In 2018/19 the UK held the chairmanship of EUREKA, the world’s largest network for international co-operation in R&D and innovation and which is administered in the UK by Innovate UK. One of the main aims of the UK chairmanship was to move EUREKA towards being a globally active platform. This was evidenced by the scope and scale of the Global Innovation Summit in Manchester. Hosted by Innovate UK and with the partnership of EEN, the event provided three days of networking and learning opportunities for over 1,800 attendees from more than 60 countries.

The first ever meeting of the Global Leaders of Innovation Funders was held at the Summit. This convened representatives from 44 organisations across 34 countries to share information on three key themes – global collaboration, scaling businesses, and diversity and inclusion.

The Global Innovation Summit provided an excellent opportunity for the ScaleUp Institute to work with Innovate UK to share our learnings with this international community – and to drive forward thinking about scaleups on an international basis.

The work that the ScaleUp Institute is undertaking with the private, public and local ecosystems across the UK is gaining significant interest from international innovation community, and we were delighted to make presentations both at the meeting of the Global Leaders of Innovation Funders as well as at the plenary conference. We used this occasion to provide delegates with a ‘deep dive’ into scaleups and to convey the policy measures we think are needed to make a difference.

The discussion focused on the agenda for scaling companies in gaining greater access to markets and international collaboration. The key scaleup messages discussed were:

• The value of scaleups and challenges to scaling;
• The vital requirement for data, both to understand and locate scaleups, map progress and enable effective engagement with scaleups and targeted scaleup support;
• The need to harness an ecosystem towards the scaleup goal;
• The need to segment businesses according to growth, aspiration and potential and design tailored solutions;
• The importance of locality, enablers, peer groups;
• The importance of mapping what exists and analysing what works;
• The importance of leveraging what works – and what we have seen makes a difference;
• How to break down barriers to collaboration;
• How to break down barriers to exporting; and,
• A ten point policy plan.

The period of Innovate UK chairmanship of EUREKA has upped the UK’s engagement across the instruments of EUREKA, all of which focus on building international collaborations for R&D and innovation. The overall level of funding has increased; an additional £20m has been committed through EUREKA over the next four years over and above the UK’s baseline £5m per annum.

“There is a lot of interest in what the UK is doing around scaleups,” says David Golding, Head of North America and Global Networks and who was Deputy Chair of the UK chairmanship of EUREKA, “as it is seen to be a leader in this area. There is a shift taking place among innovation agencies. People are starting to take a more rounded, holistic view; it is no longer just about providing grant funding to companies but about providing a whole suite of support services which can help a company to scale. Many countries are aware that they need to support scaling companies and want to know how to do that – and in this arena the work of Innovate UK and the ScaleUp Institute is seen as world-leading.”

The importance of developing concerted policies and international collaboration was highlighted at the closing of the Global Summit which witnessed a signed commitment to further collaboration among all the parties present – an occasion that was marked with the flags of all the parties present – including ours.