The High Growth Innovation Sprint Programme supports early-stage and scaling businesses in overcoming scaleup barriers. As the flagship programme of Edge Hill University’s SME Productivity & Innovation Centre (PIC), this fully funded three-month initiative is tailored to scaling businesses in priority sectors across Lancashire and the Liverpool City Region.

The programme serves as a strategic gateway to the University, providing strategy development, intensive online workshops, one-to-one mentoring, and rapid innovation tools. It helps businesses develop a scaleup strategy for domestic or international expansion, supporting market penetration, market development, or product and service innovation. By leveraging market research and data insights, it enables informed decision-making to accelerate growth.

Beyond the programme, scaling businesses access collaboration opportunities with the University, students, and the PIC SME network, alongside referrals to finance and funding providers such as Rose Bud Finance, MSIF, Lloyds, and Barclays. Additional support is available through PIC’s Skills for Growth (connecting businesses with students and graduates), Leadership for Growth (offering leadership and management training), and the Innovation Adoption Accelerator (for businesses seeking technology investment).

Since 2017, the Innovation Sprint Programme has supported 353 scaling and pipeline businesses, leading to the creation of 483 new jobs and the development of 174 new products, services, or technologies. Participants achieve, on average, 29% annual turnover growth, with 28-45% annual profitability improvements. The latest evaluation also found that 82% of firms reported improved financial performance and working capital, 66% saw turnover increases, 46% improved profitability, and 40% enhanced productivity.

The programme continues to deliver strong economic impact, with an updated return on investment of £1 : £14.20, up from the previous £1 : £13.90. Among beneficiaries, 94% reported a high or very high impact on their business growth capabilities, 83% cited major improvements in strategic planning, and 67% experienced significant gains in market access and share. Overall satisfaction levels remain exceptionally high, with 97% of firms describing themselves as satisfied or very satisfied with the programme’s support.

High Growth Innovation Sprint has recently undergone an AI-driven transformation, embedding advanced tools that accelerate and deepen analysis of customer and sales data. These include a customer segmentation system for identifying buying patterns and missed sales opportunities,pPerplexity for market and competitor research, fireflies for summarising complex workshop discussions, and ChatGPT-5 for scenario planning and data reporting. Together, these enhance the programme’s evidence-based methodology and allow facilitators and participants to focus on higher-value analytical and change-planning activities.

The programme has also introduced pulse surveys to assess each firm’s absorptive capacity for innovation at key points during delivery. Results are shared in real time with businesses for reflection, while aggregated, anonymised data is compiled for future research by Edge Hill University’s Business School to study how SMEs build innovation capability over time.

Over the past year, the Innovation Sprint has continued its collaboration with local business growth hubs (BOOST and Growth Platform), regional universities, and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund through initiatives such as the Liverpool City Region Horizons Programme, Lancashire Universities Innovation Programme, and West Lancashire Collaborative Innovation Programme. Insights from the programme have also informed national policy, contributing to the Department for Business and Trade’s Identifying Future Growth Potential: UK Professional Business Services (2025) report, which shaped sector planning for the Industrial Strategy 2025.

Looking ahead, the Innovation Sprint remains Edge Hill University’s flagship business growth initiative and a foundation for research, policy and programme development. Two new strands have emerged: the AI Digital Transformation and Change CPD, a seminar series for SMEs set to become a professional qualification in 2026; and a Public Sector Transformation Initiative, adapting the Sprint model to support public sector organisations in driving AI-enabled productivity and service reform aligned with the Government’s Spending Review 2025.

“The programme has enabled us to develop a strategy that sets a bold path for 33% annual growth this year.” – James Gwynne, Managing Director, ITP Packaging

“We have since seen significant growth, exceeding our sales figures month on month and on target for our best year to date.” – Bobby Law, Technical Manager, Magna Renewables

Edge Hill University: The High Growth Innovation Sprint Programme website