IASP participates in White City Innovation District’s Summit

The Upstream London Summit 2026 took place from 16-18 March gathering more than 50 representatives from innovation districts, city councils, academia and industry, including IASP members and representatives. 

The first day of the event focused on the background and context of White City innovation District’s Cooperative Growth Partners (CGPs), a number of innovation districts and cities across the world, followed by professor of economic geography Andrew Jones, who reflected on the global landscape, the challenges for innovation districts and the priority need to scale-up inclusive economic growth and curate international collaboration. 

Featuring IASP members Buenos Aires Innovation Park (Argentina), Kunnskapsbyen Lillestrøm (Norway), MIND – Milano Innovation District (Italy) 22@ Barcelona (Spain),  and RMIT/Melbourne Innovation Districts (Australia), it was an intense two days of workshops and sessions, gathering insights for the basis of a blueprint for inclusive-led innovation growth based on the learnings and shared knowledge from the international event. 

IASP was represented by Director of Operations & Partnerships Alicia Shelley, who also facilitated one of the round-tables, and participated in the final wrap-up session.  Discussions covered the foundations for global competitiveness, as well as how to meet critical challenges such as access to talent and skills, the needed infrastructure of such innovation spaces, as well as barriers for scaling and market access.  

The Summit enables participants to share best practice and talk about their own experiences and plans, reaching agreement where possible on shared learnings, and identifying areas for further development. All of these discussions will feed into the final Blueprint, and will be built upon for future events and activities.