Norfolk and Suffolk Council for Digital Tech - Minutes

Chair: Peter Brady

Date: Monday 4th December 2023 Time: 14.00-16.00

Via Teams

Attendees

Scott Cogman, New Anglia LEP

Julian Munson, New Anglia LEP

Michael Cousens, New Anglia LEP

James Adams, Akcela

Charlie Wright, Epos Now

Robin Milton, Fairer Games

John Fagan, Scribe & Sync the City

Catherine Richards, New Anglia Colleges Group

Jai Raithatha, Suffolk County Council

Peter Brady, Orbital Global & Innovation Labs

Sara de Freitas, University of Suffolk

Adrian Pickering, Robotica ML

Beatriz De La Iglesia, UEA

Beverley Wallman, New Anglia LEP

Apologies

Marlon Bowser, HTK

John Dugmore, Suffolk Chamber of Commerce

Dominic Keen, Britbots

Roberta Willner, Norfolk County Council

Nova Fairbank, Norfolk Chamber of Commerce

James Duez, Rainbird

Simon Allen, New Anglia LEP

Vinay Patel, PredicAire

Beccy Coombs, Ipswich Borough Council

Mark Thomas, Coderus

Gurpreet Jagpal, University of Suffolk

Dean Withey, Ubisend

Lisa Perkins, BT

Neil Miles, Inawisdom

James Allen, New Anglia LEP

Jack Weaver, Norfolk Chamber of Commerce

Sarah Steed, Norwich University of the Arts

Tim Robinson, Tech East

Ellen Tilney, Norwich City Council

Welcome (Chair)

Peter Brady welcomed attendees to the meeting and noted apologies received.

Autumn Statement – AI Initiative (All)

Peter Brady:

 Knowhow and expertise needs to retained in the UK rather than being absorbed into international

providers. Need to develop our own expertise.

 Need to understand the hallucinations and shortcomings with AI and how we can overcome these.

 Generative AI initiative – involved ten unis inc. Cardiff Uni – invited Orbital Media (from previous

KTP) £10m initiative in total – more info in January.

 Regional benefit if this goes ahead and positive news.

 More AI patents generated in this region than any other in the UK.

 Can build on this and the capability in the region.

 Opportunity to project the AI capability in the region at a national level – press release with all of

this packaged up in the region.

James Adams:

 So much going on already – why is the investment in compute?

 More skills needed in this area – rather than what this announcement covers.

Sara de Freitas:

 More support needed – but is this in the right area and important to see how it is weaved together

with other initiatives.

 More connectivity needed across the UK around AI and regional initiatives.

 Legislative differences between UK, US and Europe – clarity needed around this and the political

piece around it.

 UOS through to next round off application with other unis – £1.2m AI driven pot for educational

assistance. Led through UKRI – computer science and education.

 Focus on Hybrid HCI – bot as a human / AI driven

 Need to keep the message going around our capability and achievements.

 And breaking down the funding wall.

John Fagan:

 Need to build out our own AI capability and structure in the UK. See that as a sensible move in the

longer term.

 This will mean needing to keep GPUs busy – as it is a costly option if not

 Education wise – more is needed for businesses on the benefits and how it can be applied.

University of Suffolk Civic University Agreement (Cristian Dogaru)

Cristian Dogaru:

 Civic University network the University of Suffolk is looking to join.

 Collaborating with the local region and consulting with the local stakeholders.

 Wanting to embed and collaborate with the local community.

 Cristian is the academic lead on this.

 Held different phases of consultation and focus groups.

 Planning to organise and map our areas of distinctiveness.

 Digital transformation and healthcare are key focuses.

 Wanting to understand what is perceived as the role of the university – what are we doing and what

we could do better.

 This will be signed by key signatories with a draft agreement due in the Spring.

 Keen to engage more stakeholders in this group and drive visibility in the community and the

connection element is needed in the agreement.

 Might organise a second consultation on this and will loop in the group.

 Will share slide in the chat for people to follow up on.

James Adams:

 Access to technology patents to commercialise them – how can we enable this.

 Keen to know more about their areas of focus and research and the collaboration opportunities with

startups in the local region.

 Lack of knowledge about what is happening, and relationships only seem to exist at a one to one

level – keen to expand beyond this.

Sara de Freitas

 James Adams to share details and Sara will connect you up with Gups and the team at UOS.

Beatriz de la Iglesia:

 UEA can share the same contact details.

 Send over an email and connect and she will signpost.

Catherine Richards

 Knew the specialisms and we could bring people together around.

 Educational establishments can be difficult to collaborate with – but that is why we are all here.

Peter Brady:

 Very fortunate to have benefitted from relationships with universities and the KTPs.

 Been signposted to them at the right time.

 Worked with multiple universities.

 All about knowing who to speak to and where to go.

 Many businesses personally unaware of this.

 Tricky situation to resolve – in terms of driving connectivity and awareness.

Insights from Businesses (All)

Charlie Wright:

 Meeting with DSIT on Wednesday off the back of the budget.

 Investment support and opportunities lacking in the area and pursuing different options to grow.

 Customer base growing nicely however with businesses looking for all in one tech.

 AI key to addressing this in the long term.

 Only just starting to look at this within the business. Talent and skills become an issue however

 Going through an investment round now – first one in the businesses and should bring high

valuation which will be good for the businesses. IPO – 100m or more investment

 The business turned over 100m recently. Competitors struggling in the market at present.

 Used for growth and key to IPO in the UK

 Lots of support from the USA side for growth and IPO plans.

 Disappointed by the lack of attractive proposition to keep you in the region – beyond people and

buildings.

 Looking for pace and support for jobs – cost is prohibitive to scale up and move to a larger site at

present.

 Looking to have recruitment cost offset or something similar.

 Manchester is another region with a more attractive proposition. Local structure is more beneficial,

and they have more assets they can utilise.

 More willing to flex the structure to accommodate a business.

 Willing to make a loan with attached outputs more attractive dependent on achievement of these.

 Business has 500 jobs to hire in the next 3 years. Keen for those to be here in the region as well.

 Epos Now recognised as the fastest growing tech in the eastern region.

James Adams

 Starting side of investments

 Startup seed funding challenges rearing its head again.

 Seed investment conversations pushed back into January from mid to late November.

 Need to ask more of our financial partners in the region to address this.

 How can the deployment of capital be faster, quicker and better.

 Barclays launching investor platform which they will look to utilise.

 Five companies came through the incubator last week – 3 very proceedable businesses.

 Good deal flow coming through – further highlighting the challenge with capital.

Jai Raithatha

 Northern combined authorities gives much more flexibility and capability around business

proposition.

 Keen to emphasise the need for businesses to get involved in the county deal consultations when

they go live. Need business engagement in this to shape how this will be developed and utilised.

 Consultations will go live in the New Year.

Anthony Pryke

 Seeing this issue in other parts of the region – in terms of the capital.

Julian Munson

 Critical conversations happening within the Connected Innovation network around the finance and

investment piece.

 Early-stage issue is a very active proposition that is being looked at.

 So much great things happening regionally – but more PR is needed around this.

 Keen to address these issues through our networks.

 Innovate UK Action Plan launch tomorrow at Adastral Park.

 Senior Innovate UK officials on site

 Strategic document that shows commitment and highlights the region.

 Opportunity to showcase our region and strengthen relationship with Innovate UK and the wider

family.

 Using Connected Innovation site to promote and host this.

 Suffolk County Council and Norfolk County Council integration – forward plan to be on the agenda at

the next meeting.

 Keen to continue to build on the strong collaboration between the two counties and the Council for

Digital Tech.

Connected Innovation (Julian Munson & Scott Cogman)

Julian Munson:

 New website launched as a conduit for project activity and content.

 Keen for hubs and partners to contribute to content, share events, funding calls and news.

 The project has an events budget again to support network led events.

 Keen to see themes across emerging clusters, cross sector innovation, business support and

technology showcases.

Digital Skills Update (Bev Wallman)

 Slides shared.

Peter Brady:

 How long will these continue for?

 Until 2025 – yet to announce beyond this.

 How do we keep a relevant curriculum with tech advancements?

Bev Wallman

 Bootcamps are employer led – made bespoke for individual employers, offering some flexibility to

keep track with tech advancements.

 16 weeks is the most time bootcamps can run for.

 They are there to upskill their staff in the organisation.

James Adams

 Currently changing the next wave of bootcamps in line with what is needed in the market and by

businesses.

 As providers, we have to be led by this in terms of delivering real value.

 How many businesses would let their staff attend for 14 days to learn about AI in marketing?

 Peter Brady and John Fagan - Yes

 Charlie Wright – we should do - but businesses tend to want to see it over a longer period of time

rather than staff out of the business over a consecutive period. Found barriers to entry around

accessing skills training through the apprenticeship levy.

Updates on key areas of work for the Council for Digital Tech

Julian Munson:

Fintech

 Cluster development work starting in the new year.

 Will look to map the Norwich area initially and how this can be promoted.

 Long term plan is to see the initiative growing across both counties and the region.

Agri-Tech and Food Tech Launchpad

 Secured £7.5m in locked-off innovation funding for Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Greater

Lincolnshire to be delivered over a number of rounds.

 Round one closes on the 6th December with £25-£100,000 fully funded grants on one side and £150-

£300,000 Collaborative Research and Development.

 Supports innovation across the entire agri-food chain and supporting food manufacturing and

process productivity improvements from horticulture and aquaculture etc.

Space East

 Julian and Stuart Catchpole went to Belfast in November to attend the UK Space Conference.

 Space East continues to support a number of regional bids.

 Keen to speak to tech businesses to explore the downstream opportunities and grow the cluster.

 Event being hosted in Essex in the New Year.

Create Growth / Creative East

 Cohort two coming to an end – hosted in Suffolk.

 Cohorts three and four to be hosted in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

 Open to business across the four counties though.

 Through the LEP’s bid, secured locked-off innovation funding for creative industries in addition to

funding to deliver Creative East. This is because we are a “Create Growth” region.

o Competition 1 provided £10k-30k to 18 creative industries businesses across Norfolk,

Suffolk, and CPCA geography.

o Competition 2 underway at the moment, focusing on investor partnerships. 50:50 split with

investor and Innovate UK grant. Closes in January 2024.

o Competition 3 will be underway at the end of March 2024 with grants around £70k for

creative industries businesses in our “create growth” region.



Anthony Pryke & Jordan Gallimore:

Barclays Eagle Labs

 Supporting businesses with funding and access to investors and mentoring.

 Focussing on accessibility and delivered nationally to all businesses.

 Sharing slides

 Digital Growth Grant – awarded to Barclays Eagle Labs back in April 2023

 Developing a programme to compliment other activity offered currently.

 Ecosystem Partnership Programme: Match funding for LEPs, Local Authorities, Tech Clusters,

Incubators and Universities, https://labs.uk.barclays/what-we-offer/our-programmes/ecosystem-

partnership-programme/

 Season 1 Successful Partners: https://labs.uk.barclays/what-we-offer/our-programmes/ecosystem-

partnership-programme/ecosystem-partnership-programme-partners/F

 Happy to follow up around specific elements of support in a separate call.

Sara de Freitas:

Games East Cluster Work

 Keen to highlight this recent bit of good news https://www.uos.ac.uk/about/news/suffolk-and-

norfolk-education-providers-team-up-for-475m-skills-training-boost/

 BT looking at developing a Games Research Centre at Adastral Park – watch this space.

 Three gaming Events funded through Connected Innovation – 3 events at the University of Suffolk

and Norwich University of the Arts – first is here - Games East: Unlocking Opportunities in the

Gaming Industry Tickets, Fri 15 Dec 2023 at 16:30 | Eventbrite

 This will lead to a report being collated to look at attracting wider funding.

 Looking to see how this can support the wider tech ecosystem and businesses.

Michael Cousens

Inward Investment

 Shared a document with attendees prior to the meeting following up on the presentation at the last

meeting.

 Grateful for the feedback that has been shared by members.

 Attended Websummit, developing 40 leads, tomorrow one of those companies will be attending the

UKRI/NewAnglia event at Adastral Park to view the facilities.

 Funded some of the LEP / Connected Innovation team to attend Slush to also develop leads and

review viability for future attendance.

 Working on trade visits with tech companies from Virginia Beach (USA) visiting in early 2024 but

happy to support and explore others. Welcome any approaches from those interested in

meeting/supporting.

 Refreshing the Norfolk and Suffolk Unlimited website

Scott Cogman

 James Allen and I attended Slush and used the opportunity to promote our technology capabilities,

HPOs and Connected Innovation network.

 Met with both UK and European businesses and partners to look at collaborative opportunities and

the regional inward investment offer.

AOB

 Invite an LSIP lead to the next meeting to present on these and the current plans regionally.

 Look at who is coordinating the digital programmes at Norfolk County Council (Toby Matthews) and

see if they can present on their current workstreams at the next meeting.