One area where collaboration is especially important, is innovation. Innovation – creating new technologies, processes and products – sits at the heart of long-term economic growth and is central to the economic strategy of our region and beyond.
This week, regional mayors from across the country gathered at Sheffield Hallam’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC).
Together, they launched a new ‘Mayoral Innovation Exchange’ – which will be a vehicle to foster collaboration, enable innovation, and share best practice between mayoral combined authorities.
Top of the agenda was how we can promote greater innovation collaboration between the UK mayoral authorities. They covered a lot of ground, with a particular focus on skills, outlining how mayors can support people in their areas to develop the skills needed to power new innovative industries.
Other key themes included harnessing data to tackle common health challenges, procuring environmentally sustainable public transport fleets, and aligning local skills systems to support the delivery of critical infrastructure such as new housing.
In addition to skills, the health agenda is a key area where universities have a huge contribution to make, given our collective research expertise and regional connectedness with key research and innovation partners. This is one of the reasons I was especially pleased Sheffield Hallam was able to host the Mayoral summit at our Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre which is specifically focused on preventative and population health.
Innovation in 2025
Working with local leaders and mayors allows us to think about big picture and long term aspirations in a way which is both exciting and important. But it is also important to highlight the things we are doing now to support regional growth and innovation.
Thinking regionally, our two world-leading universities mean we have a wealth of talent, experience and aspiration right here in South Yorkshire.
At Sheffield Hallam, our job is to equip people with skills, but we don’t see it as stopping there. We’re well aware that, even for highly-skilled, highly-motivated people, knowing how and where to innovate, and sharing that knowledge in the right forum, can be a challenge.
Just before the winter break, our two universities officially launched the new South Yorkshire Innovation Programme (SYIP) to tackle that challenge. It will be a collaborative way of bringing local innovators, universities, and our regional authorities closer together.
SYIP is funded by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, and is a collaboration led by Sheffield Hallam University, with the University of Sheffield and Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. It will allow regional businesses, organisations and charities to get in touch with us as universities, and to access expert consultancy from our teams. This will help local people to scale up their work, innovate new products and technologies, and ultimately contribute more to the economy.
With this week’s mayoral summit coming hot on the heels of the launch of SYIP just before the Christmas break, there is a sense now that momentum is building. Innovation is the way we will transform our region’s economy; it’s how we stay at the cutting edge of technology; and good innovation will give us the opportunity to lead the next revolution in British industry.
We are excited for Sheffield Hallam to be a major part of that.
Originally published in the Sheffield Telegraph on Thursday 16 January
