West London has a grand tradition of invention, with the BBC as an example catalysing a world-beating cluster of broadcast creative industry, and GlaxoSmithKline as a beacon of scientific advancement.
Our academic traditions both preserve and enhance this. The recent arrival of world-renowned Imperial College in White City, it is hoped, will help revitalise that area. Their new research campus is already attracting interest from all over the world, including China, and can help provide regeneration and opportunity for the people of White City, Acton and more.
At the other end of West London, Brunel University has innovation – and the commercialisation of that innovation – running through its DNA. They have a programme of collaboration with West London companies designed to help them innovate, and to access government and European grant funding to help them do it quicker and better.
This innovation is not always in the areas you immediately associate with research. West London is very strong in the food sector for example, and Brunel have run collaborations with several leading companies – like Charlie Bigham’s in Park Royal – which have produced step changes in manufacturing or packaging, and delivered competitive advantage, success, and ultimately employment growth.
In other areas such as IT, companies can access expertise and funding support through Universities to meet their R&D needs. Innovation, and accessing the academic knowledge base, can help solve apparently intractable issues.
In design and innovative manufacturing there is funding and support to help generate new businesses and innovations, and in developing new metals and new products companies such as Jaguar Land Rover and Grainger and Worrall are working with Brunel to change the way in which metals are developed for industrial use and cars are manufactured.
West London has a grand tradition in innovation, and innovation can help companies grow, and create jobs.
The next Place West London event – on September 17 – looks at the role innovation can play in economic and employment growth, and examines the support that might be available for companies from the government or other agencies in the area.
