Overview
Keele University has reimagined its founding principles from 1949 that set about to foster society recovery and reinvention, and since 2017 has created and delivered four new “Deals” – Economy, Health, Culture, and Recovery – as part of its far-reaching regeneration programme for what is one of the most economically-deprived parts of England.
The first and most ambitious of these New Deals was Keele Deal | Economy – a unique commitment by partners across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent to realise the benefits from research and innovation, generate growth, improve healthcare, and put the region at the heart of the transition to a lower carbon economy.
The Deal saw Keele enhance its partnership with local authorities, Staffordshire’s biggest NHS trust, and the Local Enterprise Partnership, leading to one of the largest university-led regeneration programmes in England.
The Challenge
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent is historically one of the poorest regions in Northern Europe, bringing with it multiple cultural and societal challenges.
Keele Deal | Economy was a plan for £70million of investment by Keele University, Staffordshire County Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, and the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership to generate significant long-term economic growth for the region.
By harnessing the power of the cutting-edge research taking place at Keele University, one of the UK’s leading research institutions, the Deal was designed to deliver a significant number of higher value jobs for the next 20 years, improve local health and healthcare, and inject innovation into the heart of the local business community to allow them to be more globally competitive, all while saving 4,000 tonnes of CO2 and putting the region at the heart of the UK’s transition to a lower carbon economy.
Through the Deal, this investment aimed to help to tackle low productivity and grow a positive culture of innovation and research within the region.
Partnerships
Keele Deal | Economy has enabled the University to deliver more than 1,000 support interactions with local micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, as well as number of multinationals such as Siemens.
Research and Innovation
Keele Deal | Economy provided hundreds of local businesses with the opportunity to benefit from knowledge exchange by collaborating with the University’s experienced academics, expert professional support teams, and talented student and graduate body.
The key elements of the Deal are summarised below:
- Keele Research and Innovation Support Programme
- – Supporting almost 500 local businesses to gain competitive advantage by working with students and academics to enable innovative products and services to be brought to market quicker and supporting long-term sustainable growth.
- Mercia Centre for Innovation Leadership
- – Supporting more than 150 local business leaders with innovation leadership and management skills through a prestigious development programme addressing distinctive organisational and leadership challenges for innovation-led, knowledge-intensive businesses across the area.
- Healthcare collaboration
- – Continuing Keele’s long and successful relationship with the NHS, this three-way initiative between university, NHS, and industry supported more than 140 local businesses through improved access to researchers and clinicians to support the development of new innovations in the healthcare sector.
- Smart Energy Network Demonstrator
- – Supporting more than 250 local businesses to save energy or create green energy products through research and innovation.
- – Enabled the creation of Europe’s first Smart Energy Network Demonstrator, transforming the Keele University campus into a world-class demonstrator facility for smart energy research, providing partners with the opportunity to assess the efficiency of new technologies in terms of energy reduction, cost, and CO2 emissions.
Impact
Between 2017 and 2023, Keele Deal | Economy is estimated to have:
- Delivered more than 1,000 partnerships with local businesses
- Created 800 new jobs
- Saved more than 5,000 tonnes of CO2
- Injected £80m into the local economy, forming a significant portion of the estimated £345m GVA which the University contributes to the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire area each year.
