Businesses need to get more “rock and roll” to turn their ideas into massive companies that create better jobs - that was the message from Britain’s innovation boss to a major summit of the region’s leaders.
Indro Mukerjee, chief executive of national agency Innovate UK, made his rousing call at a summit designed to help turn Liverpool into an “innovation powerhouse” with more profitable businesses and a highly skilled workforce.
Liverpool City Region today signed a partnership deal with Innovate UK, the UK’s national innovation agency that aims to support businesses across the country to create new ideas and services.
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The deal aims to build on the region’s strengths in areas including life sciences and computing, to encourage businesses to innovate and ultimately to create more high-skilled jobs.
Metro mayor Steve Rotheram has set a target of spending 5% of the city region’s economy on R&D by 2030 – nearly double the government’s target.
He has also launched an Innovation Prospectus, which has ambitious goals for the city region suggesting that improving the area’s “innovation powerhouse credentials” could ultimately add an estimated £41.7bn to the city region economy, creating around 44,000 jobs.
The prospectus and the new partnership were promoted on Thursday to an audience of business leaders at Liverpool Community College.
Mr Mukerjee told the crowd: “At times we need more rock and roll in innovation, because innovation is about rock and roll.”
Speaking to BusinessLive later, he explained: “Rock and roll is about passion, energy, and creativity - and rock and roll brings all those things together.”
Business, he said, needs to move away from “formulaic” ways of working.
He added: “What we're interested in is something that's fluid, that's free, that combines different skills, talents and disciplines together. And interdisciplinary combinations often get the best results.”
Steve Rotheram told BusinessLive that the event and the Innovate UK deal were important because they were "about the future".
He said: "While we're really proud of our past - no one can be more proud than me of the great things that Liverpool and the city region are famous - this has to be about the next chapter in our history.
"This is about what we can do, where we've got world class advantages, to capitalise on those future innovations so that we can get better businesses and better jobs and a more diverse economy, so that we can grow in the future.
"We're talking about a whole host of innovative businesses - in digital technologies, in health and life sciences, advanced computing, AI, VR, robotics, a whole host of things. There will be jobs that have not yet even been created yet. Kids will be moving into these jobs that currently don't exist, and that blows your mind. But that's the sort of strategic planning that needs to happen to make this a huge success."
The event was hosted at Liverpool Community College’s Learning Exchange Building.
Paul Vernon, executive director of business and innovation at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Daresbury campus, said the venue was chosen to show how important skills are to the region’s economy.
He said: “Without skilled people the shiny things don’t get delivered, and the shiny things don’t deliver.”
And he added: “This collaboration is a massive statement of intent. Information technology will open up new vistas new markets and a bright future.”
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