  The Wilsonian renormalization group (RG) properties of the conformal factor
of the metric are profoundly altered by the fact that it has a wrong-sign
kinetic term. The result is a novel perturbative continuum limit for quantum
gravity, which is however non-perturbative in $\hbar$. The ultraviolet part of
the renormalized trajectory lies outside the diffeomorphism invariant subspace,
entering this subspace only in the infrared, below a dynamically generated
amplitude suppression scale. Interactions are dressed with coefficient
functions of the conformal factor, their form being determined by the RG. In
the ultraviolet, the coefficient functions are parametrised by an infinite
number of underlying couplings. Choosing these couplings appropriately, the
coefficient functions trivialise on entering the diffeomorphism invariant
subspace. Here, dynamically generated effective diffeomorphism couplings
emerge, including Newton's constant. In terms of the Legendre effective action,
we establish the continuum limit to first order, characterising the most
general form of such coefficient functions so as to verify universality.
