The Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor

The Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor is a partnership that brings together business and political leaders with a shared ambition to make the Tech Corridor region a top-tier destination for technology businesses, talent and investors from around the world.

It joins up the many strengths and assets already present in the Tech Corridor to create the right opportunities, environment, ambition, and visibility needed for exceptional businesses and their employees to thrive.

With world-leading universities, research institutes and science parks, complemented by an ecosystem of businesses and networks to support innovation, commercialisation and manufacturing, the Tech Corridor offers 100km of opportunity across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk for start-ups, growing businesses and investors.

At one end of the Tech Corridor, Norwich is home to both a fast-growing digital tech sector as well as internationally renowned research into food and agri-tech.  At the other end, Cambridge has a world-leading life science cluster and a strong and well-established deep-tech sector.  A strong renewable energy sector stretches along the Norfolk and Suffolk coast and into the Tech Corridor.

Underpinning these sectors is a diverse engineering and manufacturing expertise that can turn cutting-edge research and ideas into products and services – something we see in practice throughout the Corridor.

This diversity of sectors not only makes this region well placed to address some of the major challenges that are facing humanity, including climate change, food security and healthcare. It has also made this region more resilient than other parts of the UK (according to both the PwC Good Growth study 2020 and New Statesman Brexit Vulnerability Index).

The area boasts excellent transport links, centred around the upgraded A11 and regular train services to London and beyond. The airports at Norwich and Stansted, along with the Freeport at nearby Felixstowe, provide excellent international connectivity.

This diversity, resilience and connectivity between business communities across the region and our links to the rest of the UK and Europe makes the Tech Corridor a great place to run a business, and the high quality of life and unconstrained, affordable space to grow make the Tech Corridor the perfect place for employees to call home.

The Cluster Development Roadmap is a significant data-driven study, commissioned by the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor, led by leading design practice, Perkins and Will. The study uses a range of different data sets to map locations with ‘high-growth potential’ in the Tech Corridor region. The goal of this work is to create a holistic view of the Tech Corridor region and bring forward ideas on how the Tech Corridor could grow and develop over the coming decades.  This will help strengthen the inward investment ‘offer’ of the region by enhancing the business environment in key, high-growth locations.

For more insight into the work to date on the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor Cluster Development roadmap, please view the report below:

Engineering Success: This new programme is helping ensure a bright future for Norfolk and Suffolk’s burgeoning engineering and manufacturing clusters.

It was launched by the New Anglia Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (NAAME) group and the Tech Corridor following the award of the grant from the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership’s Innovative Projects Fund, which provides support for initiatives that aid economic growth in the region.

The programme will map and accelerate the development of the engineering and manufacturing cluster across Norfolk and Suffolk. Part of this work will involve setting up an innovative online talent-sharing platform, which will enable employees at companies where work patterns are seasonal to move to another business during quieter periods, thus ensuring all-year-round employment for staff and broadening the talent pool available to firms.

The Tech Corridor’s East of England Investment Catalyst was launched in 2019 to help the region’s hottest tech companies secure private investment, by connecting businesses to investors for both short term investments and long term relationships.  Participants in the first cohort in 2019, who were selected from a long-list of applications, received coaching and advice to hone their business propositions, before presenting their pitches to a panel of expert judges. Five finalists were then selected to pitch at the grand final, held at Barclays Rise London venue.

 In 2021, the Investment Catalyst will be focused on a new custom-built, online platform. The digital platform will enable businesses to showcase their investment proposition online to registered investors as well as access digital content, signposting the different types of support that are available to businesses at different stages of their growth journey. The platform will be open for businesses from across Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge.  

Additionally, 2020 saw the launch of our Funding Fit series – a series of highly targetted, jargon-free business events, which focus on live/open grants and funding calls.  programme was set up with an ambition to increase the number of applications to Innovate UK grants (and other government funding pots) from businesses across Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The events are run collaboratively by the New Anglia LEP and the Tech Corridor, with support from 3rd parties when specialist knowledge/insight is needed.  

Tech Corridor Ambassadors:  We are inviting businesses and thought leaders in the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor to become ambassadors of our pioneering initiative.  Our ambassadors help promote our collective strengths and guiding mission in the Tech Corridor and beyond, as well as helping to embed some of the initiatives on our delivery roadmap. Becoming an ambassador will in turn enable companies to use the growth of the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor to put their own businesses in a positive, holistic spotlight and connect with a like-minded, motivated ecosystem of local firms.

Click here for more details.