Ideas born in Yorkshire universities should be scaled into businesses here: Joan Concannon
The Budget put innovation at the heart of the ambition for growth in every postcode. For that ambition to mean anything in Yorkshire, it has to run through our world class universities where new ideas start, our future workforce is trained, and global investors so often make their first call.
The Chancellor’s roadmap now lets mayors raise and keep more revenue locally - building on the PM’s pledge to provide £1 billion R&D funding from UK Research and Innovation to back a globally significant innovation cluster in every region.
But if money and power are finally moving out of Westminster, we need to be ready to use them effectively.
Our research shows the size of the prize. The University of York’s study of the region’s future skills needs published in September with QS and Public First, shows AI adoption and upskilling aligned to the Industrial Strategy could add £38 billion to the Yorkshire and Humber economy by 2030 and create up to 379,000 high-value jobs. More than 80 per cent of those roles will need degree-level skills.
Seizing that opportunity is utterly reliant on universities, industry and local government working as one - a ‘Triple Helix’ to coin a phrase. That means the universities who generate ideas, the firms who commercialise them, and the mayors who now hold the levers on skills, transport and investment, need a shared implementation plan.
Germany shows what this looks like. Its technical education system is often quoted as some kind of viable alternative to academic education, but the reality is that Germany also heavily invests in academic education and research across its regions. It ties both to industrial strategy, and it recruits international students as future talent - rather than counting them as migrants - to provide mitigations against known demographic decline. Its regional economies are stronger for it. By contrast the UK has too often set ambitious goals for local growth while pulling the levers that support it in different directions. An example: the proposed levy on international student tuition fees is predicted to cost the HE sector £1bn by 2030. This is utterly self-defeating, placing a further burden on universities’ capacity to drive the very growth the Budget is counting on.
Devolution is the chance to do things differently, from the ground up. York and North Yorkshire already has the ingredients. The BioIndustrial Cluster North is turning world-leading research at York into new firms and green jobs. York Central, one of the country’s largest city-centre regeneration sites, will give those firms room to grow here rather than relocating south. With new fiscal powers, our mayors can back that pipeline with effective local investment.
But our ambition should not stop at the county line. Joining the recent Mayoral Great North Trade Delegation to India demonstrated the global appetite for British science, innovation and education. The UK-India trade agreement opens the door to partnerships that bring investment and talent into Yorkshire, and universities are often the first and most trusted point of contact. To make the most of it, we need to be open and welcoming to international talent, and to see the students who choose Yorkshire as our future innovators, employers and ambassadors.
The task for the months ahead is urgent and practical. Ideas born in Yorkshire should be scaled in Yorkshire. To do that we need to attract and retain investment and talent. Universities, mayors and businesses working together with renewed ambition can translate our research strength into high-value jobs and lasting prosperity. The University of York is ready to play its part.
Joan Concannon is Chief Reputation and Stakeholder Relations Officer at the University of York