NLA Innovation Summit: Prioritising Social Impact in 2025

Attending the recent NLA Innovation Summit, it was striking how the conversation moved between traditional economic narratives regarding the benefits of innovation districts and clusters, and novel approaches to delivering social impact. Coinciding with the launch of the London Growth Plan, the event painted a picture of a capital already generating substantial social value (although often under different names) through its universities, startups, education and skills programmes, and forward-thinking development.  

We heard a range of perspectives – President Hugh Brady and Sarah Cary from Imperial College, David Height from the Mitsui Foundation, Rob Beacroft at Lateral, Matt Flood at Related Argent, Joss from Populate and Caroline from Islington Council – all working at the intersection of place, innovation and people. Their perspectives highlighted the expansive reach and growth innovation districts can create, balanced with the need for these innovation ecosystems to be rooted in the communities they serve, not just physically but socially and economically. A few themes stood out.

KEY SOCIAL IMPACT THEMES

1) London is primed to benefit from and support ‘Frontier Innovation’, which is physical, not just digital: This distinction made by Laura Citron and others between applied digital innovation – software, platforms and applications – and frontier innovation – quantum computing, robotics, biotechnology and advanced manufacturing—was critical. These are capital-intensive sectors which require specialist facilities like labs, maker spaces and room for prototyping and small-scale manufacturing – not just laptops and coworking spaces. Lateral’s work at Cavell Street, bringing together the Whitechapel Landowners Forum, demonstrated what it looks like to engage with the needs of innovators now and in the future – to plan beyond incubators and think long-term. London can boost growth and innovation by investing in the physical spaces and the places which support them.  

2) Transitional spaces to grow and scale: London excels at early-stage R&D, but as President Brady of Imperial College reminded us, scaling requires new types of spaces for startups to grow, businesses to commercialise basic research, and companies to collaborate with researchers and innovators. This must be supported by the supportive infrastructure and community spaces for this growing cohort of people, not just those in lab coats. Sarah Cary spoke about the development at White City, and how it has both created spaces for startup expansion, like Scale Up Space, but also public access to community infrastructure like walking routes and leisure facilities. These sites and initiatives help change the measure of “scaling up” from a number of startups becoming established companies to the development of innovation communities that continue to fuel growth for decades to come.  

3) Taxonomy matters, to differentiate and coordinate geographies of innovation: The language of ‘clusters’ or ‘innovation districts’ is not new. The London Growth Plan provides a helpful distinction of the terminology applied to today’s London. Innovation “clusters” are typically focused on specific industries or technologies, “districts” include a whole ecosystem of innovation players bringing together research, investors, startups and corporate businesses, “corridors” connect broader geographies of innovation and provide the industrial innovation facilities needed to scale up frontier innovation. The NLA Summit highlighted how each of these geographies of innovation was not purely academic enclaves – they include the councils, SMES, community organisations, developers and other stakeholders who turn sites of research activity into vibrant places to live, work and play. Joss Taylor from Populate and Matt Flood from Related Argent brought to life the many ways that placemaking and innovation go hand in hand.  

4) Social impact takes many forms: The NLA conference brought together different viewpoints on social impact and how it can be delivered through frontier innovation and the development that supports it. Caroline Wilson’s LB Islington example of LIFT shows what’s possible when councils work proactively together and with developers and anchor institutions to embed inclusive employment. The institutions that anchor frontier innovation districts themselves are employment generators, but together, institutions, developers and councils can take a more expansive view of the far-ranging social impact that investment in these sites can unlock.  

The NLA Innovation Summit brought together stakeholders from sectors that don’t often meet – academic research institutions and higher education, investors and developers who help create the physical infrastructure for innovation, and placemakers who consider the social impact and long-term stewardship of innovation districts for years to come. The future of innovation will be measured not just in patents and profits, but in the people they connect and the communities they help flourish. 

CLICK TO EXPLORE OUR SOCIAL IMPACT PAGE