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North East chosen for government funding to drive innovation and business growth in digital technologies

The North East has been selected to receive up to £7.5m of new investment to drive local innovation and business growth, building on the region’s existing strengths in digital technologies.

Under the Launchpad programme, businesses and researchers can apply for competitive grants and business support for innovation projects that focus on the development of new digital technology that could drive growth in the North East economy.

Colin Bell, Business Growth Director at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, which is coordinating the programme in the North East in partnership with Innovate UK, said: “We know we have strong digital tech clusters operating in the North East and this new programme will give them access to the finance and support they need to develop and bring to market new software, immersive technologies and artificial intelligence applications.

“The focus of the North East Launchpad is on tech which, once developed, has the potential to drive growth and job creation in other sectors of our economy, from offshore and subsea engineering through to the creative industries.”

The competition opens on 30 October 2023, and interested organisations are invited to sign up for a competition briefing event to find out more.

Grant funding starts from £25,000, with up to £1 million for projects that provide exceptional impact to the digital technologies innovation cluster in North East England, consisting of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and County Durham.

The Launchpad programme is funded by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation. It is designed to build on innovation clusters around the UK that have significant growth potential and to deliver jobs, growth, and higher productivity, supporting the Government’s levelling-up agenda.

The North East Launchpad has been developed jointly by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) and Innovate UK, and tailored to the region’s needs and circumstances. The projects will contribute to the creation of more and better jobs in the North East, particularly in sectors which have been identified as areas of opportunity, including green industries, advanced manufacturing, retail and town centre renewal.  

Successful applicants can receive grant funding for projects, alone or with collaborators, as well as additional support from Innovate UK and local providers as part of management of the local cluster.  

Innovate UK CEO Indro Mukerjee said:“Innovate UK is building strong regional partnerships across the UK to support local innovation and commercialisation. Our new Launchpads will help to attract further private sector R&D investment into innovation clusters, growing local economies and delivering societal and economic benefits to local communities.”

Dr David Dunn, CEO Sunderland Software City & Dynamo North East, said:The announcement of the Launchpad in the North East is a huge opportunity for businesses to drive forward their ideas embrace the opportunities in emerging markets.  The digital tech focus is a real recognition that the region is building a strong tech led economy.”

Estelle Blanks, CEO of Innovation SuperNetwork, said: “We already have a critical mass of innovative technology driving market growth in key sectors across the North East. The Launchpad is a welcome opportunity that will help accelerate collaboration across the cluster and the rate and volume of digital innovation taking place in the region, delivering social and economic value to the region.”

To find out more about the North East digital technologies Launchpad competition, and to sign up for a local stakeholder engagement session, visit www.iuk.ktn-uk.org/programme/launchpads

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BioNow conference shines light on North East health and life sciences ambitions

Dr Sam Whitehouse is a LEP board member, Executive Chairman of High Force Research Ltd and CEO of LightOx Ltd. He recently opened the BioFocus 2023 conference, which brought together the North East health and life sciences sector.

The North East has many strengths and is a great place to grow a life science business. The sector has a growing influence on the economy, with 260 health and life science businesses operating in the North East LEP area in 2022 – a 21% increase from 2015.

The total contribution of pharma manufacturing to North East region GVA in 2021 was £1.5 billion – a figure which has more than doubled since 2015.

This is something the LEP is very proud of as it continues to support the goal of creating 24,000 jobs in the sector by 2030.

I was delighted to open BioNow’s BioFocus 2023 conference at Newcastle Helix. BioFocus is a fantastic event that presents a great opportunity to promote our vision to position the North East as a leader in the development, testing, manufacturing and adoption of people-centred treatments, therapeutics and medicines.

As a community of companies, we present a very good opportunity for investment. We’re an incredibly innovative bunch of people with a lot of ambition, and a lot of talent and we like to work together.

However, there is not always the capital to realise our ambitions. Quite simply, there is still much to be done. We lag behind other areas like Manchester and of course the South East when it comes to securing private investment. We are beginning to get the momentum right in this area but it is still not quite as coherent as it could be.

We have an incubator, the Biosphere, in Newcastle full of life sciences companies, with every one of them looking for large amounts of funding. We need to really highlight what we can do and show investors that the North East is a ripe opportunity for significant investment.

Events like BioFocus 2023 are important because they bring together industry, academia, and experts within the field of life sciences and really signal to investors what we can do as a region.

It is important that we use key events like this to celebrate our innovations and achievements.

By securing more private sector investment and being prepared for future government funding opportunities, we can ensure the businesses in our sector are able to realise their full ambitions.

Health and life sciences is an area which presents huge potential for the North East. Now is the time to continue to work together, build momentum and maximise investment opportunities.

Visit the North East Evidence Hub for more statistics on health and life sciences.

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Beyond traditional evaluation: North East LEP seeks evaluator to uncover hidden impact of innovation programme

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) is looking for an organisation to evaluate its latest open innovation programme. Emily Carlson, Innovation Programme Manager, explains why she wants to move beyond traditional evaluation models.

At the North East LEP, data and evaluation drive everything we do; they help us learn and improve.

We’re now looking for an organisation to work with us on evaluating our recent Challenge North Tyne programme which we ran with Innovation SuperNetwork with funding from the North of Tyne Combined Authority.  The programme helps businesses in Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland launch new products and services that have real potential to be successful.

But, as this is an innovation-focused programme, we want to go beyond traditional evaluation methods and uncover the full impact of the programme. We are looking for more than a cost-benefit analysis, and want this evaluation to create a blueprint for evaluating other challenge-led programmes in the future.

Challenge North Tyne launched in 2022 and tasked businesses with coming up with new ways of solving some of the issues we’re facing in society. Now, 48 businesses have been awarded a £5,000 grant and are part of an accelerator programme to develop their ideas, and we would like to work with an evaluator who can examine not just the economic impact of the programme in terms of investment and jobs but who can also help us to unearth some of the less obvious results.

These might be changes in mind-set, or the birth of new collaborations – things that could go on to change the way businesses in our region innovate in the future.

Challenge North Tyne focused on two areas in particular: healthy ageing, and decarbonisation. Businesses put forward ideas which they believe could help decarbonise our homes, or help older people live happier, better connected, more active lives. In July, we’ll see how the accelerator programme has helped the businesses develop their ideas at a showcase event and we’d like our evaluators to be on board by then.

The full impact of increasing innovation in our region won’t be felt immediately. Programmes like Challenge North Tyne are a long term investment in the North East and we want to make sure we capture its impact and learn how to run even more successful challenge-led programmes in the future.

This evaluation will guide the way we support businesses to bring new ideas to market, so we want to get it right. If you could help, we’d love to hear from you.

The opportunity to apply for the evaluation of the Challenge North Tyne programme closes on 3 April 2023. Find out more and apply here.

Challenge North Tyne is an £800,000 open innovation project delivered by the North East LEP and Innovation SuperNetwork. The project, funded by the North of Tyne Combined Authority, is designed to bring our region’s most innovative minds together to tackle pressing problems and emerging opportunities, for the benefit of all involved. 

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Hype or hope? Will green hydrogen bring new benefits for businesses and communities in the North East?

A new working group is being created to help drive the production and use of green hydrogen in the North East.

A new working group is being created to help drive the production and use of green hydrogen in the North East. David Lynch, Energy Innovation Partnership Manager at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) and Colin Brown, Country Manager (UK and Ireland) with green hydrogen specialists Lhyfe, explain the potential benefits green hydrogen can bring.

How can increasing the use of green hydrogen benefit the North East?

Colin: Green hydrogen is produced with zero emissions and is a renewable alternative to gas and fossil fuels. Businesses can use it to help decarbonise their operations and it has a huge number of potential uses, from buses, cars, haulage and maritime transport, through to domestic and industrial heating.

David: At a time when we all have net zero plans for our businesses, hydrogen can help us meet our goals, plug the limitations of electrification and it can also help attract businesses to the North East and create more and better jobs.

What’s the potential scale of the opportunity?

David:By 2050 hydrogen could account for 20% to 35% of UK final energy consumption, and the North East has the ingredients needed to make the most of this opportunity. We have deep sea ports where we can lead the way in the use of hydrogen in the maritime industry; we have a solid skills base originating from the oil and gas industry, which can pivot into green hydrogen; and we have the R&D capabilities, with some of the strongest universities in the world within a few miles’ of each other.

Colin: Exactly. We have industries here that can really benefit from green hydrogen, like the offshore renewable energy supply chain. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to decarbonise that supply chain using hydrogen?

If we look globally, hydrogen is really taking off in Europe. The UK – and the North East – has a really strong opportunity to stay at the front of the curve and the North East is not only a region with huge potential to use hydrogen to decarbonise, but it is home to people with an appetite to make things happen. That’s why, when Lhyfe expanded into the UK last year, we chose Newcastle as our UK headquarters.

What’s happened so far to drive the region’s adoption of green hydrogen?

Colin: There are already hydrogen trials happening in the North East like Hydeploy’s demonstration of how hydrogen can help power homes and communities in Winlaton, Gateshead, and Northern Gas Networks’ Hydrogen Homes project.

David: The next step is to move forward into delivery and that’s why we held a green hydrogen summit earlier this month. It meant we could explore what hydrogen can do for the full range of organisations and communities in the North East and look at the scale of the opportunity.

What happens next?

David: The green hydrogen steering group, Co-Chaired by me and Professor Sara Walker from Newcastle University, will drive delivery of green hydrogen projects. It’s about moving things forward with the input of the academic, public and private sectors.

Colin: Lhyfe is here in the North East and we’re ready to invest in the North East. We aim to create a new production facility to supply the region with green hydrogen and we’re working with the new steering group to embed it as part of the North East’s energy system.

To make green hydrogen a success for the North East we need to fully understand how we can use it to help decarbonise the region, see where the demand is, and make sure we build the right capacity to meet that demand.

What are the benefits to organisations of being involved at this stage?

David: Being part of the steering group gives a platform for businesses, local authorities and universities to help steer the development of hydrogen in the North East.

Colin: Increasing hydrogen production and use is a full-region project and we know from our work in Europe that, once people see the benefits of hydrogen, they want to be a part of it.

We’ve got an opportunity to work together and create something quite special which benefits us all. If we don’t work together, the use of hydrogen is going to increase anyway, but we won’t have maximised the opportunities for the North East.

Together, we need to grab this opportunity and drive it forward.

If you want to be involved in the green hydrogen steering group, or if you have any comments or questions about it, get in touch with Kate Kelly on [email protected].

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North East digital businesses offered support to enter low-carbon energy sector

Digital businesses in the North East are being offered support to enter the fast-growing low-carbon energy sector, by developing solutions that could help reduce carbon emissions.

The North East Energy Innovation Challenge programme is open for applications until 30 September 2022 and offers SMEs the chance to forge links with major players in the North East energy sector, and to receive support to develop and bring a new product to market.

David Lynch, Energy Innovation Partnership Manager at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP), explained: “The low-carbon economy in our region is forecast to grow rapidly over the next few years, as the UK works towards meeting its net zero carbon targets.

“The Energy Innovation Challenge is designed to help businesses in our region take advantage of this opportunity, at the same time as contributing towards the reduction of carbon emissions.”

The challenge programme is led by the North East Energy Catalyst, which is a partnership of the region’s major energy organisations and assets, including the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, Northern Powergrid and British Engines. It also includes Sunderland, Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria Universities, which contribute their research and innovation capabilities, and Innovation SuperNetwork, which specialises in helping businesses to access finance and new market opportunities.

“By entering the challenge programme, businesses can benefit from some of the region’s most outstanding guidance and expertise, through the North East Energy Catalyst, including time with experts in accessing finance,” added David Lynch. “We want to help businesses in our region succeed and I’d encourage any SME that has an interest in expanding into the fast-growing energy sector to take a look at what’s on offer.”

The Energy Innovation Challenge programme is open to SMEs in the North East LEP area with fewer than 250 employees. Businesses can choose one or more of three challenge themes to address, including developing digital and data solutions which could help decarbonise private and public buildings.

The other two themes focus on improving materials used in electricity, gas and water infrastructure, and solutions to energy challenges in urban and rural areas.

Full details are available at challenge.northeastgrowthhub.co.uk, or by emailing David Lynch on [email protected].

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In conversation with Rhona Knox from Procter & Gamble (P&G) about innovation in the North East

Rhona Knox is R&D Vice President, Global Fabric Care Sustainability, Dry Laundry, and head of the Newcastle Innovation Centre at Procter & Gamble (P&G). Originally from Dunbar, Scotland, Rhona came to the North East in 1993 on an internship with P&G and has worked at the company for more than 28 years.

What is it about the culture at P&G that’s led you to stay at the company for such a long time?

At P&G, our culture is rooted in the idea that we can make people’s everyday lives a little bit better through our products and brands. Playing my part in delivering on that mission is one reason I’ve stayed for such a long time. After all, if I asked you what you did this morning, you may tell me that you’ve brushed your teeth, washed your hair, put clean clothes on or cleaned your house. So already, the work I am doing at P&G has touched your life in many different ways. Having that tangible impact on wider society is really important to me.

Working at P&G has also enabled me to live and work all over the world – all whilst doing some really interesting assignments, despite working for the same company. For many of my friends, getting that variety has meant having to change jobs multiple times, so I count myself really lucky.

What does innovation mean to you?

Innovation is at the heart of everything we do – our products, our services, our capabilities – because it enables us to continue to evolve and improve in ways which we believe will make a different to people. It helps us to solve real problems through experimentation. That’s something I’m fortunate enough to be involved in each and every day. If I don’t get it right first time, that’s okay – I learn from it, safe in the knowledge that I’ll be closer to getting it right next time. As a company, we place a huge emphasis on adopting a growth mindset – embedding a culture of learning as opposed to always getting the right answer first time around – and that is crucial to innovation.

A great example of how we’re continuing to embed this philosophy is through our ‘failure panels’, which were introduced by someone in my team. They’ve done an amazing job – providing an opportunity for everyone to share their experiences related to things that haven’t gone right first time. They’re so important because they remind people that failure should be accepted and embraced, whilst providing all-important learnings to carry forward in the future.

Where do you think you’ve innovated most in your career?

I’m really pleased that I’m still able to do some hands-on work and, whilst that might not be in a laboratory, it’s still focused on creating new ideas and developing solutions.

If I think about a situation where I’ve been at my most innovative, I’d say that it’s probably been in scenarios where my team ave been seen as the underdog, i.e. the challenge is high but the chances of success are acknowledged to be relatively low. It’s made me my most innovative because it gives you a lot of freedom to really experiment and try new things, knowing from the outset that nobody really expects you to succeed.

I’ve also found that I’m particularly innovative in cases where I haven’t had a huge budget for my work, because it requires you to put more thought into where and how you use the little resources that you do have. I believe that necessity is the mother of invention, so it isn’t always great to have lots of money at your disposal. On the other hand, there are times where it can make a big difference, particularly in the scaling phase.

You’ve worked all over the world. Is there a similar approach to innovation or does it change in different places?

I think there are nuances. In China, for example, there’s a huge appetite to experiment, whereas generally in the West a lot more planning is applied. And I think there’s probably a sweet spot between the two – both have their merits. Ultimately, there isn’t a perfect model for innovation – so my advice would always be to pick what you think works best, based on your experiences, and to try to bring those things together.

How important are people in innovation?

Innovation is absolutely a team sport; people are such an important part of my job. Yes, everyone can name the great inventors who are all individuals, but I find it hard to believe they truly did it all by themselves. And it’s not a model for today. Productive, meaningful innovation is reliant on bringing together bright, diverse teams to solve complex challenges, because it means you’re able to incorporate all manner of knowledge and experiences to reach a solution. That’s why, as a company, we’re particularly passionate about increasing gender diversity in STEM fields.

What were your impressions of the North East after moving back to the region?

I was working in Singapore before I came back to Newcastle. The P&G site in Singapore is based on a purpose-built Bio Innovation Hub which has some very high-tech buildings. There’s been a huge amount of investment there.

Before I came back to Newcastle, I thought that major innovations would take place at a specific site, as opposed to happening all across the region. Once I’d returned, I found that the old Newcastle brewery site had gone, and that there was a huge amount of work underway to create what is now Newcastle Helix – one of the biggest innovation hubs in Europe. It’s great to see that the whole region is continuing to reinvent itself from the days of heavy industry, with the skills of people across the North East being used to create new science and new innovation. It’s really transformed to become a modern, high-tech hub, which is great to see.

What are your ambitions for the future of the North East?

I’d love to see more big organisations, like P&G, come to the North East, helping to continue to scale up our innovation and manufacturing capabilities. I think the region’s desire to create is very strong, and we no longer need to focus our energies on coal or heavy industry. Today, we can look to biotech or harnessing the power of technology more broadly – creating a clean, manufacturing epicentre for the future.

In addition to attracting existing corporates to the region, we should also ensure that we’re growing the smaller companies that are already in the region, so that they’re able to become the big corporates of tomorrow.

Learn more about the health and life sciences sector in the North East.

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In conversation with Professor Matt Boyle OBE about innovation in the North East

Professor Matt Boyle OBE is Professor of Practice in Engineering at Newcastle University and Executive Chair of Driving the Electric Revolution Innovation Centre. Originally from the West of Scotland, Matt worked all over the world before coming to the North East in 1996 to head up electrification technology company, Sevcon.

Matt was Managing Director of Turntide Transport and oversaw the parent company’s acquisitions of Avid Technology, BorgWarner Gateshead and Hyperdrive Innovation. Today, he is Managing Director of Collingwood Solutions.

Matt, what does innovation mean to you?

Failure. Innovation is trial and error; innovation is learning from failure. Yes, there’s success at the end of it, but innovation and failure go hand in glove in my book.

Tell us more about your move to the region in 1996 to head up electrification technology company, Sevcon.

Sevcon was an interesting business; it was actually a US public company when I joined so it was a global organisation. Whilst still being micro-sized, it had operations in France, Japan, Korea, and North America. We manufactured everything here in the UK, which was an unusual thing for a business of our size to be doing at the time. It became increasingly obvious that in order to build the business we needed to either invest, which would be difficult to do because it required skills we didn’t have, or subcontract it, and that’s what eventually we did.

Was innovation a big part of your role at Sevcon?

One of the great things about being part of the team at Sevcon was that we always innovated, it was really the heart of the business. It was already instilled in the team when I joined the business but I allowed it to flourish. And that’s because people love to be successful. And we were successful.

How do you unlock innovation in people?

I come back to my original statement; you have to create an environment where people feel it’s okay to fail. But you also have to point out that continual failure along the same path is not something you want to have. I’m a great believer in bringing talented people into a business and then taking the shackles off, and we did that very successfully at Sevcon.

How easy is it to secure investment here in the North East?

It’s very important that investment follows idea and not the other way around. And what I mean by that is there is a business case that has to be developed to bid for any investment. And that requires an idea at the start. So once you get the idea and flesh it out, you then take two paths – do it yourself, or get somebody else to fund it.

Doing it yourself in this country is easier than it was. There is quite a rocky road and it does require a lot of tenacity. Going out to find money from government, for example, is extraordinary difficult and all the things that surround it are extremely time consuming. But if you can articulate your idea, and it has a market, then I would encourage anybody to go to the west coast of America because there is a different culture there. The culture is ‘what is possible’, not ‘what you’re doing today’.

Where do you think the North East could be in five to ten years time?

We could have billion pound businesses in the North East in five to 10 years time. They will be manufacturing businesses and they will be manufacturing the technologies of the future. The realism is that requires an enormous number of skilled people that we currently don’t have.

We do have a head start and that’s where opportunity exists. We create a lot of product IP in the North East, and we’ve already attracted the Britishvolts of the world, as well as the investments by Envision AESC and Nissan. And that’s a good start, but there have been several estimates about how many skilled people we need in the North East in the next five years and it’s around 13,500. And I don’t know where those 13,500 people are going to come from, but that’s not going to stop me trying to find them.

The opportunity is here, but where’s the investment. That’s what I’m trying to do now.

What can we do as a region to make that vision a reality?

Let’s start telling people what we’ve got here. I still hear ‘coals from Newcastle’, irrespective of the fact some of the drugs treating cancer today were developed here in Newcastle.

We need to reach out and explain to people what an opportunity there is here. We need to tell that story.

If you weren’t working in the manufacturing sector, what other areas of industry would you want to work in?

There are several. I love pharma. I was actually approached once to run a big pharmaceutical facility in Cramlington.

Gaming is another area where the North East has a really strong reputation, particularly in new immersive technologies.

Aerospace and space is a growing sector here. Somebody asked me the other day, ‘what do we do in space here in the North East?’ There’s a whole host of activity around communications and satellite technologies.

We’ve got the capability and now we need a little bit more investment.

You currently sit on government’s Build Back Better Business Council. What’s that experience been like and what are the types of things you’re discussing?

One of the missions of the Business Council is to improve the UK economy so there are a multitude of businesses around the table, all addressing different sectors, and some of them with different challenges. We’re essentially telling the Prime Minister what we think he should do.

I’ve been talking about skills, and the need for a combination approach to building skills in electrification field. And that comes down to upskilling and reskilling, as well as creating frameworks for kids coming out of school.

As you might imagine, I get invited every now and again to go into schools talk to them about what I’ve done in my career. There are two things I tell students; one, engineering is a career for life. You can do different disciplines your entire life and have a really fulfilling career. And the second thing is, which I really loved to hear, is that investment banks are struggling to appoint engineers because the salary differential for investment bankers and engineers is so tight. For too long talent has gone into the financial services sector but that’s changing.

Learn more about the advanced manufacturing sector in the North East.

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Support on offer for North East businesses that could help solve current energy challenges

Businesses in the North East are being offered expert support to develop solutions to current energy-related challenges, like rising fuel prices and the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions.

Led by a partnership of regional organisations called the North East Energy Catalyst, the Energy Innovation Challenge Programme invites SMEs to put forward ideas for products or services that could help solve some of the issues that domestic and commercial energy consumers are facing.

David Lynch, Energy Innovation Partnership Manager at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP), explains: “The North East Energy Catalyst includes the North East’s leading energy innovation and demonstration organisations. Together, we want to support other businesses and help bring forward new energy solutions which could not only help with some of the issues consumers are facing at the moment, but which could also bring jobs and investment into our region.”

Businesses selected to join the Energy Innovation Challenge programme will receive one-to-one support to develop their idea; a series of workshops facilitated by the Innovation SuperNetwork on topics including marketing and intellectual property; access to regional facilities like university laboratories; and the opportunity to pitch for investment from a panel of investors who are supporting the challenge programme.  

“We know the North East is already home to a huge number of innovative businesses. We can provide the support these businesses need to develop commercially viable products and help put our region on the map as the place that’s rising to the challenges the world is facing,” added David Lynch.

One North East business which entered a previous round of the challenge programme is Otaski Energy Solutions, which had developed AI software which can be used to dim street lights when not in use.

Philip Inegbedion from Otaski Energy Solutions said: “It’s been an interesting journey for us because we have literally unlocked an entire market opportunity that would have taken us years to access, and that’s largely because we are standing on the shoulders of giants. I would recommend the Energy Innovation Challenge programme to any and every SME in this space.”

The Energy Innovation Challenge programme is open to SMEs in the North East LEP area with fewer than 250 employees. Businesses can choose one or more of three challenge themes to address:

  1. Solutions to energy challenges and decarbonisation of urban and rural settings
  2. Digital and data solutions to aid decarbonisation of private and public sector estate
  3. Materials used in any aspect of our electricity, gas and/or water infrastructure.

The deadline for entries is 29 July and more information is available here. (challenge.northeastgrowthhub.co.uk/challenges)

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Decarbonising homes set to bring tens of thousands of skilled roles to North East and Yorkshire

A new study has shown that up to 80,000 skilled workers will be needed in the North East and Yorkshire if the UK is to reach its net zero target by 2030.

Commissioned by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) and funded by the North East and Yorkshire (NEY) Net Zero Hub, the Domestic Retrofit Skills Needs Assessment examined the types of skills that will be needed to decarbonise homes in the region, and the opportunities this presents for the area.

David Lynch, Energy Innovation Partnership Manager at the North East LEP, explains: “The UK government has laid out its Net Zero strategy and it’s clear that, if we’re to meet its targets, we need to get more people into the energy sector, working on retrofitting properties with low carbon technologies like heat pumps.

“We want to make sure the North East is ready to capitalise on any opportunities this presents – like a surge in skilled jobs – so with funding and support from the NEY Net Zero Hub, we commissioned this in-depth assessment of the skills which will be needed.”

The Domestic Retrofit Skills Needs Assessment focused on skills needed in retrofitting homes with low-carbon technologies. It identified the main types of job roles which will be needed – including designers, installers, advisory and procurement roles – and the current and projected market sizes.

NEY Net Zero Hub Manager, Karen Oliver-Spry, said: “Having delivered a £53 million programme of housing retrofit across the North East and Yorkshire, the Hub is aware that there are huge opportunities for skilled workers and supply chains to help decarbonise homes in our region. It was important to gain a detailed understanding of this need so that we can support organisations to take the necessary steps to realise the ambitions of the area.

“This study provides valuable insight and will help organisations to make informed decisions about how to allocate resources at a time when every penny counts.”

The study also looked at Further Education colleges in the North East and their current and planned training provision in these areas.

“As we know, the UK aims to decarbonise homes by 2050. That means we need to decarbonise around 20,000 homes a week – at the moment, that’s the number we’re achieving in a year,” added David Lynch.

“While this is a huge task, it’s also a huge opportunity. Post-pandemic, we’ve seen some sectors retract, and people have been burnt by experiences of redundancy or insecure employment. Whereas energy is a sector that’s growing and the need for this very large number of skilled workers presents a huge opportunity for people in the North East.”

Based on the findings of the study, a 10-year action plan has been created by the North East LEP, laying out how the region can scale up its training provision, support people to upskill, and promote the new opportunities that are emerging in the energy sector.

The North East LEP has been awarded £2.4 million to deliver Green Skills Bootcamps across the region, providing the opportunities for people to develop the skills needed in the green energy sector.

Details of the Domestic Retrofit Skills Needs Assessment are available on the North East Evidence Hub (evidencehub.northeastlep.co.uk).