The North East LEP's recently appointed Innovation Director, Alan Welby, explains why innovation is a vital ingredient in the region's economic health, and how we can encourage more of it here in the North East.
In April this year I took up the position of Innovation Director here at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). I studied at Newcastle University and I’ve been very happy to return to work in the region, having spent time as Director of Research, Innovation and Partnerships at Liverpool John Moores University.
My role as Innovation Director is all about supporting economic growth in the North East and working with colleagues and partners to realise our ambition of creating more and better jobs in the region.
So how can innovation help us reach our goal?
The North East is operating in a global marketplace and innovation is a crucial part of our competitiveness as a region. People today have access to large markets and we need to make sure that North East businesses have what it takes to create new products and services that give them a competitive edge. Innovation is key to making that happen. Innovation isn’t just about new technology, it’s something which applies to all parts of a business and it applies to businesses in all sectors.
It’s what allows a business to create a product which no one else is making; it means a manufacturer is able to produce a product before its competitors; and it’s what can make one product or service a success over another. Innovation is what makes big names like Siemens, Shiseido and Starbucks the global success stories they are today. People often talk about the North East’s great history of innovation, but innovation doesn’t just belong in our past. Looking at the region today, innovation is alive in all areas of our economy.
Our offshore sector and the ORE Catapult at Blyth are developing new products and services for the global offshore and renewable energy sectors. Our digital sector is another area where we see collaboration, a skilled workforce and a global reach.
We can also see innovation cutting across sectors: the National Innovation Centre for Data in Newcastle will unlock the power of big data and help businesses to develop new products and services more quickly and effectively, while the National Innovation Centre for Ageing means we have the potential to be at the forefront of new models of business which are developed as a result of changes in our population.
At the LEP, we want to build on all this and create the environment for even more innovation in our businesses.
We’re working with universities to help them to embed their knowledge into the business community. We’re working with skills providers to make sure we have a pipeline of people with the right skills to give us a workforce which can grow, change and innovate. And we’re working with businesses to make sure they have access to a co-ordinated programme of support they need access to finance, an environment where they can learn from and work with each other, and the right infrastructure to support innovation, whether that is incubator space, digital infrastructure or access to universities.
Ultimately, if you don’t innovate then you don’t remain relevant and you can’t compete. That’s why it’s my priority to create a seamless infrastructure which can support North East businesses to be globally competitive and which positions the region as the partner of choice for organisations looking to achieve global success.
Businesses can find details of the support available at the North East Growth Hub
