Cambridge and Manchester are joining forces to develop a joint offer that showcases the cities as a single destination for foreign direct investment. The initiative builds on the strong links between the cities and aims to establish a joint investment case, focused on each city's individual strengths, that supports businesses looking to raise capital.
Building on an Existing Innovation Partnership
Manchester and Cambridge have been working together on innovation projects since 2023, with the city regions sharing expertise in areas including life sciences and entrepreneurship. Last year, the University of Manchester and the University of Cambridge launched the Cambridge x Manchester Innovation Partnership.
Kathryn Chapman, chief executive of Innovate Cambridge, said: "Cambridge has demonstrated that it can create world-class innovation and globally significant companies. The next challenge is ensuring that success translates into lasting economic and social value. That means helping more companies scale from the UK, using the capabilities Cambridge creates to support growth across the country and widening access to the opportunities generated by innovation. It also means working with other regions."
Political Support for the Joint Offer
Paul Bristow, mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, said: "Cambridge is the second most innovation-intensive city in the world and our collective aim is to use this incredible region of innovators and citizens to drive local and national growth. Our partnership with Manchester will be crucial in unlocking the potential of our economy and our local growth plan. With support from both mayors, universities, vice-chancellors and business, we are building for global impact and creating opportunities for all the citizens of our regions."
In 2024, then Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham visited Cambridge to mark a year of the cities' joint working. He said: "This partnership is breaking new ground, linking the North of England with the Golden triangle to drive regional and national economic growth."
University Collaboration and National Ambitions
The Cambridge x Manchester Innovation Partnership launched last year and aimed to create a "cross-UK innovation network" in areas from biotech research to infrastructure. Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Manchester, said at the time: "Our partnership with Cambridge marks a new model of collaboration between UK universities. It brings together the distinctive strengths of each of our universities and cities, connecting two of the great innovation ecosystems to scale up what we can achieve. This new approach to innovation accelerates the time between discovery and impact, getting ideas into the real economy and our communities even more quickly to drive inclusive growth."
In his flagship speech in June on returning to the House of Commons, Andy Burnham – already on his way to becoming Prime Minister – hailed the success of the links between Manchester and Cambridge. He said: "On reindustrialisation, we will support every region to set clear and credible industrial ambitions – and provide the support to achieve them, encouraging more cross-UK partnership between places with complementary industrial clusters, as Cambridge and Manchester have done on life sciences."
