Annual Reports
Year One
May 2025 - April 2026
This report sets out the progress made during Forging Ahead’s first year. It highlights the people behind the programme, the partnerships enabling its delivery and how the project is strengthening commercialisation in the Midlands.
The activities that have taken place in the first year of the project - now outlined in this report - are helping to create a stronger and more coherent innovation pipeline: identifying entrepreneurial talent earlier, developing the skills and confidence needed to pursue commercial opportunities, and connecting innovators to the specialist expertise, networks and investment required at each stage of their journey.
The ambition is simple but significant: we want more businesses to start, scale and stay in the Midlands. I encourage anyone with an interest in how the region's university research is being translated into companies that grow here to read this.
