University welcomes ambitions to double investment into UK innovation
By: Communications
The University of East Anglia (UEA) has welcomed an ambition to double the external investment into innovation over the coming decade.
Universities UK has outlined hopes to reach £10 billion of external investment each year, up from £5 billion today. It would mean over £100 billion of external investment flowing into university spinouts, startups and social enterprises over a decade.
Welcoming the announcement, UEA Vice-Chancellor Prof David Maguire said: “UK universities are central to generating ideas, convening partners, and building the economic and social conditions for people and businesses to experience the long-term benefits from such investments.
“UEA Strategy 2030 outlines our own focus on innovation by extending our research base, strengthening collaborations and increasing the economic benefits and impact of our work, regionally, nationally and internationally.
“Businesses and communities would undoubtedly benefit from this additional investment and as a member of the Norfolk Business Board, I see first-hand the importance of impact of innovation in our region where SMEs are the backbone of our regional economy.
Driving innovation through partnerships, research and real-world impact
Dr Nicola Hancock, UEA’s Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation, said: “This agenda is crucial to UEA, today and into the future, as we drive forward our own ambitious innovation growth programme, InnovateUEA.
“We are strengthening partnerships and driving real-world solutions from world-class research. We are working collaboratively with our partners across Norwich Research Park to enhance our commercial ecosystem, helped by the Research England-funded NR4-Ward programme that facilitates entrepreneurial skills training and development opportunities for academic teams and stakeholders.”
One example of success in driving sustainable innovation through the power of partnership is the Low Carbon Innovation Fund.
A collaboration with UEA, Norfolk County Council and specialist fund managers Turquoise, the Fund has facilitated the development of more than 140 new clean-tech products, technologies and services.
It has also created and safeguarded thousands of jobs in the region and driven the development of technologies that are projected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 13 million tonnes of CO2.
Supporting student and graduate ventures
Meanwhile UEA’s leading student enterprise programme, often the space in which successful spinouts are born, is seeing record momentum.
In the last academic year, 79 student and graduate projects received funding, helping to nurture the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.
Early investment has leveraged significant funding for several startups and scale-ups in recent years. UEA’s Enterprise Fund recently secured its largest investment round to date, with portfolio company Evaro reaching a valuation of £53 million.
Collaborative approaches to innovation development
Through initiatives such as the Golden Circle, UEA works alongside peer universities to share Technology Transfer Office (TTO) expertise, resources, and best practice, creating a much stronger collective platform for spin‑out success and accelerating innovation beyond individual institutional capacity.
UEA’s collaborative approach to innovation development is complemented by major regionally embedded programmes such as the Ceres Agri‑Tech and Agri-tech Commercialisation Ecosystems (ACE) in collaboration with Cambridge and Lincoln Universities, which support the commercialisation of cutting‑edge agricultural innovations.
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