EEDA - East of England Development Agency

‘Universities can play a key role in beating the downturn’, says regional economic chief

15 January 2009

Close collaboration between the region’s universities and businesses will help to lift us out of the downturn, Deborah Cadman, chief executive of the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) told a conference for academics and businesses this week.

Speaking at the Association of Universities of the East of England conference (AUEE) at Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, Deborah said that the region’s universities and research institutions needed to continue working with the business community to help ensure the future prosperity of the region.

She said that universities had a key role to play in providing the higher level skills and training needed by businesses and their employees. By working together, the academic community and businesses can also assist the development of new innovations into commercial successes.

Deborah Cadman said:

“I applaud the work that universities and higher education institutions across the region have done in recent years in proactively engaging with the business community. This process has been key to the success of the regional economy in recent years and contributed to it being one of only three regions in England to be a net contributor to the Exchequer.

“The task for us all now is to manage the current downturn and maintain our strong, vibrant regional economy. The region’s success in the two critical areas of skills and innovation will be central in determining how well we survive the downturn, and how quickly we move back to a position of growth. Continued successful working and knowledge transfer between universities and businesses will play a vital role in beating the downturn.”

EEDA’s chief executive told the 60 delegates about the support for local businesses across the region.

“Through our programmes such as Beyond 2010 - which provides businesses with training grants to equip staff with new skills - EEDA is helping people to access the skills they need. EEDA has also developed the Business Map to help firms in the region navigate through over £30 million of business support and get quickly to assistance of relevance.”

EEDA announced this week a new initiative called ‘Innovation Vouchers’. This will provide small to medium-sized enterprises with £3,000 worth of one-to-one collaboration with regional academic institutions and research centres. There is up to £250,000 worth of grants available to the region’s business community.

Deborah added:

“The business support package, along with our support for higher education facilities and targeted investments in the region will help build stronger foundations for the successful growth of businesses in the future.”

The annual AUEE conference, which this year focussed on the role for the university sector during an economic downturn, was addressed today (15 January) by the Regional Minister, Barbara Follett MP.