Congratulations to the winners of the Flexible Fund Round 2

Business R&D investment is crucial for innovation & growth. To build an innovation-driven industrial base, Governments provide financial support for firms’ R&D. However, firms located in certain regions benefit from unique advantages that can supercharge their R&D capabilities. In some regions, there is a critical mass of R&D infrastructure such as Universities, science labs & clusters of high-tech firms. In the UK, this manifests in the Golden Triangle between Oxford-Cambridge-London. By locating in this region, firms derive significant R&D benefits. Many argue this has come at the cost of permanently disadvantaging firms outside the Golden Triangle, running counter to the principals of ‘levelling up’ and inclusive growth.

Therefore this research evaluates the impact of R&D grants & R&D tax credits on firms located inside vs. outside the Golden Triangle, providing evidence-based actionable insights on how Government R&D support for firms can help reduce regional economic inequalities.

Project team: Dr Kevin Mulligan, Dr Ammu George, Dr Karen Bonner and Professor Justin Doran

Our project examines communities within coworking spaces (CWSs) as: i) a dynamic repository of scalable INFORMAL business support

ii) with the potential to act as an institutional bridge to FORMAL business innovation support services (BISS). Experiences in CWSs can boost users’ entrepreneurial confidence & self-awareness of their knowledge deficits; the creation of stronger relationships between CWSs & regional BISS providers can better guide SMEs to the right service provider/scheme.

This is important because despite much private & public provision, formal BISS, regarded as critical to SME innovation, are described as ‘insufficient’& ‘fragmented’ yet most SMEs rely on friends & family for informal business advice. The two are disconnected.

Our novel multi-region, mixed methods proposal offers insights to industry & policy stakeholders regarding the connectivity between informal/formal support providers and establishes a pathway for entrepreneurs to navigate across the two.

Project team: Dr Felicia Fai and Professor Philip Tomlinson

This project explores why manufacturing SMEs in the West Midlands are not fully embracing the ‘Triple Transition’—the combined shifts in business digitalisation, adoption of net-zero practices, and productivity upgrading—despite government incentives. It identifies barriers such as limited resources, skill shortages, and lack of awareness and examines how overcoming these challenges can drive innovation, productivity, and sustainability, ultimately boosting the region’s economic growth. Using secondary data, interviews with SME leaders, and focus groups with policymakers, the study highlights challenges and opportunities unique to the West Midlands. By comparing regional trends to national patterns and reviewing government strategies, it provides evidence-based recommendations to help SMEs navigate these transitions, secure a stronger industrial future, and enhance their contribution to the UK’s economy.

Project team: Dr Samia Mahmood, Dr Nadia Ashghar, Dr Kayvan Kousha, Professor Delma Dwight and Professor Gareth Jones

Legal professionals are cautious about adopting AI due to the high-risk nature of their work and the dominant business model in the industry. A key challenge for professional firms has been accelerating AI adoption, with trust identified as a catalyst of this process. Trust can enable open discussions about AI risks, building confidence that AI will support rather than threaten professional roles. Establishing trust in AI is essential, with peers playing a key role in promoting trust and reducing AI risk perceptions.

Our project examines how trust in AI spreads through interpersonal relationships in a legal firm, creating a “contagion effect” that can lead to AI adoption across a firm. We aim to identify how individual traits, such as hierarchy and demographics, along with key actors, influence this contagion. Our findings aim to guide innovators and policymakers on the conditions that support adoption, offering evidence on how to build trust in AI through peer relationships.

Project team: Dr Francisco Trincado-Munoz and Hannah Isabelle Tornow

This project explores how global access policies (GAPs) can improve the affordability and accessibility of UK-driven research & innovation in the UK and globally. GAPs ensure publicly or philanthropically funded R&D outputs are globally accessible, aligning with open science principles & advancing UN SDG 3 targets on universal health coverage and access to medicines. While some global health funders have embraced GAPs, UK academic funders and institutions largely lack such policies, limiting equitable access to innovations.

The study will:
1. Evaluate the impact of GAPs on promoting affordable access to R&D
2. Identify exemplar GAPs from health research funders and institutions
3. Develop a framework for UK funders and institutions to adopt GAPs.

Using interviews with key stakeholders, literature reviews, & case studies, the project aims to create actionable strategies for deploying UK R&D outputs globally, bridging access gaps, & enhancing economic and societal benefit.

Project team: Dr Becky Jones-Phillips, Dr Ezekiel Boro, Dr Chris Peters, Dr Carolina Velasco and Aaron Argomandkhah

This project will gather insights from experts through a series of surveys to identify what researchers should consider when planning for openness and transparency. Using this evidence, this project will create practical resources, including a step-by-step planning template for researchers and guidance for organisations like UKRI. These tools will help researchers incorporate a broad range of open practices into their work and funding applications, bringing us closer to a truly open research and innovation system.

Project team: Dr Suzanne Stewart

Many researchers and stakeholders are committed to building a more open and transparent research and innovation system. However, there is a gap between this commitment and researchers using a broad range of open research practices in their day-to-day work. This gap is caused by a lack of training, tools, and recognition for these practices. To bridge this gap, researchers need clear guidance and practical tools to plan and carry out open and transparent research.

This project will gather insights from experts through a series of surveys to identify what researchers should consider when planning for openness and transparency. Using this evidence, this project will create practical resources, including a step-by-step planning template for researchers and guidance for organisations like UKRI. These tools will help researchers incorporate a broad range of open practices into their work and funding applications, bringing us closer to a truly open research and innovation system.

Project team: Professor Iain Docherty, Professor Gary Dymski, Professor Alice Owen, Paul Lawrence, Sara Thiam and Graham Thom

The proposed project explores how innovation policies and programmes shape adoption and diffusion across supply chains and their role in enhancing resilience in the UK. Resilient supply chains have become critical amid rising uncertainties from Brexit, COVID-19, geopolitical tensions, and climate change. This project will create a comprehensive dataset and analysis framework, offering new insights into the systemic impacts of innovation policies across multiple supply chain tiers. By addressing significant gaps in supply chain management and innovation literature, the research will deliver actionable, evidence-based recommendations for policymakers, industry leaders, and researchers. Its findings will strengthen innovation diffusion, foster robust and adaptive supply chains, and advance the UK innovation ecosystem. In the face of global challenges, these insights are essential for building resilient supply chains that drive sustainable economic growth.

Project team: Dr Xin Deng, Professor Elvira Uyarra and Professor Kosta Selviaridis

Most studies looking at the impact of public supported R&D and innovation consider benefits to businesses at specific time horizons, examining lagged impacts on innovation and productivity (Vanino et al., 2019). However, there is limited understanding of the potential cumulative and persistent impact of support over time, particularly regarding repeated or sustained engagement with support. This study aims to address this gap by examining the inter-temporal impacts of innovation support on the evolution of firms’ technological innovation and productivity trajectories. Specifically, we are interested how Innovate UK support influences persistence in innovation and productivity, and how these effects evolve with the duration and frequency of support. With anticipated changes to UK R&D funding structures allowing longer funding horizons, this analysis is both timely and relevant.

Project team: Professor Kausik Chaudhuri, Sandra Lancheros Torres and Dr Halima Jibril