Opinion piece by Sam Markey is Ecosystem Director for Place Leadership at Connected Places Catapult

Places thrive on their ability to connect people – to resources, opportunities, and each other. The better connected a place, the more effective the flow of goods, talent, and ideas which create prosperity. History shows that innovation, from bridges and railways to digital networks and urban design, drives this connectivity, scaling up wealth and progress.

Global forces, including the pandemic, demographic shifts, and digitization, are reshaping human behavior and expectations. The climate crisis, highlighted by extreme weather, demands urgent action in decarbonisation and adaptation. These factors are transforming our living, working, and playing environments, presenting challenges and opportunities for innovation.

Innovative and emerging technologies hold the potential to transform these threats into catalysts for positive transformation, and opportunities for the growth of new businesses.

The UK has a proud history of changing the world through innovation – from the industrial revolution to the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. As the first modern nation to urbanise and introduce mass transit technologies, we are home to a wealth of established and insurgent companies in the built environment and transport sectors. These companies, combined with the R&D underway in the UK’s academic institutions, are well placed to seize this moment of opportunity, developing the products and services which enable places to adapt to the new future we face and scaling those solutions globally.

However, developing and scaling next-generation products and services for the built environment, transport, and place leadership sectors is not simple. Places are complex ecosystems of different but interdependent systems and stakeholders. Significant investment is required to deploy at scale, and there is risk aversion among customers when exploring new solutions. In the context of an escalating climate crisis, we need to develop, prove, and scale innovation faster than ever before.

This is why Connected Places Catapult exists. As the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and place leadership, it is our job to dismantle the barriers to commercial applications of innovation by places, creating functioning markets where people, places, and businesses are connected to the resources, ideas, and relationships they need for all to prosper.

Accelerating innovation through ‘Intense Places’

Some types of place exert a stronger pull on the connected places market than others. Places such as transport hubs, business parks, university campuses, and visitor destinations lie at the intersection of multiple systems; nodes in larger systems and a focal point for the flow of goods, people, services, and data. Such places are usually under the stewardship of a single owner or manager with discretion over a significant operating budget and a pressing need to respond to the innovation imperatives of decarbonisation, digitisation and accessibility. Innovations developed and validated in once such location can be readily replicated in other instances and more easily procured for use in other, more contested environments, such as high streets.

Inspired by this concept, the Station Innovation Zone at Bristol Temple Meads Station, a collaboration between Connected Places Catapult and Network Rail, is a platform for innovators to connect with customers and demonstrate their solutions in a live environment.

Innovation in infrastructure

The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has identified a pressing need to modernise UK infrastructure to support both economic growth and climate action. Achieving these ambitious goals requires substantial public and private investment over an extended period – around £30 billion per year until 2040. Built environment and wider connected places innovations will help by:

• unlocking new capacity on existing assets (e.g. data-optimised traffic management and journey planning, smart ticketing which reduces friction in public transport, sensor-enabled predictive maintenance and digital construction which reduces delays and disruptions),
• opening new lower-cost capacity beyond the existing infrastructure (e.g. drones delivering urgent medical supplies and creating new threads of economic connectivity between otherwise detached communities, or autonomous passenger taxis and cargo barges reviving the UK’s waterways and coastline, relieving the road network),
• and decarbonising the journeys people and goods take as they participate in the economy (e.g. active travel and micro e-mobility, clean freight, and zero emission flight).

The emerging art of Place Leadership

Unless implemented in real cities, buildings and transport networks, these and other transformative innovations will not have the necessary impact on UK sustainability, productivity or prosperity. The calibre and maturity of leadership which shapes the neighbourhoods, cities, regions and nations is therefore a critical factor in the development and deployment of innovations.

From our work with city and built environment leaders across the UK and around the world we see three tools of successful place leaders:

• Generous, sustained collaboration across boundaries – Political leaders (local and national) have a convening and vision casting role, the private sector and other agencies bring creativity, energy and investment. Change requires all parties learning to lead beyond their own organisations’ immediate interests.
• Smarter spending – The UK public sector spends £300bn a year on good and services from the market. As the Government’s Innovation Strategy and Science & Technology Framework both recognise, adoption of innovation-friendly procurement procedures by public sector buyers would transform that huge operational expenditure into R&D spend on strategic priorities like net zero and encourage private sector investment in innovation.
• Civic finance – We observe a resurgence of civic minded investors looking to put their money into mission-led projects and programmes offering social value and a good return. Net zero transition represents a significant investment opportunity.

Through initiatives like the Innovation Places Leadership Academy, UK Innovation Districts Group, the Freeport Innovation Network, and the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre, and the Cities Commission for Climate Investment (3Ci) we are investing in empowering more place leaders to be confident, articulate customers of innovation and effective stewards of the innovation economy in their areas.

Visit the Place Leadership hub on Connected Places Catapult website to find out more about our work and how we can support you on your innovation journey.