At this year’s Labour Party Conference, the N8 Research Partnership – the collective body for the North’s eight research intensive universities – will host a panel session.
‘A Real Northern Powerhouse: Putting the north at the heart of Labour’s industrial strategy’ in partnership with Progressive Britain. The event will focus on the opportunity to drive impactful collaborations across sectors including education, business, investors and elected Mayors in the North of England, to support the government in achieving its manifesto missions.
Speakers on the panel include Georgia Gould MP, Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office; Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire; Professor Charlie Jeffery, Vice-Chancellor of University of York & Chair of the N8; Jessica Bowles, Director of Strategy at Bruntwood; and Bruce Katz, Director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University. The event will be chaired by Hannah Al-Othman, North of England Correspondent at The Guardian.
Speakers will explore how the energy, expertise and innovation inherent in the North’s universities, businesses and investors can be harnessed to deliver inclusive and sustainable economic growth. The Government strategy provides a significant window of opportunity for stakeholders in the North’s economy to support mayoral growth plans to deliver a collaborative, futureproof industrial strategy
Attendees at the event, which will take place on Monday 23rd September from 11:00-12:00 at the Progressive Britain Hub (inside the secure zone), will gain insights into how higher education, investors, businesses and mayors can work collectively with the government to deliver real and sustained growth across the North.
There are numerous initiatives, collaborations and policies that need to be progressed at speed to deliver upon the five missions outlined in the Labour Party manifesto. During the session, leading experts, politicians, academics and business leaders will discuss the regional outlook and the role of anchor institutions such as universities in boosting the economy and achieving the Government’s ambitious long-term goals.
In particular the capabilities of the N8 universities will be a central pillar of the discussion, as these institutions are engines of R&D, technological breakthroughs and education that upskill graduates and communities, create opportunities to attract inward investment, establish new companies and generate the myriad innovations the UK’s business landscape, healthcare sector and economy requires.
The capacity of the N8 to act as a catalyst for change and growth is enabled by the fact that these institutions contribute £8bn to the UK economy and receive £900m in funding from UK research grants and contracts. The North’s higher education sector is also a vital employer and source of job creation, with every direct job at a university supporting 1.8 more jobs in the wider economy. In total, universities in the North of England directly employ 84,000 FTE roles and indirectly support a further 233,000 FTE jobs.
Professor Charlie Jeffery, Vice-Chancellor at the University of York and Chair of the N8, said:
“The panel we’re holding at the Labour Party Conference with Progressive Britain will showcase the opportunity for how a collaborative, ambitious industrial strategy, driven by the strength of the N8 group of universities, will supercharge the region’s economy, skills base, inward investment and more.
“By aligning key stakeholders across the region, including higher education, mayoral teams, business leaders, and developers, we can tackle the income and productivity disparity between the North and the rest of England. Achieving this will require sustained focus at local and national level, and particularly from anchor institutions such as the North’s ‘Golden Octagon’ of research-intensive universities. I am delighted to be speaking alongside such expert speakers drawn from government, mayoral authorities, business, investors as well as higher education.”
Dr Annette Bramley, Director of the N8 Research Partnership, said:
“The North’s universities are renowned incubators of talent, groundbreaking ideas and advanced research, which makes them ideally positioned to support this mission-led government and propel the region’s economy and communities to the next level.
“The panel we’ve organised at the Labour Party Conference will help to set the agenda moving forward and identify how to best deliver on the government’s objectives through regional partnership working. At N8, we know that there a small number of key policy asks that will help make these goals a reality, such as setting long-term budgets that support place-based development, investing a globally competitive percentage of GDP in R&D, and addressing regional imbalances in funding.”
For more information on the N8 Research Partnership and how its universities are supporting the North’s economy, click here.
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