All Partner Bulletin - September 2024

September 17, 2024

Friday 29 November 2024, Milton Keynes. The pan-regional All-Partner Conference will be back for its second year. 

Register to attend via our events system.

 The conference will bring together representatives from local authorities, business, universities, central government and the many agencies and organisations we work with to discuss:

  • pan-regional collaboration one year on: sharing and discussing the many projects coming to fruition through pan-regional partnership working.
  • how we want our economy to grow and develop: delving into our refreshed Environment Principles.
  • driving investment into our region: our region’s story and what this looks like on the world stage.

The full event programme and announcements of headline speakers will be released in the coming weeks.

Missed last year's All-Partner Conference? Take a look at what some of our Partners said: https://youtu.be/XL2tZ2vcUDs?si=fYS_hz0DEuHCrcNj

New government, new growth and the need for accelerated action.  

In 2021, the region’s Environmental Principles broke new ground. Ambitions on net zero agenda, biodiversity and nature recovery, we had over 100partners come together to establish a wide-ranging framework for regional action to underpin a national vision that put the region’s key economic sectors on an international stage for investment.

Now, in 2024, as we see a new national vision of growth and economic prosperity, the imperative for action that delivers real transformation for nature, natural systems, and the economy remains. Read Nathan Vear's Blog post…

Strengthening international investor relations at Europe's largest property and investment Expo

On 7th October the partnership team, together with colleagues from the Supercluster Board, is heading out to Expo Real, Munich. Joining colleagues from several cities and regions, this is a joint mission to represent the UK in a bid to attract investors looking to deploy large-scale capital and build international investment partnerships to benefit the whole of the UK. Delivered in Partnership with the expert team at UK Cities and Partners, we will be flying the flag for the Oxford to Cambridge region's science, tech and innovation ecosystems and commercial strengths to showcase our region as a globally competitive destination for foreign direct investment and promoting our partners’ investable projects featured in our region’s Investment Prospectus. Read…

Investment project pipeline: We’re soon to launch a new call for projects to feature in the region’s international prospectus. The prospectus launched in May currently details seven prime investment opportunities across R&D, commercial ventures, mixed-use property development, education, skills, and transport infrastructure. Get ahead and register via the expression of interest form to receive details. Go to our investment page for more information.

Regional data insights 

Since the launch in June, the team has published or updated a range of data sets, including insights about regional greenhouse gas emissions, updates to the Renewable Energy Planning Database mapping for the region; Electric Vehicle Charge Point infrastructure estimates for the region; mid-year population estimates; as well as making various improvements to charts and text to improve clarity. Work is progressing to create a Regional Overview Report, compiling the analysis and insights from the Data Observatory into a single document. We are expanding the variety of economic, social, and environmental metrics included so stay tuned!

Here’s a reminder of what the Partnership’s analyst support service can help you with:

Business cases: find and use the evidence you need for a range of business case developments, such as inward investment propositions, economic development projects, business support programmes and more. This may include advice for monitoring and evaluation of economic and environmental performance, if required.

Economic and environmental research projects: support for Further Education and Higher Education academics conducting research projects and developing funding bids covering the Oxford to Cambridge region.

Advice and understanding of data for the region: supporting communities to interpret and understand nuances behind the data where required.

For more information about the Data Observatory and to request analyst support, please get in touch with Arthur Le Geyt or Paolo Ferraro.

Science, innovation and technology business premises – independent study

A few months ago, we appointed Iceni Projects Ltd. to undertake a study looking at the current and future supply of premises and employment baseline data for the businesses engaged in science, innovation and technology sectors within the region. To date, the study has collated contributions from a range of stakeholders including agents, developers and sector representatives. Further information about this work and the initial study findings will be presented at the All-Partner Conference in November.

 In the meantime, we would encourage any current science and technology business occupying space in the region to have their say on the quantity and quality of existing premises in the region. Please pass this survey link to contacts you think would qualify:  www.surveymonkey.com/r/SITPremisesBusinessSurvey

Stronger together: why we need an expanded role for universities in regional growth 

Director of the Arc Universities Group, Alistair Lomax has penned a report published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) last week, looking at the role of universities in overcoming challenges as the government looks again at policies for devolved regional economic development. Read…

On 5thNovember, the Arc Universities Group is hosting a student summit for PhD students, senior leaders in industry and government on embedding sustainability for the long term, to be held at the University of Bedfordshire, Luton. Interesting in learning more about this? Visit their website.

Creating a scientific superpower

Back in June, we were pleased to contribute to the Creating a Science Superpower conference hosted by the Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster Board. They have released a series of podcasts covering the topics discussed. The latest Podcast#5 about the critical role of collaboration in driving national and regional growth is moderated by Board member, Dr Barbara Ghinelli.  

You might be interested in the Podcast on what a good local industrial strategy should look like, with insights from former Secretary of State, Greg Clark, Professor Irene Tracey CBE and Vicky Pryce, moderated by Prof. Greg Clark CBE.

You can listen to them all via major podcast channels.