University Enterprise Zones: boosting local business

Our report, Our universities: generating growth and opportunity, listed four key recommendations for the UK Government to help enable universities to work with businesses and local government to kickstart growth and opportunity in left-behind areas of the UK.

One of our key recommendations was for the government to establish a University Enterprise Zone (UEZ) in every university in England. We also recommended that devolved administrations consider similar developments in the context of UK and devolved economic policy.

At the moment, UEZs are an England-only programme. However, universities are involved in similar programmes across the devolved nations, such as Interface in Scotland and Enterprise Zones in Wales.

UEZs are a pre-existing programme which have been evaluated by the government to provide excellent return on investment, especially in left-behind areas.

In his Autumn Statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that he would ‘change [the government’s] focus on investment zones, which will now focus on leveraging our research strengths by being centred on universities in left behind areas to help build clusters for our new growth industries.’

This is a great opportunity for the government to help deepen local-level ties between universities, local businesses, and upskilling people in their local communities.

Universities are already deeply embedded in this work through delivering the Help to Grow: Management Course, by providing support to businesses and charities worth more than £11.6 billion over the next five years all the while creating 21,650 new businesses. In fact, many of these programmes are delivered through UEZs.

University Enterprise Zones (UEZs) are specified areas where universities and local business work together to boost productivity, growth, innovation and investment, adding value to local enterprises and business. No two UEZs are identical. Many have specific focuses, such as health tech, digital innovation, or urban design.

UEZs aim to:

• provide incubator and growth places for small businesses
• encourage businesses to interact with universities, including research and business support
• provide business support to from universities’ enterprise teams, often through the government’s Help to Grow scheme
• provide access high tech facilities, such as wind tunnels, 3D printing, virtual reality or digital suites, laboratories, etc
• generating and commercialisable innovation and delivering skills
• provide access to investors and other funding opportunities

• A 2017 Nesta report highlights how all business incubators in the North East of England relied on university or public funding. In the West Midlands, Wales and Scotland, that figure stood at 40%.
• The same report discovered that overall, incubators and accelerators across the UK support around 3,450 and 3,660 new businesses per year, and therefore represent an important component of the start-up ecosystem.
• In addition to the initial funding pot of £20 million, UEZs set up in 2019 were able to raise an additional £77.3 million. This amounts to an additional £4.50 for every £1 of initial project funding.

UEZs across the country are contributing to levelling up, economic growth and achieving science superpower status. 

A leading example of the impact UEZs have is the Digital Health Enterprise Zone (DHEZ) in Bradford.

Find out more about these case studies in the full publication (pdf).