No Surprise That Coventry & Warwickshire is a Hotbed of Invention
The company supporting budding entrepreneurs in Coventry and Warwickshire says it is no surprise that Coventry is the second most inventive city in the UK.
Recent research showed it filed more than 108 patents for every 100,000 people, outstripping innovative areas such as Oxford, Aberdeen and Slough.
Only Cambridge – the city of dreaming spires and hi-tech companies that is the front-runner by a long margin – performed better, with more than 300 per 100,000.
In common with Cambridge, Coventry is becoming ever more ingenious – the number of patents it filed rose five-fold in just two years, while Cambridge’s rose three-fold.
Jeremy Moore, head of Business Solutions, the commercial arm of the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growth Hub, said: “This just confirms what we’ve known all along – Coventry is one of the most inventive cities in the UK.
“When people think of inventions and patents they think about university towns such as Oxford and Cambridge and the ‘Silicon Valley’ corridor around Slough.
“We may not have the public profile yet but that is going to change. The reality is that with two great universities, global automotive groups and a vibrant computer gaming sector, Coventry is a city at the forefront of technology.
“The inventions coming out of Coventry are going to become even more interesting with its involvement in autonomous cars, electric battery research, intelligent machines and new applications of gaming technology.
“It is a hotbed of invention. People living here are entrepreneurial – Coventry and Warwickshire has a high proportion of people who want to set up their own businesses.”
After Cambridge and Coventry, the next most inventive cities were Derby, Oxford and Aberdeen.
The research, based on patents filed in 2016, was published in November by MPA Group.
A previous study conducted by think tank Centre for Cities revealed that Coventry filed only 17.5 patents per 100,000 people in 2014 – which made it the fourth most inventive city that year, behind Cambridge, Aberdeen and Aldershot. In that year Cambridge filed 102 patents per 100,000 people.
Business Solutions Ltd supports entrepreneurs by offering them a range of commercially-available, bespoke services which go beyond the free service offered by the Growth Hub as well as encouraging local enterprise through CW Connect.
These new services include an online Entrepreneur’s Toolkit to guide would-be Bransons and Bradys through the essential preparations for launching a new business and keeping it on track. The CW Entrepreneur’s Toolkit costs £399 (inc VAT) for the first year’s subscription.
