEP Board agreed that 'By 2030 Lancashire will have positioned itself as a globally connected and resilient innovation ecosystem. The way we innovate will embody excellence and collaboration, feeding through to greater commercialisation, entrepreneurship and competitiveness in our economy. We will have a track record as a centre for globally-competitive knowledge clusters and talent and act as a developer of new solutions to the emerging challenges of our world'.

The LEP Board also agreed an Innovation Plan which included the following five strategic aims and three cross cutting themes:-

1.  To stay ahead in sectors and areas of work where the County was already world class.

2.  To create new route ways to excellence, recreating the economic base and creating new USPs.

3.  To broaden the innovation base and be less dependent on a limited number of larger companies.

4.  To create an enabling infrastructure for innovation and commercialisation across Lancashire.

5.  To Let the World Know – by telling Lancashire's innovation story better.

·  Application inspired in our Research and Development and its deployment.

·  Excellence in delivery driven by real evaluation and learning.

·  Collaborating for a competitive Lancashire

Since then officers had continued to build on the research to form a comprehensive evidence base which had informed development of an ‘Action Agenda’ that had driven delivery of the Plan to date.

More recently the LEP Chair had established a new strategic framework to guide the work of the LEP which was based around the following six priority sectors/growth pillars with cross cutting enabling activity, including Innovation and Commercialisation, built around these clusters. 

Advanced Manufacturing

Energy and Low Carbon Solutions
Food and Agriculture
Health
Tourism, Culture and Place
Digital

In considering the report members of the Innovation Board suggested that the given the current level of unemployment in Lancashire the focus of the Board should be widened to include smaller organisations and individuals who would benefit from an opportunity to be innovative. It was also suggested that moving forward the board should work towards making innovation a pervasive characteristic of behaviour in science, public policy and supply chains across Lancashire.

Resolved: That the content of the report and presentation given at the meeting regarding the formation of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Innovation Plan, its key activity areas and how it operates within the wider strategic framework of the LEP are noted.