Sheffield and South Yorkshire have a distinctive contribution to make to tech - Ben Miskell
Sheffield and South Yorkshire have always been places that make things, solve problems and turn ideas into industries. From engineering and advanced manufacturing to university research, innovation is part of our identity. Today, the city and region are emerging as one of the UK’s most exciting technology economies.
That is no longer simply something we say about ourselves. Earlier this year, Sheffield and South Yorkshire were named the UK’s number one Rising Star Tech Ecosystem in Dealroom’s 2026 Global Tech Ecosystem Index, an international benchmark covering more than 325 cities across 77 countries.
South Yorkshire’s tech ecosystem is valued at £3.7bn, four times its value in 2019. In 2025 alone, £52m of early-stage investment was secured, while 42 spinouts have been launched across the region since 2020.
We are also growing strengths where South Yorkshire already has a competitive advantage. Deep tech, innovation rooted in scientific discovery and advanced engineering, attracted £121m of investment between 2022 and 2025, building on our heritage and expertise in advanced manufacturing and materials-led innovation.
But figures are only part of the story. What matters is turning innovation into businesses, investment into growth, and growth into good jobs. That is why this week matters.
Today and tomorrow, the TECH SY Northern Tech Summit will bring founders, investors, policymakers and technology leaders from across the North and beyond to Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. Organised by TECH SY, South Yorkshire’s technology ecosystem development programme, it will examine the challenges and opportunities facing the sector.
Its aim is to strengthen northern technology ecosystems and explore how collaboration can accelerate innovation, investment and growth. The North has the universities, industrial assets and entrepreneurial talent to be a greater driver of national prosperity. The task now is to connect those assets more effectively, give growing firms access to wider markets and finance, and ensure that more of the economic value created by northern innovation remains in northern communities.
Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield all have different strengths. Connecting them, improving links between businesses and investors, and enabling ideas and talent to move across the North can make us collectively more competitive.
Sheffield and South Yorkshire have a distinctive contribution to make.
Our universities are increasingly turning world-class research into commercial businesses. The University of Sheffield produced a record number of spinouts in 2025, while the region has particular strengths in physical and deep tech, advanced materials and manufacturing-led innovation.
Sheffield firms including Sitehop, Aegiq, Phlux Technology, Pixel-Flo, Opteran and FourJaw are bringing that strength to life.
Aegiq is pioneering quantum communications technologies. Phlux Technology is developing advanced infrared sensor technology. FourJaw helps manufacturers improve productivity through real-time machine monitoring, while Opteran is developing autonomous navigation systems inspired by the natural world. They show how South Yorkshire’s strengths in science, engineering and manufacturing are creating opportunities in fast-growing global sectors.
This capability sits alongside advanced manufacturing in Rotherham and innovation activity in Barnsley and Doncaster.
In Sheffield, our Innovation Spine is bringing universities, businesses, research, talent and specialist workspace together through an urban innovation district in the city centre. It is creating conditions in which knowledge-led businesses can start, scale and invest here, showing how Sheffield inspires ideas and turns them into opportunity.
Growth brings challenges as well as opportunities. Evidence identifies gaps including access to pre-seed capital, pressure on incubation capacity and the need for better coordination across business support.
If South Yorkshire is to fulfil its potential, we must make it easier for entrepreneurs to find support, promising companies to access investment, and growing businesses to find the talent and specialist space they need.
We must also retain success here. Businesses born here should have every reason to grow here, creating skilled jobs and attracting further investment.
That requires the public sector, universities, entrepreneurs and investors to continue working together. It also requires national government and local leaders to use devolution well and ensure that the Industrial Strategy backs the places and sectors capable of delivering growth.
This is not about recreating somebody else’s technology cluster. Our opportunity comes from what makes our region different: our industrial heritage, manufacturing expertise, research base, entrepreneurial community and instinct for practical innovation.
The TECH SY Northern Tech Summit lets us showcase that progress and ask what comes next.
Councillor Ben Miskell is chair of the Economic Development, Skills and Culture Committee at Sheffield City Council.