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https://cambridgetechweek.co.uk/news/showcasing-tech-expertise-in-the-east-of-england/
Showcasing tech expertise in the East of England – UEA
Julie Schofield, Associate Director Business Partnerships, Research and Innovation Services for University of East Anglia (UEA), writes about UEA’s involvement in Cambridge Tech Week 2024 as headline sponsors of the Innovation Alley exhibition on 10 September.
Why is UEA sponsoring Innovation Alley?
We’re committed to supporting innovation, and Innovation Alley will showcase the amazing work of some of the brightest early-stage tech companies, scale ups and larger companies. This includes the winners of the Innovation Hothouse competition we held last year for fledgling companies based at the internationally-renowned Norwich Research Park. The Hothouse competition was established by Dr Soraya Jones, Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence for UEA (Science Faculty), who is an ambassador for Cambridge Tech Week 2024. She recognised that the event is a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase what the University – and indeed the East of England as a whole – has got to offer the tech world.
How does UEA support innovation in the tech world?
Over 91 per cent of our research is officially rated as “world leading” or “internationally excellent” – and it has a real-world impact that goes well beyond academia. Our researchers are leading the way in many areas, including agritech biotech, food tech, climate tech and health tech. And we’re proud of our track record of:
- Helping members of our UEA community turn their transformative research into thriving companies
- Working in collaboration with partners on a local, national and global scale – across subject and geographical boundaries
- Providing specialist expertise to support external companies and organisations
What areas do UEA’s spinout companies specialise in?
UEA innovations span everything from industry-changing software to diagnostic tools for the treatment of infectious diseases, the creation of sustainable biocomposite materials (by CellExcel Ltd, technical leaders in this area) and much more. Indeed, one of our spinouts – Spectral-Edge Ltd – was acquired by Apple in 2019. The technology that our academics developed is carried around by the billions of people who use an iPhone– and used every time that they take a high-quality photo. You can read about more UEA spinouts on our website.
Our Student Enterprise service also provides expert mentorship and funding to support ambitious businesses from determined students and graduates. Over recent years, we’ve provided over £800,000 funding for 16 student startup companies. This has empowered these startups to leverage more than £4 million in early-stage investment, and to gain an estimated portfolio valuation in excess of £50 million.
What is UEA’s approach to partnership work?
We work with partners to drive change and to bring fresh thinking to the major challenges facing society.
Locally, we are proud to collaborate with our partner institutions and businesses based at Norwich Research Park. This is one of the largest research clusters in Europe with four research institutes, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and the University all onsite.
The Park has the largest cluster of microbiologists working in engineering biology in the UK. With the science community in Cambridge carrying out amazing work into traditional drug discovery, this means that the Eastern region collectively provides expertise in all aspects of life science – “from farm to fork to clinic”.
We also work with local partners to promote innovation through the annual Sync the City event, which was co-founded by UEA – providing expert mentoring to aspiring entrepreneurs, developers and designers, as they are supported to develop their ideas into startups.
We’re so excited to be taking part in Cambridge Tech Week this year, as part of our commitment to shining a light on great work in the East of England – as we foster new partnerships and promote collaboration within the region and beyond.
