Low carbon innovation centre for SMEs

Led by the University of Hull, the Aura Innovation Centre is a low carbon innovation centre for businesses.

Supported by a wide range of leading organisations in the region and nationally, the Centre is a collaboration with global renewable energy industry players (Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Equinor and Orsted), leading UK research institutions (the Universities of Sheffield and Durham), Government organisations (East Riding of Yorkshire Council, ORE Catapult, GreenPort Hull) and other organisations in the region.

The Centre, located at Bridgehead Business Park in Hessle, takes a strategic view of the low carbon sector, identifying opportunities where organisations can collaborate to innovate in order to find solutions for the challenges they face and build the region’s ability to meet net zero targets. That might be through partnership between industry and academia for large scale long term research projects, smaller scale research and innovation working with the region’s large cohort of SMEs who are the backbone of the economy, or helping a small business access cutting edge technology that can help make their product greener.

The Centre officially opened in 2020, and now hosts an annual Festival of Green Innovation, as well as a range of large events, networking meetings and collaborative opportunities. The University and Aura are key partners with Marketing Humber in delivering the annual Waterline Summit.

The £12m Aura Innovation Centre obtained funding from the European Regional Development Fund, Regional Growth Fund Green Port Growth Programme and match funding from the University of Hull and provides large businesses and SMEs with the space to collaborate and innovate to deliver low-carbon energy and clean growth for the Humber.

It provides a focal point for kick starting innovation through collaboration, by bringing together experts at the University of Hull with businesses (particularly the region’s small and medium size companies) in the Humber region and beyond.

More than 270 dynamic, high growth businesses have already engaged with the

Aura Innovation Centre and the University of Hull – helping them to accelerate their innovation projects in the low carbon space. It gives businesses easy access to cutting-edge facilities and technical expertise and support, specialist funded support and a space to innovate and collaborate with academic and industry experts – driving clean business growth in the Humber and beyond.

Tackling one of the world’s biggest challenges: to become a greener and more sustainable planet, the Humber’s only Net Zero Carbon Centre, at the Aura Innovation Centre, provides a focus for SMEs to access support and collaborate. Resulting in: funding for over 270 SMES, 175 jobs and more than 260 new products and services.

In just six months following lockdown during the pandemic, the Aura Innovation Centre welcomed over 1,000 people to events such as workshops, conferences, networking and courses, with demand continuing to grow for innovative, sustainable event space.

To contact the Aura Innovation Centre please call 01482 464700 or by email aic. aura@hull.ac.uk

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