Norfolk and Suffolk Council for Digital Tech - Minutes

Chair: Peter Brady

Date: Thursday 28th July 2022 Time: 09.00-11.00 Via Teams

Mark Thomas, Coderus:

• Recruitment is the number one challenge.

• Working out what hybrid working actually means to the business and employees is a challenge as it is important to make it work for both sides, whilst there are new demands and mechanisms in place. The company is device-orientated, so will need to get people in.

• Sales are buoyant with demand for product development ramping up across multiple sectors. Keeping an eye on supply chains moving forward.

  
  

  John Fagan, Scribe:

• The tech sector is going through a crash globally with lots of lay-offs and many scale-ups gone. The cost-of-living crisis has mainly affected B2C businesses, but also B2B businesses. Lots of businesses who are using SaaS are reducing subscriptions.

• There are some exciting developments taking place on the skills front in Norwich through the likes of Akcela.

• The start-up scene is a little slower in Norwich at the moment. However seeing some exciting companies raising investment funding.

  
  

  Fiona Lettice, UEA:

• Concerned about the cost-of-living crisis and the impact on both the university and wider community.

• Graduated 11,000 students over the past few weeks.

• Productivity East is moving forward nicely.

• Really pleased with the Research Excellence Framework results, which demonstrated UEA’s impact work is really strong. Building interdisciplinary skills around climate (climate data and data analytics), creative, and health (digital health and medtech).

  
  

  Jai Raithatha, Suffolk County Council: Catherine Richards, East Norfolk Sixth Form College: Charlie Wright, Epos Now: James Allen, New Anglia LEP: Tim Robinson, Tech East:

  Progress updates (LEP & Tech East)

  • The Cassius package of care with technology supporting care practitioners includes sensors and wearable technology. The Council has seen significant cost savings, with c.£4.2m saved and has prevented significant ambulance callouts and hospital visits.

  • SCION (NetMatters) Software Development Training Funding is due to come to an end in September with a target of a minimum of 30 Suffolk based participants to be onboarded by that point (as a revised target from 46) a period of evaluation due to be completed by December 2022.

  • Suffolk New College is working closely with local employers (via the Ipswich and Suffolk Tech Network) to put together a curriculum offer to complement T-Levels. They are the Digital Lead for the LEP/ESF Technical Curriculum Co-Design Project and are happy to attend Digital Skills Taskforce meetings to promote the T-Levels to employers across Norfolk and Suffolk. Outcomes from this session can then be fed back to other local colleges.

  • The college has received £3.5m investment supporting the roll-out of T-Levels in engineering, digital, etc.

  • Seeing an increased appetite for Levels 4 and 5 degree apprenticeships, with students on four year courses.

  • Now a trustee of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association, which has been interesting to see the agri-tech agenda.

  • Their focus right now is the high street. The main market they currently see struggling is retail, although the extension of the retail relief scheme has helped. Seeing no downwards trend for hospitality or the wider visitor economy this summer.

  • The business operates across a full suite of technology now, so not just point of sale. Moving further away from point of sale in the next 18 months.

  • Launching their own banking product in Q3 2022.

  • Recently secured funding to help them to expand in the UK and globally into new territories. Discussing an equity raise now.

  • The digitalisation of taxation is helping the business quite significantly.

  • A New Anglia LEP-led expression of interest for the DCMS Create Growth Programme, focused on supporting high-growth creative industries, was successful and has been taken through to the final application. Only six local area partnerships will be named in September after this final process. Our consortium includes New Anglia LEP (lead), UEA (lead delivery partner), University of Suffolk, Norwich University of the Arts, Anglia Ruskin University, Norfolk County Council, Suffolk County Council and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

  • The Digital Growth grant will effectively replace a large chunk of what Tech Nation does from next April. There is a competitive bidding process ongoing with applications in by the end of August. Tech East is working behind the scenes with a consortium, hoping to bring more of a regional focus to what Tech Nation has done.

  Connected Innovation (Julian Munson & Scott Cogman):

• New Anglia LEP is really keen to move forward with a greater focus around specific technologies supporting cross-sector innovation.

• More and more innovation centres are coming on stream and joining the Connected Innovation network, with a really interesting mix of public and private models. There is a funding challenge from March 2023. Currently talking to partners about continuing this important programme and ramping up cross-sector opportunities and innovation in communities.

• There is a lot of work going on connecting with other regions around some of our exciting opportunities e.g., DCMS Create Growth, agri-tech, satellite applications, etc.

• The network continues to grow with strong appetite for engagement from the innovation hubs and clusters. Akcela and the Woodbridge Innovation Labs are the two latest additions.

• A lot of work has gone into content and promotion with Capsule Marketing profiling our innovation centres and looking at our sectoral strengths in the region. This has been used in inward investment campaigning using the Norfolk and Suffolk Unlimited branding.

• One of the key challenges coming out of the hubs is grow-on space. Companies are growing through the ecosystem, but there are not larger spaces for them to move into with the same innovation support/network. Through the LEP’s Innovation Board, we are looking to set up a task and finish group bringing in different partners to see how best we can address this challenge across Norfolk and Suffolk.

• A Connected Innovation place event, linking tech with the offshore wind sector, took place on 25 July. The East Wind offshore wind cluster set out their innovation challenges and areas where potential collaboration could take place with the tech sector moving forward. These conversations will now be built upon with the East Wind cluster and the LEP will share important opportunities with the Council for Digital Tech.

  
  

  Digital Skills Task Force (Tim Robinson):

• Chris Sargisson continues to chair the Digital Skills Task Force, which brings together employers across the region to address the challenges we are facing around skills and recruitment.

• There has been a detailed process to secure skills providers to deliver Skills Bootcamps, led by the LEP, with contracts awarded. There will now be a process to onboard potential candidates.

  
  

  FinTech Update (Katie Snell):

• The LEP is working with FIG, FIPS and Tech East to explore what assets and capabilities we have in the area of FinTech and InsurTech. We will be holding a workshop capturing this information at the end of October.

  
  

  Space Sector Update (Julian Munson):

• There are distinct clusters emerging in the Space Sector Plan for Norfolk and Suffolk:

  • Adastral Park with the Innovation Martlesham cluster and BT (who have their own space strategy).

  • The Greater Norwich area which includes climate research and earth observation at UEA, as well as Gravitilab at Scottow Enterprise Park leading on microgravity research and testing.

  • The coastal cluster centred around Cefas, marine science and offshore renewables.

  • Potential for agri-tech trials and testbeds building on the sector’s existing adoption of satellite applications technologies and research in the region.