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North East fastest growing region in UK Knowledge Economy league table

The 2014 Knowledge Economy Index has revealed that the North East of England has the fastest growing knowledge economy in the UK.

The report, produced by the Northern Ireland Centre for Economic Policy at the University of Ulster, analysed 21 performance indicators including employment, salaries, venture capital investment, research and development; start-ups, PHDs and patent registrations and shows growth in the North East to be significantly ahead of the rest of the UK.

The report ranked the North East as having the third largest knowledge economy in the UK, performing just behind London and the South East, and one of only three regions with above average growth.

The Knowledge Economy in the north east has grown by more 38% in the last five years with performance driven in particular by investment and innovation. The report also noted a 25.4 % rise in start-up knowledge intensive businesses since 2010.

David Dunn, Chief Executive of Sunderland Software City, the initiative supporting the growth of the software sector in the North East, welcomed the report as recognition of the regional efforts by Local Enterprise Partnerships, local authorities, academic institutions, venture capitalists and business support and start-up organisations across the North East to accelerate the growth of knowledge intensive industries in the region, including software and technology, science and healthcare and high-value manufacturing.

David said: “The factors taken into consideration in the report are all areas where these organisations have devoted a significant amount of time and investment developing and nurturing, with the region seeing a marked increase in venture capital investment, R&D spend and patent registrations and, for a number of years, produced more start-ups than any other region outside of London.

“It is these factors that have driven us significantly ahead of other regions in terms of growth and although we’ve been celebrating our achievements in the North East for some time, we are starting to see greater national and international attention due to the industry changing innovations, ground breaking projects and business success stories being fostered in the region.”

Click to view the Knowledge Economy Index Report 2014 http://www.nisp.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/NI-KEI-Full-Report-2014.pdf

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Amy Watson .