- “We are investing in the support system that is needed so businesses with growth ambitions have the opportunity to stay near and go far." - Oliver Coppard, Mayor, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority
The Royal Academy of Engineering has launched a new Enterprise Hub in Sheffield, designed to support local engineering and technology innovators and entrepreneurs with equity-free funding, smart and flexible training and mentoring from industry experts.
Sheffield will be the Academy’s sixth location outside of London, alongside Belfast, Swansea, Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle. Led by Senior Enterprise Manager Dr Rachel Smith FIMMM FIET, the Hub in Sheffield will seek to advance IP-rich innovations from all areas of engineering and technology.
Regional strengths
The Academy believes Sheffield and the wider South Yorkshire region has all the vital ingredients to grow the number of local emerging deep tech companies. The city hosts over 60,000 students across the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University. Together, they produce a strong pipeline of STEM graduates and postgraduates, with a higher STEM enrolment share (55%) than the national average (45%).
In common with other regional universities, retention of talent is a significant issue post-graduation. Many former students leave the area within a couple of years for bigger cities, particularly London.
However, Sheffield has a high volume of engineering employment and productivity, with strengths in manufacturing and process innovation. It has a skilled workforce, with 45% of the working-age population holding NVQ4+ qualifications, slightly above the national average.
The city has widely recognised strengths in advanced manufacturing, supported by centres of excellence like the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and specialised innovation centres in gene therapy and sustainable aviation fuels.
Ongoing Enterprise Hub schemes in Yorkshire
It is by building on these impressive research strengths that the Academy believes the new Hub can help make a real difference to the local economy. The universities in Sheffield and from across the wider region already have an impressive track record in commercialising their deep tech research. Companies like Phlux, Tribosonics and Concrete4Change (already Enterprise Hub Members) are testament to that success.
Christina King, CCO at Tribosonics, went through the Shott Scale Up Accelerator programme with the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise Hub, and says the impact on the business and her skillset was profound: “The programme came at exactly the right time in our scale journey and my development needs... and have fed into the business from a strategic and practical level. The highlight was my weeklong course at Harvard Business School on negotiation, which has fed into building robust relationships where both parties are winning from the collaboration.”
The Academy’s Regional Talent Engines programme has been active in the wider Yorkshire and Humber region since it was launched in 2022, providing funding and training for experienced engineers with a novel idea at pre-seed stage. The latest cohort have just started their training and will join existing Enterprise Hub members from across the region in helping to energise the local startup scene.
With dedicated support from the Academy’s long established and successful Enterprise Fellowship and Shott ScaleUp Accelerator programmes, the new Hub aims to increase the number of high-value university spinouts in the area and help to attract and retain local talent, at every career level.
Launch of the Sheffield Hub at Cutler's Hall. Front row L-R: Sir John Lazar, Rachel Smith, Professor Keith Jackson, Gillian Gregg and Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh.
Supporting local economic goals
Sheffield City Council’s strategic direction is guided by the Sheffield City Goals for 2035, centred on building a creative and entrepreneurial local economy that supports talent retention, local businesses, and inclusive prosperity.
The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s growth plan focuses on attracting investment to areas including Sheffield City Centre, the Innovation Spine and the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District. Recent plans aim to foster innovation, mixed-use development and interventions to support startups and scale-ups and are all areas where the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise team believe they can help make a difference.
Sharing expertise and attracting investors
The Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub is the number three startup hub in the UK, and 14th in Europe according to a Financial Times ranking, and came out top in the UK for networking (1). Innovators supported by the Enterprise Hub have raised over £3bn in additional funding and created almost 6,000 jobs since 2013.
The Enterprise Hub offers:
- Access to the mentoring capability of the highly talented engineers and business leaders that make up the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship.
- Equity-free funding.
- Smart and flexible training designed around the needs of entrepreneurs.
- A dedicated presence in the UK’s nations and regions, embedded in the local ecosystem.
- Long-lasting ongoing benefit and support from the Academy’s global network.
The Academy has recently set out its Strategy 2030, with the aim of ‘Engineering better lives’, and regional Enterprise Hubs are an important part of how they will do that. By becoming embedded in local innovation ecosystems, the Hubs can understand and respond to regional needs, enabling the Academy to deliver meaningful impact at a local, national, and global level.
Oliver Coppard, Mayor, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority says:
"The launch of the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub in Sheffield is yet more evidence of South Yorkshire’s ambition to build a bigger, better, and fairer economy. It adds further strength to our local innovation ecosystem and will help our businesses start, scale, and lead global industries.”
“Supporting new, regional collaborations like this one will help to deliver the kind of good growth that restores pride, purpose, and prosperity to every community in South Yorkshire. We are investing in the support system that is needed so businesses with growth ambitions have the opportunity to stay near and go far."
Gillian Gregg, Associate Director, Regional Engagement at the Royal Academy of Engineering, says:
“We look forward to working with Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield councils to deliver opportunities for talented people in the area, so they can translate their ideas into successful business that can set seed and bloom in Yorkshire.”
“We have been working with founders in the region for some time and hope that by having a physical presence in Sheffield, this will act as a beacon to attract more entrepreneurs to the community, as we continue to work alongside regional leaders to build and deliver on the region’s engineering economy ambition”
Notes for editors
1. FT/Statista/Sifted ranking of Academy’s Enterprise Hub as number three in the UK and 14th in Europe. Enterprise Hub climbs to number three spot in UK in FT’s Start-up Hubs 2025 ranking 2. The Enterprise Hub Sheffield is being established with support from South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.
3. The Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub was formally launched in April 2013. Since then, we have supported over 600 researchers, recent graduates, and leaders of SMEs to start and scale up businesses that can give practical application to innovative engineering solutions. We’ve awarded over £19 million in grant funding, and our Hub Members have created over 6,100 jobs and raised over £3.8 billion in funding.
4. The Royal Academy of Engineering creates and leads a community of outstanding experts and innovators to engineer better lives. As a charity and a Fellowship, we deliver public benefit from excellence in engineering and technology and convene leading businesspeople, entrepreneurs, innovators and academics across engineering and technology. As a National Academy, we provide leadership for engineering and technology, and independent, expert advice to policymakers in the UK and beyond.
Our work is enabled by funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, corporate and university partners, charitable trusts and foundations, and individual donors.