A new £22.5m fund for “cutting-edge” start-ups has been launched by a mayor and a region’s universities.
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside universities have launched the fund to support early-stage local businesses spun out from research projects.
McGuinness said: “Our five universities have joined with us in a bold move to ensure their spinout companies can succeed for our region.”
The group said it aimed to support at least 30 firms in the first five years.
The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority (MSA) will be contributing £10m to the pot, whereas the universities will contribute £12.5m.
The group said the aim of the fund was to support local businesses based on academic research which struggled to get funding from private investors.
They said the pot would help “tackle long-standing market failures” which have hampered “innovation-led” growth in the region.
The new funding follows the region’s universities getting £8.9m from Research England last year to better “commercialise impactful research“.
