Call for North Tyne businesses to rise to the challenge to tackle region’s key problems through innovation
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 facing our economy and community.
A new £800,000 open innovation project has been launched at the region’s longest running Innovation Conference, VentureFest North East. The project is funded through the North of Tyne Combined Authority’s Investment Fund and delivered by the North East LEP in partnership with Innovation SuperNetwork.
Aimed at providing a gateway for the region’s small and medium-sized businesses to solve the problems facing bigger companies and society as a whole, Challenge North Tyne seeks to generate innovative responses to problems in three key areas. It builds on the North East LEP’s work with Challenge North East, which helped bring about solutions in the face of Covid-19.
Colin Bell, Business Growth Director at the North East LEP, said: “Innovation has a huge role to play in solving societal issues and our businesses have the entrepreneurial nature and collaborative spirit to respond to the challenge – something which was clearly demonstrated during the Challenge North East project.”
Sarah Cox, Innovation Challenge Programme Director at Innovation SuperNetwork, said: “Globally, nationally and regionally, we’re faced with increasingly complex problems. Mission-led innovation helps us to focus on the challenges we face as a society, and where we have the potential to have the biggest positive impact. Our aim is to bring the right people together to help drive change.
“This programme is designed to build on what we achieved through Challenge North East to scope three more challenges where solutions could have real impact regionally. We’re urging any businesses who feel they could help shape these problems, or would like to get involved with developing solutions, to register their interest.”
The project is exploring three themes in the Challenge development stage, these are: Building a Sustainable Future – How might we reduce the carbon footprint of buildings in North of Tyne?
Supporting our Ageing Population – How might we better enable healthy, happy living for our elder citizens?
5G Connectivity – How might we deliver 5G enabled solutions for North East Industry? In phase one, the programme will be shaping the challenges in collaboration with business, with grants made available for solution development in phase two.