60 MANUFACTURING
HOTSPOTS LANCASTER/MORECAMBE
GIVE AND TECH
by Ged Henderson Lancaster University
Our tour of Lancashire’s hotspots has brought us to the very north of the county. We visited Leighton Hall near Carnforth to talk to business, academic and political leaders from the Lancaster and Morecambe district about the issues on their agendas.
Lancaster – both city and district - is widely recognised as a hotspot of tech innovation and entrepreneurship, a place where start-ups flourish.
That recognition was underlined by the announcement last month that Lancaster University is to lead a new £1.2m project which will see cutting-edge cyber security research transformed into real-world products.
The new North West Cyber Security Connect for Commercialisation (NW CyberCom) project will see six universities capture the latest cyber security innovations.
Together with entrepreneurs, investors, government and businesses, the knowledge will be transformed into innovative new products, services and policy, to better protect consumers, businesses and UK infrastructure.
Lancaster’s leading role emphasises its continued importance in the development of a ‘cyber corridor’ across the north. It follows the university’s recent £19m investment into security and protection science.
Meanwhile, Lancashire’s Electech Innovation Cluster, centred round the Morecambe Bay area, is rapidly becoming recognised as an international hub of high-tech electronic engineering.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
Dan Knowles is the cluster’s manager overseeing day to day operations. His company, Northern Reach, delivers several innovation ecosystem projects. He says: “The Lancaster and Morecambe district is the hotbed of innovation talent across the whole of the North West, outside the major conurbations.”
And he points to the area’s success in attracting funding from the government’s Innovative UK agency as evidence of that.
We are seeing a
huge amount of inward investment coming in
Dan says: “We have a lot of money that naturally comes to Lancaster because of our tech business start-ups, many of which are built around the university and the knowledge that comes out of there.
“But we have a collection of digital tech, electronic, electech and other businesses that just add to that story.
“The Electech Innovation Cluster is still in its early days but we’re already being referenced
right across the north of England as an exemplar of a group of businesses that have come together and created an environment that allows us to support one another and grow, and to encourage the next generation of innovation-led electronic businesses.”
He adds: “We are seeing a huge amount of inward investment coming in now. There are people in venture capital from London, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds who are looking at our enterprise, our innovation, and saying ‘wow’.
“There are thinkers here, it’s a hotbed, there is some really exciting stuff going on.”
Matt Wright is head of partnerships and engagement for regional innovation at the university. He describes Lancaster as “research intensive” and says: “If you have a lot of teachers, researchers, students, you have a lot of thinking and ideas flowing in the community, and that underpins that ecosystem.”
He adds: “We have to be aware that there will always be a certain amount of competition from places like Manchester.
“We need to think really cleverly, which we’re trying to do, around how we suck some of that activity away through things like the cyber
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