Innovators invited to come on board Science City project

Oct 26 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

SCIENCE City bosses have revealed they hope to create up to 4,000 jobs as they push ahead with a three-year plan to transform Newcastle.

A £6m fund will allow some of the country’s leading scientists, engineers and researchers to spend months developing new businesses which could see the city own a stake in some of the UK’s most advanced technology.

Bosses at Science City have said their Newcastle Innovation Machine could bring about as big a change to Tyneside’s economy as plans for the former Tyne Brewery site are set to have on its skyline.

Over three years they will recruit a series of innovation managers tasked with identifying gaps in the market and working with entrepreneurs to turn the ideas into new businesses.

They will then help them launch before returning to oversee the next batch of business ideas.

Around 40 companies are expected to be created, with each eventually employing between 60 to 100 people.

And while bosses say they know some fledgling businesses will fail, they believe they have done enough to reduce the risks involved.

The city will retain a small stake in any new venture or invention created as a result of funding which allows scientists to bring new technologies from the initial sketch stage through to the market.

Taxpayer funds, including European Commission cash, will underpin the project, and the cost of financing a company or idea which then fails to take off will be covered by the Science City partnership.

Paul Walker, chairman of Newcastle Science City and head of software firm Sage, said the jobs project was “at least as important” as multi-million pound plans to build a science HQ on land opposite St James’s Park.

“This is groundbreaking, it separates us from some of the other science cities in the UK, and really gives us a lead,” he said.

He added the move will play an important part in making the UK a home for the sort of innovation normally only seen in the US.