How well does Cumbria innovate?

In his new column Professor Frank Peck of the University of Cumbria’s Centre for Regional Economic Development explains the latest economic data. This month: innovation. In the debates surrounding business growth and productivity, no topic is more keenly discussed than the rate of innovation. In a business context, innovation is commonly used to refer to the introduction of new or improved products, processes or methods. In an economy that is increasingly exposed to global market forces, it is not hard to appreciate why this concept is considered vital. So how does Cumbria score in the league tables on business innovation? Several recent studies have attempted to answer this question by ranking the English counties (or, more precisely, Local Economic Partnership areas) on a range of criteria that capture the inputs and outputs associated with innovation. Innovation needs inputs of money and talent. In this regard, private sector R&D expenditure in Cumbria ranks in the bottom quartile (31st out of 39 LEP areas). The county also has a very limited number of FTEs in technology sectors that have been prioritised by UK government funding (rank 36¬. Some aspects of “talent” seem more promising - Cumbria ranks quite well on proportion of science, engineering and technology professionals (rank 13¬ but low on numbers graduating with science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) degrees. The percentage of residents with “higher-level” qualifications of NVQ level 4 is also comparatively low.