Elvis Nyanzu

SME innovation plays a central role in achieving regional economic development, with firms led by minority groups making significant contributions to the UK economy. However, access to funding still presents a major barrier for underrepresented founders, impeding their engagement in innovation and resulting in missed opportunities to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Our study advances knowledge on the accessibility of innovation funding by adopting an intersectional lens to examine the impact of founders’ social identities (i.e. gender, ethnicity and education) on their success in obtaining funding. It draws on innovation funding applications data submitted by founders of small and micro businesses between 2016 and 2023. We make the following contributions. Our findings indicate that despite being underrepresented, women founders who apply for innovation funding are as successful as men. Additionally, the heterogeneity of underrepresented founders and specific intersectional challenges influencing access to innovation funding is emphasized. This highlights the complexities of entrepreneurship and innovation processes and the shortfalls of analysing individual attributes in isolation. We also draw attention to some potential biases that might arise during the funding application processes due to perceived social status associated with founders’ educational background. Implications for policy and practice are also highlighted.

Embracing diversity is an important aspect of building an inclusive innovation ecosystem, of which the first necessary step is gaining a better understanding about the current applicants and beneficiaries. This study addresses the question ‘Who are the Innovators?’ by examining the applicants and beneficiaries of public funding from Innovate UK between 2016 and 2023. In the absence of self-reported data, the study adopts an experimental approach, using machine learning to identify the perceived gender, ethnicity, and education of applicants. The findings focus not only on the profile of applicants by gender, ethnicity, and education, but also their success rates. Further, recognising that identities are intersectional by nature, the report draws attention to the heterogeneity of groups accessing Innovate UK funding. By providing a portrait of the diverse characteristics of applicants and beneficiaries, it provides Innovate UK, as the UK’s innovation agency, with an evidence base to further its strategy to pursue a more inclusive approach to strengthening the UK innovation ecosystem.