The North of EnglandIs Ready to Connect. Collaborate. Innovate. Lead. Transform. Build. Scale. Deliver. Accelerate. Thrive.
Across the Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Cheshire and Warrington, and Lancashire, extraordinary innovation is happening every day.
Alone, these strengths compete for attention. Connected, they become one corridor with the scale to compete globally, and a place for you to build in it.
In partnership with
Partners: Endgame, Keepace Consults, Climb, Tech North Advocates.
Extraordinary Innovation is Already Happening.
A Global Hub of Research, Industry, and Talent. Across six major UK clusters, the Northern Arc is home to research of global standing and a highly skilled international workforce. Individually, these regions are remarkable. Together, they form a transformational economic force.
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Lancashire
Population: 1.6M
A global cornerstone of the aerospace industry and a national leader in the transition to clean, secure nuclear and hydrogen energy.
One of the UK's largest aerospace clusters, contributing around £6.4 billion to Lancashire's economy.
Greater Manchester
Population: 3.0M
A global frontier for advanced materials and industrial re-industrialisation, powered by a high-growth AI and data economy.
A global pioneer for advanced materials and the UK's leading AI and digital ecosystem outside of London.
Liverpool City Region
Population: 1.6M
Reshaping the future of health innovation through world-leading drug discovery, infectious disease research, and clinical trials infrastructure.
Home to England's first Life Sciences Investment Zone, targeting up to £800m in public and private investment.
West Yorkshire
Population: 2.4M
A global centre of excellence for health data innovation and creative technology, where healthcare research meets a thriving digital economy.
Hosts over 300 HealthTech companies and a major hub of national health data infrastructure, including NHS England Digital's headquarters.
South Yorkshire
Population: 1.4M
Redefining modern production and clean energy through the UK's first Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District.
Home to the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), anchoring a cluster of over 100 global industrial partners.
Cheshire and Warrington
Population: 1.0M
At the forefront of the UK's Net Zero transition, combining global leadership in hydrogen energy with high-value pharmaceutical R&D.
Leading the UK's first industrial Net Zero cluster through the HyNet North West project.
Greatness exists. But it exists in silos. Strategic alignment is the missing thread that transforms these individual successes into a world-class innovation corridor.
Four gaps that traditional strategies have failed to close
While the Northern Powerhouse created a powerful brand, the Northern Arc focuses on the plumbing underneath: how growth actually happens, and how good research becomes real jobs and companies.
Here are the critical fault lines we must address.
The Productivity Gap
Lower economic output per worker compared to the UK average, not because of a lack of talent or assets, but because those assets aren't connected into efficient, value-creating systems.
The Coordination Gap
Duplicated programmes, siloed research institutions, and a costly 'navigation tax' for businesses trying to move and scale across city boundaries. Organisations reinvent the wheel instead of building on each other.
The Investment Gap
International investors see fragmented snapshots, not a unified, high-value market. Compared to the Randstad, the Ruhr, or Silicon Valley, the Northern Arc currently lacks the strategic coherence that global capital demands.
The Opportunity Gap
World-class R&D sits in university laboratories, failing to reach SMEs in underrepresented towns or translate into real social and economic impact for the communities that need it most.
We Are Competing Against Highly Connected Global Regions
Randstad
NetherlandsFour cities operate as one closely connected innovation economy with shared infrastructure, talent pools, and investment frameworks.
Ruhr Valley
GermanyCoordinated transition from heavy industry to knowledge economy, with shared governance connecting universities, manufacturers, and government.
Silicon Valley
USAGlobally aligned ecosystem where talent, capital, and ideas flow freely between universities, venture firms, and startups.
If the Northern Arc remains fragmented, it misses its chance to become a globally competitive innovation region. Without strategic alignment, we compete with each other instead of competing with the world.
Introducing Northern Arc Partners
A new kind of organisation designed to connect people, ideas, and capital across the Northern Arc into one coherent, globally competitive system.
Politically Neutral
Not owned by any one place. Independent of local political agendas. Representing the entire Northern Arc equally.
The quadruple
helix model
Northern Arc Partners connects people, ideas, and capital through a formal Quadruple Helix model integrating Academia, Industry, Government, and the Social Economy into one coordinated system.
Commercialising Innovation Through Collaboration
Linking universities and industry partners to dramatically accelerate the journey from R&D to market-ready products. Breaking the lab-to-market bottleneck that costs the region billions in unrealised innovation value.
- Faster technology transfer
- Joint IP commercialisation
- Industry-embedded research
Dynamic Visibility of Innovation Assets
An Innovation Ecosystem Mapping Tool drawing together diverse data sets to give high visibility to lab space, assets, and capabilities across the Northern Arc for local and national government teams.
- Live asset discovery
- Inclusive institution visibility
- Investment navigation
One Market, One Pitch to Global Capital
Coordinating investable propositions that present the Northern Arc as one coherent market to global investors and convening stakeholders to help secure UK government funding.
- One unified market narrative
- Anchor propositions for investors
- Cross border funding initiatives
Delivering Inclusive Growth
Embedding the Social Economy as the fourth helix, ensuring innovation isn't confined to major cities but spreads real opportunity to underrepresented towns, SMEs, and communities.
- Wider city and town-level access
- SME integration
- Social impact woven in
We do not compete with existing organisations. We connect them into one powerful whole.
WHEN THIS REGION ALIGNS, Something Extraordinary Happens
The Northern Arc transforms fragmented excellence into coordinated power. These are the outcomes that emerge when connection replaces competition.
A Globally Recognised Innovation Corridor
The Northern Arc stands alongside the Randstad, the Ruhr, and Silicon Valley as a model of strategic regional alignment.
Researchers and Founders Scale Without Borders
A founder in Sheffield accesses a lab in Liverpool. A researcher in Leeds finds manufacturing partners in Lancashire. One corridor, direct access.
Every Town Has a Global Voice
Underrepresented towns gain access to world-class facilities, global networks, and investment flows previously reserved for city centres.
Inclusive Growth as Architecture
Social impact isn't a programme. It's embedded in the model, ensuring innovation benefits reach the communities that need them most.
Great Regions Aren't Built Alone.Let's Build This One Together.
The Northern Arc is being built right now by founders, universities, investors, and the organisations that connect them. Whatever your strength, there is a place for it here.
Join today
Register in minutes and we'll keep you close to the story as it unfolds.
Let's build something together
Tell us your ambitions and we'll agree partnership terms together.
Prefer to talk first? Email us at hello@northernarc.partners
Frequently asked questions
What is the Northern Arc?
The Northern Arc is an innovation corridor connecting six major clusters across Northern England: Lancashire, Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and Cheshire and Warrington. Together they form one globally competitive system of over 10 million people generating £290 billion GVA.
Who are Northern Arc Partners?
Northern Arc Partners is an independent, politically neutral organisation connecting six regions across Northern England: Lancashire, Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and Cheshire & Warrington. We function as a non-competitive framework designed to foster pan-regional collaboration rather than internal rivalry. By unifying these areas into a single, globally competitive innovation corridor, the organisation represents an economic powerhouse of over 10 million people and a combined GVA of £290 billion.
Northern Arc Partners is built by people who believe in the power of the North. A team of experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem builders working together to connect the region's innovation potential.
Our mission is to combine our collective strengths to attract international investment and accelerate high-value industrial growth.
What is the Quadruple Helix model?
The Quadruple Helix is our operational framework for systemic collaboration across four essential pillars: Academia and Research, Industry and Business, Government and Public Sector, and Civil Society. Unlike traditional top-down models, we treat these pillars as interconnected strands that amplify collective impact.
By strategically aligning these forces, we move beyond siloed working to create a unified ecosystem where research, capital, policy, and community needs converge to drive large-scale regional growth.
How can my organisation partner with Northern Arc?
Organisations across all four Helix pillars can engage via the 'Partner With Us' section on this site. Northern Arc Partners acts as a strategic intermediary for universities, global businesses, innovation hubs, and public bodies. We work to identify shared opportunities, coordinate large-scale investment, and build cross-regional programmes.
Our partnership model is built on rigorous strategic alignment: we exclusively collaborate with organisations committed to delivering sustainable and inclusive growth across the Northern Arc.
How is Northern Arc different from existing regional bodies?
Northern Arc Partners is a strictly independent, industry-led, and non-political development body. Our core principle is simple: we do not compete, we connect. We operate as a strategic bridge that complements the work of existing organisations. While bodies such as the Northern Powerhouse focus on essential pan-regional policy and large-scale infrastructure, Northern Arc Partners functions as the "connective tissue" at the implementation and commercialisation level.
We act as a "single front door" that links Combined Authorities, Trade Organisations, Growth Hubs across regional boundaries. Unlike these statutory bodies, which focus on local governance, inward investment and front-line business support, Northern Arc Partners provides the "stadium infrastructure" to aggregate their efforts into a unified offer for the global market.
By operating as an independent entity, we ensure that the North's shared strengths are visible to international investors who may currently view the region as six fragmented economies rather than one high-value corridor. We empower individual regions to deliver their local mandates while we provide the cross-border connectivity and industry-led focus required to scale the collective innovation assets of the Northern Arc.
What regions does Northern Arc cover?
The Northern Arc spans six interconnected regions in the North of England: Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and Cheshire and Warrington. Each region is located within an hour of the others, creating a dense network of shared sector strengths.
Collectively, these regions house world-leading research universities, premier clusters in advanced manufacturing, and deep expertise in digital health, energy, and materials. This geographic proximity allows us to operate as a singular, globally competitive innovation super-conurbation.