Powerhouse of Science? Prospects and Pitfalls of Place-Based Science and Innovation Policies in Northern England

Abstract

Science and innovation are increasingly seen by the UK government as central to regional economic development policy, with a new emphasis on ‘place’ a prominent feature of related policy initiatives. This is reflected in debates over the ‘Northern Powerhouse’, most visibly through the £235 million investment in the ‘Crick of the North’ Royce Institute for Advanced Materials Research and Innovation, which is the largest single investment in science in the North of England in a generation. At the same time, public investment in science and innovation is ever more focused within the South-East ‘Golden Triangle’, with concentration driven by the Research Excellence Framework and by the pulling power of the labour market in London and the South East. This chapter teases apart the rhetoric from the reality of science and innovation investment in the North, ask what decision makers in the North can do to harness science and innovation in support of economic development, and examining the changing role of universities in local political economies.