Helping our region to thrive

Durham University has been part of North East England for nearly 200 years – and we’re working with friends and partners in the region to make it an even more attractive place to study, work and live for the future.

The UK Government has made ‘Levelling Up’ across the regions of the UK a key part of its domestic policy agenda, and we’re playing an important role in achieving this, for the benefit of our region and communities. Here are some examples.

Supporting the economy…

• Our Orbit enterprise zone, located at the North East Technology Park (NETPark) in Sedgefield, County Durham, is a hub of innovation for ambitious science and technology companies.
• We’re helping commercialise innovation, through the Northern Accelerator project.
• We worked with Durham-based Atom Bank to develop a digital twin and offer its customers app-based banking.
• We’re supporting apprentices and local jobs, through the UK Government’s Apprenticeship Levy fund.
• The Durham University spin-out company Magnitude Biosciences is helping prevent degenerative diseases, having been supported from the Intensive Industrial Innovation Programme (IIIP), a collaboration of four North East England universities.
• The TechUP programme provides free programmes to help women and people from underserved backgrounds to retrain into tech careers.

Supporting education and learning…

• We’re furthering post-16 mathematics education with the Durham Mathematics School.
• We have a successful scholarship programme for students from North East England to study with us.
• We’re supporting the Laidlaw Teaching and Leadership Centre at Sedgefield Community College, County Durham.
• We offer a wide range of research-based continuing professional development (CPD) and outreach in science for schools and teachers.

Investment, innovation, job creation, development

Our Vice-Chancellor and Warden, Professor Karen O’Brien, commented: “We’re proud to have worked with partners across North East England for nearly 200 years to drive investment, innovation, job creation and development.

“We’re actively engaged with our local communities to tackle inequalities and embrace new opportunities, through our impactful research, innovation and investment to transform lives for the better.

“We welcome initiatives to level up the economy and educational opportunities in the North East and look forward to continuing discussions, locally and nationally, on how we can contribute to this important agenda.”

Find out more

• Read a blog from a student who benefitted from one of our scholarships
• Interested in studying with us?
• Universities UK is running the #GettingResults campaign to highlight how universities across the UK are supporting the Levelling Up agenda.