The Innovation Board (IB) provides the strategic lead for innovation under the area’s Build Back Better plan and Productivity Strategy. It is one of the key sub-groups of the LEP and details on the group’s membership, terms of reference, etc. are shown below. The IB has been established in an advisory capacity.

The purpose and role of the group is to:

The overarching objectives of the HotSW Innovation Board are threefold:

1. To ensure that the HotSW area has a clear “innovation vision” which articulates how we intend to seize the opportunities to stimulate and exploit innovation while addressing the barriers to it, founded on:
   • An innovation ecosystem that supports/attracts the very best talent, business, & investment;
   • A successful track record of delivering collaborative initiatives of scale & impact;
   • Integration across identified growth sectors;
   • A shared set of innovation objectives;
2. To oversee the development and implementation of the LEP’s Business Innovation Programme (as outlined in the LEP’s Productivity Strategy);
3. The development of a clear offer to the government (the HOTSW “Innovation Deal”) as to how the LEP area can make a significant contribution to the delivery of national industrial strategy.

The Innovation Board emerged from pioneering work in the LEP as part of the MIT REAP Programme. In 2019 BEIS arranged for six UK regions to pilot a slimmed-down version of MIT’s Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP) during 2020, before a potential national roll-out. Heart of the South West was one of the six regions in the pilot, and we have used that structure as the vehicle to direct our approach. REAP is a structured course that has been used by 49 regions from across the world to develop strategies to foster the growth of Innovation-driven Enterprises (IDEs) and the contribution they make to their economies.

The programme generated a considerable amount of documents to form the Evidence Base of the MIT REAP activities undertaken by the LEP that led to the formation of the Innovation Board and the identification of its priorities.  The documents can be accessed here.