Newcastle Enterprise Hub promotes engineering skills
The hub will support engineering and technology innovation skills to promote businesses in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and the North East of England.
Based in the Stamp Exchange in Newcastle’s city centre, the hub will draw on a network of Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows, the expertise of academic institutions and the start-up ecosystem in the North East.
The hub aims to capitalise on engineering student intake to develop local enterprise.
The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) says its Enterprise Hub is number three in the UK, and 14th in Europe, according to the Financial Times’ ranking of start-up hubs.
Building on this and its existing network of Enterprise Hubs in Belfast, Swansea and Glasgow, Enterprise Hub Newcastle will offer programmes for entrepreneurial engineers at different career stages, with benefits including:
- Equity-free funding.
- Smart and flexible training, designed around the needs of entrepreneurs.
- Access to the unique mentoring capability of the highly talented engineers and business leaders that make up the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship.
- A dedicated presence in the UK’s nations and regions, embedded in the local ecosystem.
- Long-lasting ongoing benefit and support from the Academy’s global network.
Recent data reports spin-out turnover growing at 45% in the North East, says the RAEng, nearly twice the UK average of 23%, with scientific research especially focused in healthcare and biotechnology.
Recent Academy research shows 52% of higher education students in Newcastle were studying STEM subjects at undergraduate and postgraduate level, more than the UK average of 45%.
In addition, 7% of higher education enrolments were in engineering and technology subjects, it found, slightly higher than the UK average.
However, RAEng notes this does not translate into high-levels of STEM and engineering jobs in the city compared to UK average, so it hopes its Enterprise Hub will help harness this talent.
The hub will be led by Senior Enterprise Manager, Angela Tait.
