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Innovation is an activity that needs organisations and people to work together. While the hard infrastructure of modern knowledge-based economies such as laboratories, innovation centres, science parks, venture capital firms, open and active market and business conditions are base requirements, they alone will not create a place where innovation thrives. Successful innovation needs talented people with different skills and ambitions; cultural diversity to feed that talent; an openness to new thinking and ways of working with experimentation based on thriving trust-based relationships and mutual self-interest for the community. The flow of knowledge and new ideas from sound research combined with practical experience and a connectivity of networks, both locally and globally, all combine to feed today's best innovative environments. Today's innovations build on the innovations of the past. Those places that have customers who are open to change and to new experiences have been seen to be the most successful in bringing innovations into use. A strong home market has been demonstrated to be extremely important and increasingly, with the growth of social media, customers become testers for new products. Their feedback drives improvements or even creates a different product all together. Innovation thrives where ideas, information and knowledge flow freely between people and firms. This 'openness' is a key factor in why certain places are more receptive to and supportive of innovation than others. The rapid spread of new thinking and new ideas is critical to effective innovation, especially in times of rapid technology development and change. Places where all these things work well and where there is evolutionary momentum are places where innovation happens. The trick that Manchester performs well is to have created a chain of continuing innovation over decades and even centuries that builds economic renewal through embracing different waves of innovation. The University of Manchester charts its history back to 1824 and the formation of the Mechanics' Institute 7