Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and Glasgow City Region have each been allocated a further £20 million under the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund (LIPF), taking their allocations to £50 million per place. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology confirmed the move on 19 October 2025, ahead of the Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham on Tuesday 21 October.
LIPF is a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) programme worth up to £500 million running from 2026 to 2031. It has two routes: an earmarked strand providing at least £30 million for each of ten places, and a competitive strand offering up to £20 million to other high‑potential clusters.
UKRI opened applications on 6 October 2025. The invitation‑only earmarked strand closes at 16:00 on 3 February 2026; the competed strand closes at 16:00 on 12 February 2026. These dates set the planning window for partnerships to finalise their portfolios.
According to UKRI’s guidance, proposals must focus on near‑to‑market research and innovation, adoption and commercialisation; early discovery research is out of scope. All activities must complete within the five‑year programme window and be designed to draw in business participation and follow‑on investment.
Governance is built around ‘triple helix’ partnerships across civic leaders, business and universities. A single lead organisation submits on behalf of each place-often a mayoral or combined authority, though universities and research institutes can lead-with local authorities able to seek non‑standard eligibility. UKRI runs a readiness check before co‑developing portfolios with selected places.
For the three areas receiving the top‑up, ministers highlighted existing pipelines: digital chemistry capabilities in Glasgow; AI‑enabled tools to support earlier diagnosis and net‑zero innovation in Greater Manchester; and low‑carbon materials work in the West Midlands. DSIT referenced Chemify’s ‘Chemputation’ facility in Glasgow, AI deployment in Greater Manchester and the Biochar CleanTech project in the West Midlands as examples of the type of activity expected to scale.
Alongside LIPF, the government announced two projects through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF): Sterling Pharmaceuticals will build a 60,000‑square‑foot manufacturing and R&D centre in Birmingham, and Biocomposites will bring forward a new facility at Keele. Together they are expected to mobilise over £30 million in public‑private investment, with LSIMF offering up to £520 million over five years for life sciences manufacturing.
HM Treasury has confirmed the Regional Investment Summit will be co‑hosted by the Chancellor, the Business and Trade Secretary and the West Midlands Mayor, with sponsors including E.ON, Lloyds, KPMG, HSBC and IBM. The event is scheduled for Tuesday 21 October in Birmingham and is billed as part of the government’s Plan for Change.
Officials position this announcement as building on the Innovation Accelerators pilot, which government says has brought in more than £140 million of private co‑investment and created hundreds of jobs across Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.
For places outside the ten earmarked awards, the competed strand is the main route to support. Submissions need to define a functional geography for the cluster, align with local growth strategies, and set out a credible delivery and governance model that can move from award to implementation quickly once co‑created with UKRI.