In her monthly column, Our Vice-Chancellor Professor Karen O'Brien reacts to the Comprehensive Spending Review and reflects on the positive contribution Durham University makes regionally, nationally and globally.
The headlines from last week’s Comprehensive Spending Review largely focused on health, education, crime, and defence – and rightly so: these are matters that affect us all.
Amidst all the figures, you might have spotted an £86 billion spending commitment for research and development, including targeted support for regions through a new Local Innovation Partnerships Fund.
We warmly welcome this investment, because it will enable universities including ourselves to go further still in driving prosperity and creating jobs.
North East England’s universities are already global leaders in clean energy, life sciences, health innovation, advanced manufacturing, digital technologies, supercomputing, and space technology.
With this support, we can scale up research, build more and better partnerships with business, and make even more of an impact in our city, county and region.
A recent independent report found that the N8 universities, Durham, Newcastle, Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, and York, are worth £18.8 billion to the UK every year, and support nearly 100,000 jobs.
They are big numbers. Let me also share some stories.
We are working with Durham County Council to create a transformational Innovation District in the City; and with Newcastle University and the Offshore Catapult to deliver the Energy Central Institute and equip people with skills for the growing offshore wind energy industry.
Our graduates are starting fantastic new companies, such as Low Carbon Materials, which produces carbon-negative aggregates; and our academics are applying their research to practical solutions, such as through the life sciences firm Magnitude Biosciences.
At the same time, we are breaking down barriers to success for people from all backgrounds – supporting schools, working to recruit students from groups that are under-represented in higher education, and offering sector-leading financial support to students where it is needed.
Through the Durham Learning Alliance, we are working with local further education colleges to expand educational opportunities; and with the Foundation of Light we are fostering better education, health, and wellbeing in some of our most deprived communities.
We recognise that the public finances are strained. We are stepping up to make sure every penny of public money counts.
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