Investing in the north-east’s entrepreneurial economy provides an accelerated road to recovery for the region, its key sectors, businesses and people.
The pandemic, climate crisis and new international trading environment have amplified long-standing challenges throughout the country.
Scotland has to become more productive and more competitive globally, focus on high-value economic activity, and move to a low-carbon economy at a pace.
The immediate opportunity is to encourage, nurture and support innovators and entrepreneurs, and accelerate business scale-up.”
Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire have a record as being among the most investable, productive and entrepreneurial regional economies in the UK, with high levels of business start-ups, research and development, exports and income levels.
But we face many challenges – short-term supply issues, people and skills shortages, the climate crisis, and the pace of technological change.
The region’s economic transformation should reflect the just transition ambition of preserving employment, retaining our talent pool, and re-skilling and up-skilling our workforce for the jobs that will be created in the evolution to a low-carbon economy.
Targeted investments
Low-carbon jobs are not yet available at scale. Investing in critical industries and businesses through this accelerated period of change in the short to medium-term will help deliver them.
The immediate opportunity is to encourage, nurture and support innovators and entrepreneurs, and accelerate business scale-up.
We need to make investment available at critical stages of growth, and support founders and leaders with expert advice, mentoring, leadership development, learning journeys, and peer-networking.
Low-carbon and digital tech are the defining priorities of our age.”
Focusing on low-carbon, digital, innovation and internationalisation will inspire ambition and accelerate growth.
And we need to prioritise investment in and with our best-growing businesses and leaders, from start-ups through to scaling established enterprises.
Low-carbon and digital tech are the defining priorities of our age, and the most significant new market opportunity for global knowledge, services, and technology.
Areas where Scotland has a genuine advantage – including energy, food and drink production and manufacturing, and life sciences – and our natural economy must be prioritised for investment to secure early market share.
‘Better connections’
So too must we prioritise investment in collaborative innovation within businesses, and academic and research communities, and accelerate commercialisation to increase the number of start-ups and spin-outs.
We need to build better connections between industry and academia. And also specific pathways for innovators to either become founders or collaborate with the commercial sector.
All of this will help us to develop solutions that will drive the low-carbon revolution and solve severe challenges in the health and wellbeing of the nation – and launch them to market.
We need to invest in high-value manufacturing. Industry 4.0, including automation, digital and robotics, is transforming manufacturing and processing with significant productivity and environmental gains.
It is also creating new, higher-skill and higher-value jobs across sectors including agriculture, food and drink manufacturing, energy and life sciences.
Internationalisation and market development are required to grow the scale and reach of Scotland’s premium products and services.
We need to support businesses to focus on high-value export markets and create strong links to consumers, customers and markets to inspire innovation.
The goal is to stimulate business creation and growth to provide more higher-value jobs.”
Market insights, in-market expertise and financial support will help to increase the pace of market entry and growth.
Equally important is the adoption of a global mindset to secure new international collaborations and attract investment into businesses across the region.
These focus areas will have the most significant and immediate impact on the economy.
They are Opportunity North East’s action and investment priorities across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire’s key industry sectors.
The goal is to stimulate business creation and growth to provide more higher-value jobs.
And to catalyse the country’s innovative founders, support them early, make finance available to them when needed, and build a vibrant peer-to-peer network that inspires ambition.
Businesses have proved to be agile and adaptable in the most difficult period of the past 18 months.
Public sector co-investment will be critical to achieving transformational change at pace.
Long-term dividends
The £14.3 million North East Economic Recovery and Skills Fund (NEERSF) announced recently by the Scottish Government recognises this region’s challenges and opportunities, as well as its unique partnership approach to economic recovery and growth, and its ability to deliver.
The £6m NEERSF activity that Opportunity North East will lead and deliver over the next six months will build on critical areas of action, with a positive impact of business growth support and direct funding for businesses to implement change.
Investment in this region will return long-term dividends for the future economy through new opportunities, health and wellbeing, and the quality of life it provides.
Jennifer Craw is chief executive of Opportunity North East.
Opportunity North East accelerates more life sciences research spin-outs