Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she plans to take steps with universities to help those institutions to develop local economies and identify areas where growth is possible.

Universities play important roles in their local economies including through education and skills, undertaking research, working with local businesses and also as large employers.

The Department supports universities to further this economic role. This includes funding streams such as Higher Education Innovation Funding which incentivises universities to work with business, public and third sector organisations to exchange knowledge and increase the economic and societal benefit from their work.

Additionally, the Government is committed to supporting regional growth across the UK and has pledged to increase domestic public investment in R&D outside the Greater South East by at least 40% by 2030. Last year we launched 3 Innovation Accelerators (Glasgow, West Midlands and Greater Manchester) with £100m, and we are currently working on a new and interactive cluster mapping tool.