Business support programme helps 25 Northumberland organisations to diversify thanks to £85,000 grant funding

The concept of the Rural Design Centre Innovation Project, delivered by Advance Northumberland in partnership with the Innovation SuperNetwork and Northumbria University, is using rural challenges as a catalyst to drive innovation and diversification.

One of its successes is the Solar Village Halls Challenge, delivered in collaboration with the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE), which brought together 19 community organisations to address the challenge of escalating energy costs and the potential risks of closure of these important community spaces.

The solution identified was to assist in accessing funding to provide technical expertise to enable these buildings to become self-sufficient through the installation of solar panels on the roofs which would run electricity to batteries and then sell excess electricity back to the grid. This is leading to the development of a community-benefit energy company.

The Ad Gefrin Design Challenge, Belsay Design Challenge and Hadrian’s Wall Digital Challenge also provided an opportunity to showcase local talent as well as local places of interest and tourist attractions.

Another valuable challenge has been around the reality of day-to-day life for households living off-grid. As part of their Powerless People challenge a long-term collaboration between the project and Community Action Northumberland (CAN) was formed. The work meant that information could be gathered about the issues attributed to being off grid.

The team worked with a local business to provide specialist knowledge in the development and launch of a new service providing installation, maintenance and on-call facilities for home generator systems.

This is just one of 70 new services or products expected to be introduced to the market as a result of the innovation support from the team.

The project has successfully supported 25 organisations to diversify through providing £85,000 of grant funding for a range of projects from copyright and patenting facilitation to the creation of an augmented reality for the promotion of our cultural heritage.

As part of the Rural Catalyst partnership with the NICRE, two large-scale annual hybrid events took place, with nearly 300 people attending either Alnwick Garden in 2021 or Charlton Hall in 2022.