Telling the story of innovation-led growth with Innovate UK
Freshwater is helping to elevate the voices of the UK’s most innovative scaleups and SMEs by delivering high-impact case studies for Innovate UK Business Growth – Innovate UK’s growth and scaling service. Through clear, consistent and engaging storytelling, more than 50 companies have shared how tailored business growth support has helped them unlock investment, grow teams and enter new markets.
50+ case studies
published in year one
Around 3,000 total views
in the first six months of 2025
Contract extended
into year two following successful delivery
Brief
In early 2024, Freshwater was tasked with writing and managing the successful delivery of success stories for Innovate UK Business Growth, showcasing how the service supports innovation-led SMEs to grow, scale and secure investment.
To maintain consistency and message control, Innovate UK Business Growth required a centralised approach that aligned with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) content standards and delivered measurable engagement.
Delivery
Working closely with the Innovate UK Business Growth service design and engagement team, Freshwater introduced a structured workflow to assess and manage case study nominations. Each submission was reviewed against success story criteria, ensuring only strong, impactful stories were progressed.
Our writers worked directly with delivery partners to gather the detailed information needed to draft each case study – capturing clear, specific outcomes such as grant success, team expansion, product development and international growth. Often working with technical or specialist content, we distilled this information into clear, accessible narratives aligned with UKRI content standards. Two case studies per month were also adapted into single-slide PowerPoint summaries for wider stakeholder use.
A shared tracker allowed both teams to monitor progress in real time. Case studies were submitted for approval only once all quotes and client permissions were confirmed. Finalised copy was handed over to Innovate UK Business Growth for upload and publication via the website CMS.
Results
In the first year of delivery, Freshwater produced more than 50 case studies for Innovate UK Business Growth. These stories have helped highlight the impact of tailored business growth support across sectors including health, net zero and digital technology. In the first half of 2025 alone, they attracted around 3,000 views on the Innovate UK Business Connect website, where case studies from across Innovate UK are published.
The work has become a valuable part of Innovate UK’s communications toolkit, contributing to internal reporting, external engagement and strategic messaging. Following strong delivery and positive feedback, the contract was extended into a second year.