Talk:Catapult centres

Achievements
The Catapult Network brings together nine leading technology and innovation centres spanning over 50 locations across the UK. These include factories, labs, hubs and offices, strategically positioned in every region and employing over 5,000 highly skilled and technical staff.

Between 2013 and 2022, the nine Catapults have collectively driven over £3Bn of research and development (R&D) activity and managed more than £1.4Bn facilities, channelling public and private sector investment into cutting-edge industrial innovation.

Catapults have been involved with over 18,700 industry collaborations, worked with almost 12,000 small and medium UK businesses, participated in over 5,500 academic collaborations and championed more than 1,100 international projects.

In May 2023, the Enterprise Research Centre and Innovation Caucus (commissioned by Innovate UK) released two reports based on extensive research into the Catapults impact on UK growth. They surveyed more than 300 businesses that had previously worked with Catapults and made the following findings:

• Businesses who had worked with Catapults achieved 11% faster employment growth over 3 years than businesses not working with Catapults. This figure rose to 16% after 6 years and 30% for services and high-tech firms. • Small and micro businesses’ turnover rose by 27% over 3 years when compared with those not working with Catapults. This rose to over 50% at 6 years. The impact was less strong but still significant with medium and large businesses. • 4 out of 5 businesses said their projects either would not have happened (44%) or would have happened more slowly (37%) without Catapult support. • 4 out of 5 said Catapults provided significant or some help to improve capacity to develop new products and services. A similar proportion of businesses said they helped improve product and service quality. • 3 out of 4 businesses said they had effective collaboration with Catapults. A further 22% said collaboration was generally good. • 9 out of 10 businesses said that Catapults provided either significant or some help to develop new partnerships.

This research is detailed in the following reports: Evaluating the medium-term business performance effects of engaging with Catapults and Catapulting Firms into the Innovation System: Analysing Local Knowledge Spillovers from Catapult Centres