It was so good to see so many stakeholders from across the North East region come together last week to support the launch of the Enterprise Hub in Newcastle. The Academy now has a home in the heart of a wider North East region where engineering has been the life blood of local economies for many years.
A region where there is a very real sense of ‘new beginnings’ as the new Mayoral Combined Authority sets out its plans for Growth. Plans that rightly prioritise Advanced manufacturing, Net Zero, and skills and workforce challenges – all areas very close to the Academy’s heart and where we hope we can add value to the great work already underway across the region.
As the UK’s national Academy for engineering and technology, we have a firm commitment to being place-focused, which is why this Hub in Newcastle - now our 4th regional Hub - is so important.
With Hubs now in Belfast, Glasgow, Swansea and Newcastle, this is our first English city Hub, with Liverpool planned to launch very soon. Building these regional hubs will provide the Academy with a unique network through which we can grow and build on existing programme and policy support, and importantly through which we can connect amazing engineering and technology talent across regions, and into and beyond London.
At the Newcastle Hub launch with our base of North East based Fellows
Why did we choose to launch in Newcastle?
Our Engineering Economy and Place report which we published back in July 2023 enabled us to study a range of economic indicators in great depth, right down to local authority level across the whole of the United Kingdom. From that analysis we were able to select places where we believe the conditions for accelerating engineering economy growth are right. Places where we have strong and supportive Fellows’ networks to help convene and amplify the work that we do, and places where we know we will find strong STEM talent pipelines - where we know there is an already rich innovation environment, a strong local research base, and where engineering businesses can start, survive and scale. Places where Enterprise can thrive.
But significantly, also places where we believe the full economic potential of the engineering sector has not yet been realised.
By working in partnership at local level, our aim is to identify areas where we can align the support and expertise of the Academy’s network to help make a difference
We will use what we have learnt from our local economy analysis to inform our work here in Newcastle in the months ahead, helping to create a supportive investment climate that matches the ambition of engineering and technology within Newcastle.
Progress is also being driven by the Universities in the region that are increasingly prioritising commercialising research, and initiatives like the Northern Accelerator, which is helping to coordinate spinout activity across the region.
Dr Pavlina Theodosiou, Founder of METzero Technologies, sharing her experience of the Enterprise Hub
Without the Enterprise Fellowship at the Enterprise Hub, I wouldn’t have had the confidence or resources to go all in on my spin-out.
Securing investment in the North East is challenging for early-stage businesses
On the other side of the fence, Founders’ experience is often that investment can be hard to come by, limiting commercial viability and growth potential, especially across the deep tech sector. While the data suggests that investment received by spinouts is slowly increasing, overall, the investment environment in the North East is considerably lower than the national average and continues to be particularly challenging for early-stage businesses, with limited funds available.
This is not dissimilar to investment stories across regions elsewhere in the UK. Where limited funding has meant that whilst there are some businesses which have been successful in securing funds, often the pattern of success has been neither coherent nor consistent. We want to work with stakeholders on the ground, both home and away, to remove what has been described by some as the ‘pot luck’ element deep tech founders can face in attracting investment.
The good news is that our Enterprise Hub has a strong, internationally recognised track record in delivering support across these key areas. A combination of programme support (we are very proudly ranked the 3rd leading Accelerator in the UK by the FT and Statista this year) and our network of dedicated expert Fellows means we are uniquely placed to help stimulate growth and support the excellent work already underway across the region.
The role of the Academy in the region to date
Academy Enterprise Hub programme support in this region to date has included grant funding and training for experienced engineers from very early, ideation stage that we deliver here in Newcastle (we have supported 27 such Founders in Newcastle over past two years via our Regional Talent Engines programme), to our UK-wide accelerator programmes for recent graduate startups, academics spinning out and leaders of high growth potential scaling SMEs.
As the UK’s national Academy for engineering and technology, we contribute to wider engineering and innovation policy development through the National Engineering Policy Centre, and of course we are committed to ensuring the sector has the skills it needs in the future to solve the big complex challenges that we as a society face securing growth and prosperity for all.
A look to a collaborative future
Achieving the impact we want to make will require time, resources, and greater coordination, but we are committed to long term ecosystem development. We are very much looking forward to the Enterprise Hub embedding and growing in Newcastle and I thank you in advance for your support, your collaboration, ideas and energy.
Visit the Enterprise Hub Newcastle