Building back better

The UK’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) lies at the heart of such plans and our mission reflects these three core areas of activity. We work with businesses to help them adapt their products and processes for the global longevity market, unlock innovative activity and de-risk entry for companies of all sizes who wish to enter into this market through our Ageing Intelligence^® services.

We support organisations of all sizes in the public, private and third sectors upskill by understanding and interpreting the dynamics of ageing and longevity and to seize opportunities both to improve the quality of life of their employees and customers and so develop new business opportunities.

And we provide unique national infrastructure thanks to the £40M investment in NICA from the Government and Newcastle University. The award winning Catalyst Innovation Centre provides specialist facilities and co-location space for businesses operating in the growing longevity cluster here in the north east. From The Catalyst we help businesses operating across the world become internationally competitive in the estimated $5.6 trillion p.a. longevity market; we also deliver our own operations in China, Singapore, the Nordic/Baltics and the USA.

Building Back Better rightly emphasises the importance of leveraging the capability of the UK’s geographically dispersed R&D assets, maximising the benefits of innovation for local economies and building on local strengths. NICA does exactly that, drawing on the world class expertise in ageing, data, engineering, innovation & commercialisation within Newcastle University in order to deliver long term, sustainable economic growth for the region and UK plc.

Cities are a fundamental driver of productivity growth, driving prosperity in their wider area. Building Back better has the objective that “every region…to have at least one globally competitive city, acting as hotbeds of innovation and hubs of high value activity”. Newcastle is just such a city, with a tightly coupled, flourishing innovation ecosystem delivering high value economic growth. NICA’s mission aligns closely with the ambition set out within Building Back Better, leading the region’s development of one of the most exciting global market opportunities. We look forward to working closely with government on its Innovation Strategy, its Research & Development Places Strategy and its sector visions over the next 12 months to help deliver economic growth for Newcastle, the North East and UK plc.