66 DEBATE


Ian Barton - BAE Systems Dan Knowles - Innovate Lancashire


We’ve been playing catch-up to be honest with other regions and we’ve now come to a critical juncture where we need to really implement something that’s going to super-charge this drive.


We need the strategy because innovation is critical to growth and digitalisation is the enabler, the key driver. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity.


We’re playing catch-up on a number of things, but we’ve got some incredible projects coming up in the county and this melting pot of projects is coming together.


It is very focussed but one thing we have to remember is every business is a digital business, every business is a tech business.


We need to start really driving, building a platform for tech businesses to grow but also to be role models for others in the county to catch onto digital and technology and use it to drive productivity and innovation.


When it comes to Lancashire competing nationally, internationally, when we get people with their eyes on the county, we need a reference point.


We need something to show them, and this document is one of those starting points. It is something that says this is Lancashire, this is what we’re about and this is what we’re doing. The strategy is going to create jobs for people who haven’t been born yet, think about that.


We’ve got three good universities, so it is not just about National Cyber Force (NCF) coming in and creating spinoffs. That will happen but we’re already taking calls from other big organisations that want to come to Lancashire as part of this.


The other thing that we’ve not really touched on is connectivity. That drives everything that we want to do but it’s not good enough and we’ve got some work to do there right across the county.


NCF - National Cyber Force representative


The NCF needed to move because it needed space, it is no secret that we are growing. We had the whole country open to us and the reason we came here was because of the opportunities it could offer.


Clearly, there was an aspect of the government’s levelling up agenda, there is some politics involved in that, but the levelling up agenda doesn’t just throw money randomly at places that need investments.


We came here because of the opportunities that it offers. People and skills without question are at the heart of what we’re trying to do, and you have, I believe, a huge pool of untapped or relatively untapped talent in this area.


There is also the need for cutting edge-thinking, both conceptual thinking, research around the conceptual thinking of how you do things, and the technical research around computer science.


There’s plenty of that here as well and there is also the opportunity to draw on industrial expertise to turn those conceptual thoughts into reality.


The NCF is all about people and there are very few disciplines, academic or industrial, that are not of interest to us. The whole concept behind the it was a recognition that we needed a transformational change. When it comes to the people and skills pipeline it is probably going to take ten years before you really start to see the benefits. Therefore, you need a strategy to focus peoples’ minds after most of us have moved on. You still need that focus.


We didn’t choose to come here just by accident. The fact that you had a strategic approach to what you’re trying to do has delivered confidence and allowed central government to make what is a pretty big investment and one which is going to be here for many, many years.


This is for everybody and communicating that is important. We also need to focus on the unique selling points that Lancashire wishes to offer and for me the thing in this strategy that’s most powerful is the focus on the application of digital rather than just digital itself. Security prevents the identification of NCF personnel


Nigel Davies - Lancaster University


One of the unique things about digital is you can source the need from almost anywhere on the planet. If we do nothing in terms of strategy, then we simply become a consumer of digital technology that is produced elsewhere.


We need a strategy to make sure we are playing a part in producing the technology and providing the services that everybody globally is going to need. For me, that is the key reason for having a strategy.


In terms of opportunity, the strategy gives us a chance to have real confidence that as we develop our graduates and our training and invest in academics there’s the infrastructure here for them to engage with.


We’ve just invested £19m in data and cyber and that’s the largest investment the university has ever made in this particular area.


The strategy gives us lots of opportunities to recruit, not just into the core STEM subjects but across the board. Certainly, the high postgraduate programmes we offer span the different disciplines.


When it comes to diversity and the massive untapped potential there, cyber gives us a real opportunity to press the reset button and redefine some of these areas in a much more inclusive fashion.


In terms of the impact of digital we’re only just starting. That rate of change is so fast and the impact is just going to increase every day, so you have to have a strategy and it’s only going to get more important, not less, as years go by.


People are getting really excited about the NCF and it will make a big difference to the region. They will engage with it, but the more inclusive we can be and the more people we can bring in to help us shape that strategy, the better.


We’re at the start of the next big industrial revolution and we’ve seen from history that the impact of mechanisation in the first industrial revolution absolutely shaped this region. There is a huge opportunity, a trillion-dollar marketplace.


It is critical that businesses have the digital skills to be able to deliver their products and services. It doesn’t matter what sector you are in.


The way for Lancashire to be successful is getting people behind a vision and strategy, bring the skills forward and the work ethic and mindset that gets us back on the global map as the place for digital industrial output.


We talk about a talent pipeline, there is time to get that pipe moving from a trickle to a really fast flow and that’s what we’re doing at the moment by recruiting early careers - 1,700 people this year across the UK for BAE Systems, 450 just in Lancashire.


That’s a real investment but we know we’ll only start to yield the benefits in five years plus. These are the digital generation. They’ve not known a world without an internet, computers and smartphones, so as I describe them, they are ‘oven-ready’ to deliver the future.


With the NCF we’ve demonstrated that a multi-stakeholder approach to bring Lancashire together - academia, council, LEP - is the right thing to do.


It is a once in a generation opportunity that the county stepped forward and grasped and probably punched way above its weight in terms of some of the alternative options that were on the table.


We need to do the same thing to ensure that we grow and then sustain those macroeconomic benefits that will stand us in good stead for decades to come. It’s keeping working as a collaborative group rather than individuals.


The opportunity is enormous, the challenge is keeping on the front foot, being collaborative and cohesive. The strategy, which will evolve, is the starting point to draw us together and we’ve got to push and evolve as that grows.


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