New centre to help unlock potential of the UK’s rural economies

Newcastle University and partners will lead a new National Centre to ‘unlock the untapped potential’ of rural economies across the UK.

Led by experts from Newcastle, Warwick, Gloucestershire and the Royal Agricultural Universities, and working with businesses, policy makers, enterprise agencies and communities, the Centre has been awarded £3.8m of funding by Research England.

In England alone, rural businesses comprise over half a million enterprises, 3.6 million employees and contribute over £260bn to GDP.  Yet despite this, they are still largely underexplored and underutilised, according to the researchers behind the new centre.

Through the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE), the aim is to help build the capabilities of policy makers, support agencies, rural businesses and their advisers to create resilient and sustainable economies fit for the 21st century.

Though the decision to fund NICRE was taken before the outbreak of Covid-19, its work will help to understand the ongoing impacts in rural areas and inform recovery. The Centre will begin its work formally this September, but the current crisis means its partners are already working to support the national response to the pandemic.

Centre Director Jeremy Phillipson, Professor of Rural Development at Newcastle University said: ‘A thriving rural economy is crucial to the future prosperity, well-being and resilience of communities across the UK.

‘The need to encourage and release the dynamism and untapped potential of rural areas is even greater now with the combined uncertainty of Brexit and impacts of Covid-19 and what the implications will be, not just for rural areas, but for the UK economy as a whole.

‘Our aim is to strengthen the evidence base relating to rural innovation and enterprise to encourage more effective policy making and support for rural firms and communities at local and national levels. We will work actively with businesses, rural communities and economic development agencies at the local level to share learning and test new approaches to innovation and enterprise.’