Competing with the world, not each other
A panel chaired by Fiona Tuck of Metro Dynamics asked what Britain’s innovation economy still lacks. Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England, said the UK is too small to treat its regions as separate innovation ecosystems, with capital “stuck” in the places that are already well resourced. Harriet Gordon, Deputy Director at No. 10 North, said the UK’s real competition is Boston, Silicon Valley and Paris: for investors, the choice is rarely Manchester or Liverpool, but Manchester or Munich.
In her keynote, Bev Craig, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said regions need to “complement each other, not just compete with each other”, and set out a vision of good growth that people can feel in their daily lives.
“Simply creating growth to impact on someone’s bank balance, without seeing the number of jobs increase and the quality of someone’s life improve, is just growth for growth’s sake.” — Bev Craig, Mayor of Greater Manchester
Announcements and developments
- The Cambridge x Manchester Partnership will launch an “innovation passport” by the end of the year, giving founders and researchers easier access to office space, accelerator programmes, investors and corporate partners across both cities.
- A joint investment prospectus for Cambridge and Manchester is on its way, Shaun Grady, UK Chair of AstraZeneca, told the summit, urging investors to “get in early”.
Manchester 2035: voices from the Festival
“I would hope that eight- and nine-year-olds growing up in Ardwick and Brunswick, right next to us, or a young person growing up in Rochdale, not only see the University as part of the place they live, but see it as theirs in some way.” — Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor, The University of Manchester
“By 2035, I’d expect to see Graphene in many products, from shoes to clothing to computers to tyres to aircraft – not in there because it’s Graphene, but because it’s adding competitive advantage.” — James Baker, founder, Baker Graphene, and former Chief Executive, Graphene@Manchester
Demo Day
On Thursday evening, the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre and Venture Café Manchester hosted Manchester Venture Builder Demo Day 2026 at Sister. University of Manchester founders from the Venture Builder programme took to the stage to pitch ventures they had spent months testing and refining. They ranged from Remi, a platform that helps therapists manage clients and build personalised exercises, to a student startup growing organic bananas and drying them with solar power. Investors, mentors, alumni, corporate partners and a delegation from Hartford in the US then joined the founders for a showcase and networking reception, continuing the outward-looking theme of the day.
“I’ve made more progress in the paste ten minutes of networking here than in the past 30 days of cold emailing and cold LinkedIn messaging!” — Jacob Katz, founder, AMBS, BSc Management with Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
“Innovation doesn’t happen just because you have a great idea… Getting people that have money, people that have technology, people that know how to do business – you can’t do it on your own, but you can pull them together into one location.” — Gene Goddard, Chief Business Investment Officer, Metro Hartford
Around the Festival
Away from Sister, Sow the City shared community-led social innovation at Manchester Museum’s Growing Change event, and Sustainable Futures showcased funded projects at Inclusive Innovation for People and Planet. Beyond the Hearing Loop explored how Auracast audio technology could benefit deaf, hard-of-hearing and neurodivergent communities, and the University and national initiative, E3M met to discuss social enterprise innovation in public services.
Coming up
The Festival closes on Friday 9 October with the final of the Coller AI Competition, where University of Manchester AI startups pitch live for a £100,000 equity investment from The Jeremy Coller Foundation.
“The University of Manchester is a public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester City Centre on Oxford Road.”
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