Innovate UK is the UKs innovation agency. Its goal is to accelerate economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation. Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), it brings together business, research and the public sector, supporting and accelerating the development of innovative products and services to meet market needs, tackle major societal challenges and help build the future economy.
The organisation has a thematic programme of work that focuses on areas of global challenge - such as emissions from transport, or ageing populations - and helps business to take advantage of the market opportunities that these create. It has identified five specific focus areas where innovation is led by societal challenge: energy, healthcare, built environment, food and transport. Many activities - including the energy programme, the low carbon vehicles innovation platform and the low impact buildings innovation platform - focus specifically on the opportunities created by the move to a low-carbon economy.
In these areas the organisation has enabled major collaborative programmes of research and development, with significant public and private sector funding, to develop and demonstrate new products and services. To complement areas of challenge-led innovation the Innovate UK supports innovation in competences such as high-value manufacturing and in enabling technologies such as advanced materials or ICT. More than simply a funding body, the Innovate UK promotes innovation by encouraging collaboration and knowledge exchange, influencing policy and acting as a catalyst, bringing people together to drive innovative ideas forward towards commercialisation.