2023 is set to be an exciting and jam-packed year for the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP). Emma Ward, Research, Evidence and Analysis Programme Manager at the North East LEP takes a look back over the last year and outlines priorities for 2023.
Our ambition as an organisation is that the North East is recognised for its innovative, collaboration and action-oriented evidence activities. Over the last 12 months, the team has been committed to driving forward this ambition and I’m incredibly proud of everything we have achieved to date. Building on the evidence assets we have developed and delivered on behalf of the region, in 2023 we will continue to strengthen our activity and looks for new opportunities for innovation.
North East Evidence Hub
In May 2022, we relaunched the North East Evidence Hub. This platform houses regional data and evidence and provides tools for our partners and stakeholders to use and explore this data and evidence in a simple and accessible way. We have invested in the development of this platform as we believe it is a regional asset, one that transforms the way we think about, use and interact with data and evidence.
We have increased the breadth and depth of data available on the site, exploring new themes such as Net Zero and we will continue to expand what is available on the Hub in 2023. We have also published a significant amount of research and analytical insight pieces, such as the domestic energy skills assessment, digital exclusion in the North East LEP area and the interim evaluation of the North East Strategy Economic Plan.
Looking ahead, we will be working behind the scenes to improve the functionality, visualisations and automation of the Hub to be able to bring you the most up-to-date data.
Our Economy 2022
On November 15, we launched our latest state of the region analysis and held a launch event which was attended by over 200 delegates. We had a great line up of expert speakers, providing an opportunity to discuss the current economic performance of our region, and how national and international issues might be impacting growth. We published a comprehensive evidence base, delving into the implications of cost of living on our businesses, income and households.
Alongside Our Economy, we also published the findings from emergent markets study, where we explored global trends and economic markets that present opportunities for future regional growth. This is the first time the North East LEP has undertaken economic foresighting activity of this nature, and outputs generated from this research have been and continue to be valuable in shaping our strategy development and delivery.
For 2023, we are already planning for Our Economy and want to build upon the success of last year’s event and online content. We are reviewing the event feedback and using data analytics from the Evidence Hub to see what content you are interacting with to help shape our thinking for this year.
Strengthening the region’s evidence base
We actively develop and support the delivery of collaborative evidence activities for the region. We work closely with our partners to understand their data and research requirements and generate timely evidence outputs for key projects, such as UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Net Zero North East and sectoral deep dives for Digital Tech and Advanced Manufacturing.
In 2023, we will continue to build and strengthen our relationships with partners to ensure we are supporting your evidence activities. We will be looking to commission and publish our own research to support the development of the region’s evidence base and welcome discussions on opportunities for collaboration. Watch this space for research on apprenticeships, productivity and evaluations on a number of our projects.
Data analysis
We are committed to providing the region with up-to-date data on key areas of focus and interest relating to our economy. Throughout the year, the team has produced regular commentary on the labour market data releases and updating relevant pages on the Evidence Hub. We have also started to do regular analysis and commentary on trade data releases, available here and will continue to update this over the next year as part of our internationalisation work.
This year, we will start to build and develop our analysis of the Census 2021. Our team is eager to explore this dataset and will be publishing regular analysis on the Evidence Hub. We will be focussing on topics such as population, work and housing initially and will work with partners such as Transport North East to further enhance our analysis on datasets such as travel to work information.
Working in partnership
Partnership is at the core of our approach, and we work with partners, experts and consultants to take forward our programme of work, drawing in the knowledge, expertise and capacity to support the region’s economy. We have worked closely with our regional universities over the last 12 months, and have some exiting projects in the pipeline. We also have built strong relationships with organisations such as ONS and the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth.
We are also supporting the development of the Northern Evidence Network, which brings together the LEPs and Combined Authorities operating at a Northern Powerhouse level. Its ambition is to align key research questions and analytical activities where appropriate at the scale of the North and to maximise expertise and share knowledge through the network. In 2023, we will be actively supporting this work, engaging in the data and research workstream to ensure that any evidence outputs add value to our regional work.