It was a delight for us in EPSRC to hold our latest regional engagement event across Yorkshire, the North East and the Humber this week. Huge thank you to Sarah Thompson and all colleagues at the University of York for hosting us, and to the representatives of the twelve universities across the region who attended.
It was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the great work going on across the EPS community, hear about the latest challenges and opportunities, and talk about our collective priorities.
EPSRC Executive Chair Charlotte Deane gave the plenary talk emphasising the need to work together to:
- Future proof the STEM workforce for the productivity of UK plc
- Build a sustainable and vibrant National Capability in research and infrastructure for science-driven growth; and
- Catalyse the research and innovation the UK needs in Critical Technologies and Net Zero
We then had thought provoking talks from Hamdi Torun (Northumbria) who talked about Place-based opportunities, drawing on experience of the Place Based Impact Acceleration Account funded in round 1. This was followed by Helen Gleeson (Leeds) and Stuart Higgins (York) reflecting on their experiences of generating bottom-up ideas and securing funding, commenting on some of the critical factors that go into this.
Discussions were wide-ranging in the afternoon, focussing on Place-based considerations, especially options for how this might evolve, and Ideas, especially working together to generate the most compelling evidence that highlights the importance of discovery-led research as a National Capability.
Than you to Joe Shearring for leading this event for EPSRC and to everyone who attended from across Huddersfield University, Newcastle University, Northumbria University, Sheffield-Hallam University, Teeside University, University of Bradford, University of Durham, University of Hull, University of Leeds, University of Sheffield, University of Sunderland and the University of York
