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Who's at Helix? | Angela Tait on accelerators, deep tech and building the North East's innovation ecosystem
You can browse our occupier directory and see the organisations that call Newcastle Helix home. But our Who's at Helix? series is about getting beyond the names and meeting the people behind them.
We want to understand what they're working on, the challenges they're tackling and the difference they're hoping to make.
Next up, we meet Angela Tait from the Royal Academy of Engineering's Newcastle Enterprise Hub.
Building the ecosystem
Great ideas are important for creating successful businesses, but the foundation is creating the right environment. That's how ideas flourish.
For Royal Academy of Engineering, that means building a strong regional innovation ecosystem and bringing together the people needed to help new ideas succeed. Angela describes the organisation's role as a convening force between academia, industry, finance and policymakers, creating opportunities for collaboration and helping ambitious businesses move forward.
Getting the right people around the table is a key part of that approach. By connecting expertise, investment, research and industry, the Academy is helping to create the conditions for innovation to thrive across the North East.
Helping ideas reach the market
Creating the right environment is crucial. The next step is helping promising ideas become successful businesses.
Across the region, the Academy runs several accelerator programmes, including support for university spin-outs and engineers at a mid-career stage who have identified a business opportunity but are unsure how to take it to market. Through grant funding, training and mentoring, participants receive support to accelerate their journey from seed to market.
A key part of that support comes from the Academy's network of more than 1,700 Fellows located around the world. These leaders from industry and academia work with founders to provide guidance, challenge ideas and encourage ambitious thinking.
"Highly innovative, highly profitable, high-paid quality jobs."
That's the kind of impact Angela wants to see delivered through the businesses supported by the Academy's programmes.
Why Helix?
Being based at The Catalyst gives the team daily access to the people and organisations helping shape the region's innovation economy.
Angela describes Newcastle Helix as a place where partnerships happen naturally. A conversation in the corridor can become a new connection, a collaboration or an opportunity to solve a shared challenge.
"If you can't do it here, you can't do it anywhere in the city."
The Academy also sees itself as part of a growing innovation corridor across Newcastle, helping strengthen connections between organisations and creating even more opportunities for collaboration.
Innovation with global impact
So what does innovation mean from a Royal Academy of Engineering perspective?
Angela explains that it is about adapting technology for the future in ways that benefit humanity.
Whether that's tackling challenges in climate, health or life sciences, the focus is on supporting deep technologies that may take years to develop but have the potential to create impact at scale.
These are the businesses and technologies that can deliver solutions not just for one person or one region, but for communities around the world.
At Newcastle Helix, the Royal Academy of Engineering is helping ensure innovators have access to the funding, expertise, networks and support needed to turn ambitious ideas into meaningful impact.
