A national innovation centre dedicated to the rural economy is to be set up at Newcastle University after the project won £3.8m in Government funding.
The National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise will open on Newcastle’s Helix site later this year and will see academics from the university joined by colleagues at Warwick, Gloucestershire and the Royal Agricultural universities.
The centre - which will be the university’s third national innovation centre, following projects dedicated to ageing and data - will aim to support enterprise, resilience and innovation in rural firms and unlock the untapped potential of rural economies across the UK.
Businesses, public bodies and policy makers will also work on the project.
Centre director Jeremy Phillipson, professor of rural development at Newcastle University, said: “A thriving rural economy is crucial to the future prosperity, well-being and resilience of communities across the UK.
“The need to encourage and release the dynamism and untapped potential of rural areas is even greater now with the combined uncertainty of Brexit and impacts of Covid-19 and what the implications will be, not just for rural areas, but for the UK economy as a whole.
“Our aim is to strengthen the evidence base relating to rural innovation and enterprise to encourage more effective policy making and support for rural firms and communities at local and national levels. We will work actively with businesses, rural communities and economic development agencies at the local level to share learning and test new approaches to innovation and enterprise”.
The centre will formally begin work in September, but before than it will be working to assess the impact of the coronavirus on rural areas.
As well as the academic and public sector involvement, businesses including land agents Strutt and Parker and accountancy group Baldwins are involved.
The centre has been welcomed by Richard Baker, head of strategy and policy at the North East LEP.
He said: “The National Innovation Centre marks an important milestone in the development of key economic assets in the region and will contribute to our regional economic strategy development.
“NICRE’s multi-disciplinary approach which will combine research programmes and evaluation of practice in delivery offers a unique opportunity to tackle both opportunities and deep-seated economic challenges in our rural communities.
“It couldn’t be more timely as we work together to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic and plan the North East’s recovery programme, and consider changes ahead in rural policy now we have left the European Union.
“The North East Local Enterprise Partnership welcomes the plan for collaborative development of solutions that foster rural innovation and enterprise to raise the economic productivity and protect the vibrancy and dynamism of our rural areas. It is also good that through NICRE we will be able to work with other rural regions across England to learn from the experience of different places”.
