Northern Accelerator has been awarded the prestigious Place-Based Knowledge Exchange (KE) Initiative of the Year at the PraxisAuril Knowledge Exchange Awards 2024.
Having transformed research commercialisation across the North East and now grown to a collaboration of six universities, Northern Accelerator received the sector award at a ceremony in Bristol on 21 November.
The recognition celebrates Northern Accelerator's impactful work in driving economic growth, innovation, and social value through a strong partnership of Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, Teesside and York Universities.
Translating world-leading research into sustainable business
Northern Accelerator helps founding academics create R&D intensive, high potential spinouts in the North East and North Yorkshire, realising social and environmental impact from research, and helping create more and better jobs. By supporting technology transfer through a combination of training, funding, networking and executive leadership, the programme has significantly boosted the rate of commercialisation of academic research.
The shared vision of the partners, the founders and funders is that the programme will contribute to economic growth in the North East. To date we've launched over 50 businesses, with many now based in regional innovation hubs like Newcastle Helix and Durham's NETPark.
Northern Accelerator is funded by Research England's Connecting Capability Fund, and by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund through Durham County Council and The North East Combined Authority
Recognition from the knowledge exchange sector
Knowledge Exchange UK (formerly PraxisAuril) is a world-leading professional association for Knowledge Exchange practitioners. They support and enable professional knowledge exchange and commercialisation between universities and business, helping members stand out as the most effective practitioners in their field, anywhere in the world.
Place-based collaboration
The award underscores the growing recognition of the North East as a hub for innovation, research and development. By focusing on place-based knowledge exchange, Northern Accelerator has worked to ensure that the benefits of research commercialisation are felt within the region, contributing to job creation, investment, and regional regeneration.
