Digital Innovation: Make the North East a centre for Digital innovation
The North East has historically always been a place for innovation, famous as the place where the first railroad locomotive in the world to carry passengers was built, the “Rocket”. But has also been the birthplace for the lifeboat, the hydraulic crane, the light bulb, the light switch, the windscreen wiper and many more.
This trend continues today, and nowhere is this more present then within the digital economy where digital businesses across the North East develop new products and services on a daily basis.
The North East is establishing itself as a National Innovation Region of Excellence where cutting-edge innovation such as autonomous transport, artificial intelligence and advanced wireless infrastructure (AWI) scale-up becomes a reality. This innovation is accelerating the economic, social and wellbeing impact through focusing on use-case development, rapid adoption and scale-up across our key sectors including: Public Sector Services, Tourism, Media and Entertainment, Transport and Logistics (including Port), Agri-Tech, Advanced Manufacturing, and Health and Social Care.
As an Innovation Region of Excellence and in recognition of the North East being positioned as a major UK transport and distribution centre alongside our extensive manufacturing base and huge growth potential, several connected autonomous mobility (CAM) projects cover both logistics and passenger transport. Utilising this expertise and the region’s unique assets, the North East is an ideal location to further foster innovation and growth in this sector.
Our digital innovation priority includes three main areas:
- Autonomous Transport – establish the North east as an exemplar and major R&D Hub for autonomous logistics and passenger transport.
- Innovation region – we will create a National Innovation Region of Excellence, attracting digital and tech companies to the area, accelerating digital innovation and boosting the adoption of emerging technologies.
- Artificial Intelligence – establish the North east as a leader in responsible AI harnessing its power to improve public services and quality of life.
The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority’s Digital Leads have identified the following goals to contribute to making the North East a centre for digital innovation:
- Data driven innovative technology and use case development
- Exploration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it is fully integrated into solutions from the outset to ensure a realistic and ethical approach to AI adoption.
- A recognised innovation landscape to assess and speed-up the adoption of new ‘scale-up’ ideas, exploit the value of existing solutions across new markets and develop and adopt future cutting-edge technologies.
- Active support and co-investment in industry-led innovation and R&D.
- Development of a National Innovation Centre for Connected and Automated Logistics and Passenger Transport within the North East.
- Expansion of CAM projects across the region.
Contact
North Eastern ICT Partnership 