The latest ‘TenU Hosts’ event, titled Regional Opportunities, focuses on attracting global and domestic investment into areas of the UK away from the south-east of England and areas of the US between the east and west coastal regions.

The event will be chaired by Dr George Baxter, chief executive officer of Edinburgh Innovations.

In addition to Edinburgh, TenU comprises the heads of equivalent offices at the University of Cambridge, Columbia University, Imperial College London, KU Leuven, University of Manchester, MIT, University of Oxford, Stanford University, and UCL. The collaboration is funded by Research England.

TenU Hosts Regional Opportunities will highlight collaborative approaches that have proven successful and discuss policy incentives to increase their potential. This includes implications for national policy – the UK Government’s levelling up agenda and R&D Place Strategy, and the US Innovation and Competition Act, which authorises investment in regional technology hubs.

Dr Baxter said: “Across the US, the UK and Europe there are many world-ranking universities producing exceptional intellectual property that is being relatively under-exploited.

“Our aim at this latest TenU forum is to ensure that investors and national and regional governments don’t miss out on opportunities across perhaps lesser known areas of the UK, Europe and the US.”

The event will feed into a cooperation between Research England and the US’s National Institute of Standards and Technology to map regional innovation and economic development and improve connections between research and industry.

Speakers at the event, hosted online on July 8, include partners from investment firms Osage University Partners, based in the US, and Edinburgh-based Epidarex Capital, as well as Nichole Mercier, Managing Director of the Office of Technology Management at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, and Andrew Wilkinson, CEO of University of Manchester Innovation Factory.

Dr Baxter added: “The calibre of this panel and the content of the event will drive and inform positive policy discussions within the UK and Scottish governments on the importance and opportunity of university research and innovation.”

It is the fourth TenU Hosts event to take place since the organisation was launched in July 2020. Previous events have focused on the post-Covid economic recovery, entrepreneurial ecosystems and international investment.