Digital Catapult Centres aim to generate thousands of jobs and drive innovation.A national centre which rapidly advances the UK’s best digital ideas, has announced the appointment of 3 Local Enterprise Partnership led consortia to establish three new local centres in Sunderland, Brighton and Bradford, with all three due to open in March 2015.
The Digital Catapult Centres have a united aim of generating thousands of new jobs and driving innovation at a local level in order to create millions in linked investment and future funding by 2025.
The new centres will support the London Based Digital Catapult centre which has been opened by Digital Economy Minister, Ed Vaisey. The centres will provide entrepreneurs, SMEs, researchers and corporate organisations with a physical space to meet and collaborate on projects.
The Digital Catapult will initially support the 3 LEPs with resources and collaborative support of up to £500,000.
Minister for the Digital Economy, Ed Vaizey said:
“It is an exciting time to be a tech business in the UK. Our digital economy is already one of the strongest markets in the world, valued at more than £100 billion. Growth areas including the Internet of Things and digital creative industries are opening up a range of new opportunities for companies in the sector.”
The 3 proposed LEP led consortia and their focus areas are:
The Digital Catapult Centre Brighton (led by Coast to Capital LEP): Encouraging innovation and value from real-time and location-based data (the Internet of Place)
The Digital Catapult Centre North East and Tees Valley (led by the North East LEP and Tees Valley LEP): The controlled delivery and security of data so as to increase information sharing amongst businesses and organisations and open up new business models and revenue streams
The Digital Catapult Centre Yorkshire (led by Leeds City Region LEP and York, North Yorkshire and East Riding LEP): Supporting digital health innovation and developing new healthcare products and services.
Digital Catapult CEO, Neil Crockett,said:
“Some of the most exciting digital innovation in the UK is happening in local communities that bring together new ideas, businesses, universities and the public sector. As a national centre, it is important we support and collaborate with these local innovation communities who are doing amazing things in our focus areas. The open call has only reinforced our view that there are many brilliant digital innovation communities across the UK, and we hope it is the start to building a whole range of exciting future relationships.”
