Insights

Developed by Lancashire County Council, in partnership with the Lancashire Innovation Board, the LIP is the county’s five year innovation-led economic strategy. It includes a summary of Lancashire’s innovation strengths and outlines the different ways that innovation can be used to unlock our growth potential.

The State of Innovation in Lancashire Report highlights Lancashire’s thriving innovation landscape,  looking at emerging sectors like low-carbon technologies, digital defence, and MedTech. It underscores the role of universities and research institutions in commercialising intellectual property and fostering research-intensive entrepreneurship. With a strong focus on investment patterns over the past five years, the report provides a snapshot in time of the Lancashire Investment and Innovation ecosystem. 

Commissioned by Lancaster University, this in-depth 80 page report explores the assets, initiatives, and potential of the North West Cyber Corridor ecosystem. It reveals that the North West is home to the second largest cyber cluster in the UK with the second largest levels of investment outside of London and the South East. The research also indicates the region has 300 unique cyber companies and employs c.12,000 cyber professionals.

Published in February 2024, the NP11’s Innovation Cluster report identified a series of potentially transformative industry clusters which could supercharge growth and innovation across the North. Featuring a chapter focused on Lancashire’s fast growing cyber-physical security cluster – which is based on its strengths in the defence, critical infrastructure and cyber sectors – the research also offers insights into how the public and private sectors are working together to support established and emerging innovation clusters in all parts of the North.

The Lancashire Growth Plan is a strategic roadmap which will enable Lancashire to restate its growth priorities following the establishment of the Lancashire Combined County Authority. It will also show how the county will use its core grant from government to support priority projects. The development of the plan has the backing of the county’s Business Board, an independent group of business experts from across the county whose aim is to deliver a more prosperous Lancashire.

A guide to many of Lancashire’s current and forthcoming investment opportunities featuring new commercial campuses, business parks and industrial sites. Has details of major schemes including the incoming Eden Project Morecambe, Preston’s Station and Harris Quarters, Lancaster Canal Quarter, Blackpool’s Talbot Gateway, Burnley Town Centre, Westinghouse’s Springfields, Lancashire Central, and others. Enterprise Zone opportunities – such as the new £12m innovation hub at Samlesbury and the Warton EZ aerospace and aviation cluster – are also featured.