‘Golden triangle’ will be crucial to ‘levelling up’, says Freeman

Elite research universities in Oxford, Cambridge and London will increasingly be asked to work with institutions outside the so-called “golden triangle” as part of “levelling up” efforts to bring greater prosperity to England’s regions, the country’s science minister has said.

In a speech at the University of Cambridge, George Freeman said that he had stressed the strategic importance of the golden triangle in discussions with Michael Gove, secretary of state for levelling up, communities and local government, over the regional distribution of public research expenditure, following the recent White Paper commitment to increase public investment in research and development outside the South-East by 40 per cent by 2030.

Speaking at the university’s Centre for Science and Policy, Mr Freeman said that he had flagged the “incredibly powerful” role of the golden triangle in attracting private and international research and development investment – as demonstrated by the new £1 billion AstraZeneca research centre opened in Cambridge last November – which should be supported but also used to help other universities or institutes via greater collaboration between regional industrial clusters in areas such as space, AI or biotechnology.

“We will not level up by breaking away from the golden triangle but growing from it,” said Mr Freeman, who was appointed science minister in July, having previously held the life sciences portfolio in the David Cameron administration.

Speaking to Times Higher Education after the event, Mr Freeman said it was important to address “questions about what many see as the over-concentration science and research within the Greater South-East – the so-called ‘golden triangle’”.

“As we set out in the levelling up White Paper, I have argued the best way for us to deliver long-term sustainable innovation investments to drive levelling up is not to bluntly cut research in the golden triangle and move it north, but to grow from the golden triangle by investing in growing clusters that will run across the country,” said Mr Freeman.

In his speech, Mr Freeman also said that he and Mr Gove were keen to establish more “innovation accelerators” along the lines of three projects – in Glasgow, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester – worth £100 million unveiled in February. “We have three, though Michael and I want 33,” he said, adding: “The dream is that we do this in South Wales, Northern Ireland and around the whole country.”

With UK association to Horizon Europe still uncertain – and with British-based ERC grant winners going abroad to take up their funding – Mr Freeman said he was currently working on “picking countries to work with.”

“It is clear we want to deepen our relationship with Switzerland and Israel,” he said, describing the latter as “magnificently creative” and a “nation built on science”, although he said it was “important to think about emerging economies” that shared similar values as the UK.

“Let’s pick 10 to 20 countries where we could really deepen that engagement through secondments or partnerships, but let’s also make some choices – let’s make a strategy about what we’re not going to do,” said Mr Freeman.

“We tend to want to do a lot of everything which is not a strategy,” he added. “That [change] will take a change in Whitehall and a really different approach to our geopolitical role in the world.”

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com