University collaboration can unlock innovation across regions, Coventry University-led study finds

A new study led by Coventry University, in collaboration with Birmingham City University and the University of Wolverhampton, argues that stronger regional partnerships between universities are key to unlocking the full potential of innovation and commercialisation.

The paper, “Unlocking shared commercialisation pathways: the case for regional practice in university innovation", is one of ten peer-reviewed contributions to Innovation Ecosystems, the first i-PLACE Compendium, published by the Key Cities Innovation Network (KCIN). The collection brings together leading thinkers and practitioners from across the UK, offering practical ideas that could be adopted by cities and regions across the UK.

The West Midlands contribution explores how universities can work together - alongside industry and public sector partners - to create shared pathways for innovation. While universities play a critical role in generating new knowledge and technologies, the research highlights that fragmented approaches to commercialisation can limit their wider impact.

Drawing on a collaborative project across Coventry University, Birmingham City University and the University of Wolverhampton, the paper - authored by Albi Lamaj, Associate Director for IP and Commercialisation at Coventry University - proposes a more coordinated model of “regional practice", where institutions align expertise, infrastructure and investment to support innovation from research through to application. By strengthening connections between universities, businesses and regional stakeholders, the approach demonstrates how a more joined-up system can accelerate innovation, improve access to opportunities and deliver greater economic and social benefit.

The Compendium sits within i-PLACE, an open platform developed by KCIN to connect research, policy and practice in place-based innovation. Through annual publications, conferences and ongoing collaboration, i-PLACE provides a space for cities, universities, industry and communities to share ideas, test approaches and scale impact. As the platform’s founding paper explains, its aim is to bring together “research, practice and policy to advance new thinking about place-based innovation” and to ensure that insights from local places inform national debates.

Key cities

KCIN itself brings together universities working with the UK’s Key Cities - a network of 22 urban areas - to develop scalable solutions to shared challenges, from inclusive growth to climate transition and skills development. The Compendium continues a growing body of work demonstrating how civic partnerships can generate practical, transferable innovation across different places.

The other contributions included in Innovation Ecosystems are:

•  The role of felt experience in place-based innovation (Glasgow/AHRC Place Programme): Reframing policy around people’s lived and emotional relationship with place

•  Bath city-region as a hologrammatic creative canvas (Bath): Using creative infrastructure to drive inclusive regional growth

•  Plymouth Sound National Marine Park as a model for place-based innovation (Plymouth): Harnessing natural assets for regeneration and innovation

•  Mezzo-level: imagination as policy infrastructure (Essex): Embedding imagination within policy systems to enable place-based change

•  Innovation “from the outside in” – rethinking regional ecosystems (Salford): Reconfiguring how regions engage with external networks and ideas

•  From football city to civic lab: stewarding innovation (Wrexham): Building civic identity as a driver of innovation

•  Innovator-driven enterprise: an approach to regional ecosystems (Bradford): Supporting entrepreneur-led regional growth

•  Reaching further: integrating FE Colleges (Greater Manchester): Expanding participation in innovation ecosystems

•  Landing a Morecambe Bay culture innovation ecosystem (Morecambe Bay): Developing culture-led regional innovation