Introducing our Innovation Programme

Innovation encompasses the development of new ideas, products, processes and services (no matter how big or small!) which deliver new approaches to challenges faced by businesses, individuals and communities.

Innovation is central to the Strategic Economic Plan’s long-term ambition to build a more productive North East: stronger innovation delivery will improve our productivity performance and catalyse growth in ‘better’ jobs

Meet the Innovation team

Here’s how the Innovation Programme links into the key areas of the Strategic Economic Plan:

We are curating an open innovation programme, Challenge North East, based on global best practice and drawing on existing regional strengths. Open innovation is fundamentally about collaboration with people and organisations. Our aim is to grow the culture of open innovation in the region to increase commercialisation and productivity.

We work with partners across the region, to identify and develop an evergreen pipeline of game-changing regional innovation projects.  We support the pipeline projects to produce compelling and robust propositions which are best placed to attract national funding and grow the North East asset base.

Our aim is to accelerate investment into the region by winning a greater share of national innovation funding competitions and supporting private sector co-investment.

 

We support the cohesion of the North East innovation ecosystem in a variety of ways including through the development of emerging projects, providing support through steering groups, collaboration with the Business and Sector Growth team and the North East Growth Hub and engaging regional assets such as universities and catapults to foster collaboration and alignment.

Visit the North East Growth Hub

With the North East LEP’s Business and Sector Growth team, we work with partners to lever private funding and have developed a roadmap for increasing the levels of private sector finance invested in the region’s innovative businesses, which is recognised as an area in which the North East falls behind the rest of the UK.

We are testing a novel concept of ‘Innovation Delivery Partnerships’ (IDPs) with regional partners to grasp opportunities in emerging markets in areas of regional strength. IDPs will be self-governing partnerships of businesses and organisations across the stages of innovation cycle. IDPs will focus on specific market opportunities and will support the growth of the North East’s competitive market share in these areas.

In this space we have developed an economic input-output model which calculates the potential economic impact of investment made across a range of innovation and business growth activities. This enables us to demonstrate the importance and benefit of public finding.  At a pan-northern level, Innovation Director, Alan Welby, chairs the NP11’s Innovation Group.

Meet the Innovation board

Latest Innovation news

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…

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…

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…

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…

Call for North Tyne businesses to tackle region’s key problems through innovation challenge

Businesses across Newcastle, Northumberland and North Tyneside have been asked to rise to the Challenge and help the region tackle some of the biggest problems…

Funding awarded to strengthen the region’s presence in new markets

Over £325,000 of funding from the government’s UK Community Renewal Fund has been awarded to an innovative new initiative that will support North East organisations to understand,…

Investing in Innovation for a greener UK

Alan Welby, Innovation Director discusses today’s announcement of the Chancellor’s plans for UK to be the world’s first net zero aligned financial centre.  Put simply, net zero refers to the balance…

North East LEP supports National Innovation Strategy

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has welcomed the National Innovation Strategy, published today 22 July 2021. The UK Government has developed the Strategy…

Energy Innovation Challenge: Jumping Rivers

Esther Gillespie, Director of data science consultancy Jumping Rivers, explains how taking part in the Energy Innovation Challenge has opened up opportunities and funding for…


Get in touch

If you want to know more about how the Innovation Programme can support your business, you can call us on 0191 561 5420 or email [email protected]