In June, Source Advisors announced a strategic partnership with the CBI to deliver a major research initiative to advance the understanding of innovation investment in the UK. The full report, titled “Innovation investment: Firm foundations for growth,” will be launched early in 2026. Here, we provide an update on the important work that has been going on over the summer.
Aims of the research project
This report was driven by an extensive, wide-ranging, and robust study. It will set out the internal thinking of businesses, including how investment decisions are made, how innovation risk is factored in, and how emerging digital technologies like AI are impacting business innovation. Importantly, the research also considered the external economic and policy environment, highlighting the support businesses need to grow innovation investment in the UK.
Given that growth is the number one mission of this Government, it is important that our policymakers understand what drives businesses to invest in growth-driven activities, such as innovation.
Diverse insights from UK businesses
It was important that we gathered evidence from a wide range of UK businesses. We attended all three roundtables, hosted by the CBI in Cranfield, Glasgow, and Liverpool. These allowed contribution and discussion from 30 businesses across a wide range of industries.
The CBI also hosted around 30 in-depth one-to-one interviews, which, together with an online survey, enabled nearly 400 firms to contribute.
Businesses of all sizes and sectors have aired their views and concerns. This cohort has included different levels of innovation intensity, from those at the cutting-edge of R&D through to the largest manufacturers. Importantly, we sought the views of SMEs that are keen to adopt the latest innovations.
Source Advisors in partnership with the CBI
For the last decade, I have witnessed firsthand how policy meets business innovation with some incredible successes. However, there has been an underlying sense that we are not making the progress that we all hoped for. My ambition for this report is that it will quantify challenges faced by businesses, but more significantly, find solutions to unlock the UK’s potential.
This is a critical piece of work that will bring a clear viewpoint of businesses to the table, enabling well-informed policy recommendations to get the UK back to being a world leader in innovation.
We are thankful to all the businesses that have taken the time to feed into this cornerstone research and to the excellent team at the CBI. I am determined that this research won’t become another talking shop and that this report will have an impact.
