Sheffield’s two universities are committed to our city and our region and so recognise the importance of working in lockstep with our partners across South Yorkshire. Collaboration is one of the best ways to foster a dynamic and modern economy.
One area where this is especially important is innovation. Innovation – creating and developing new technologies, processes and products – is one of the most important pillars of long term economic growth.
But understanding how and when to innovate, recognising market gaps, and finding opportunities to scale up, can be a challenge.
In recent months, our two universities launched the £4m South Yorkshire Innovation Programme (SYIP) to help local businesses and organisations of all sizes to solve that puzzle. It is a collaborative way of bringing local innovators, university expertise, and our regional authorities closer together.
SYIP is a programme which invites regional businesses, organisations and charities to get in touch with us as universities, and to access expert consultancy from our teams. This will help local people to scale up their work, innovate new products and technologies, and ultimately fuel economic growth.
There are more opportunities for businesses and organisations to thrive in South Yorkshire now than there ever have been before and we are working in unison with local partners. The project is funded by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, and is a collaboration led by Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, with the University of Sheffield and Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.
Seizing opportunities
While it’s true that opportunities in South Yorkshire abound, we still live in a difficult economic world. Businesses and organisations are facing all sorts of challenges, from increasing overheads, to crowded markets. Many are ready to accelerate and take the next step – to expand, invest more money into the regional economy, and create more good jobs for local people – but are missing crucial expertise or capacity.
SYIP is designed to help those organisations. It will provide opportunities to access expert consultancy, including academic-led innovation audits and discovery days; professional interventions; student projects and placements; and specialist equipment and facilities provided by the universities and Barnsley Council.
Support will be available to South Yorkshire-based organisations of all sizes and across all sectors. Through this programme, we will help businesses and organisations to scale up in a range of different ways, from developing ideas, to improving processes, accessing new markets, and launching products.
When we launched SYIP at Bramall Lane at the end of 2024, South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard spoke passionately about growth. It falls to all of us working in key institutions to pull together and support a bigger and better economy.
Collaboration is key, and bringing our two universities together will ensure we can help businesses and organisations of all kinds, across the breadth of the region.
Innovation, innovation, innovation
Both Sheffield universities have a proven track record of supporting organisations to innovate and accelerate their operations, and the launch of SYIP will add to the resources already available across a wide variety of industries.
Innovation is more than just a buzzword, it’s at the heart of the economic strategy in our region and beyond and there is a sense now that momentum is building. This is the way we will transform our region’s economy; it’s how we stay at the cutting edge of technology; and innovation will give us the opportunity to lead the next revolution in British industry.
We are excited for Sheffield’s universities to be a major driver of that transformation.
This article first appeared in the Sheffield Telegraph on Thursday 17 April.
