Yorkshire Energy Park and uni join forces on £200m scheme
PLANS TO ESTABLISH CAMPUS TO RETRAIN AND UPSKILL WORKERS
YORKSHIRE Energy Park is to host University of Lincoln as its principal education partner on the £200m scheme. The 25-year-old academic institution will establish a campus on the former Hedon aerodrome site, east of Hull, with a mandate to upskill and reskill those set to work there.
It was announced at the opening of The Waterline Summit, with project director Andrew Reynolds a panelist on the first event.
The team said the award-winning university brings an international reputation for its quality of teaching and research, and will help bolster and retain talent.
Yorkshire Energy Park is set to bring together forward-thinking businesses from across the globe to create and deliver innovation and world firsts, including allied technology and digital sectors.
An innovative research and devel- opment offer is planned, marrying the industries housed on the park in a UK Centre of Excellence, with onsite vocational training and higher education facilities to develop the next generation of the workforce in key industries for its occupiers.
Mr Reynolds said: “We’re delighted to welcome the University of Lincoln as our principal education partner and this is the next big step forward for this exciting development.
“Ensuring we keep skills and talent in these important industries local is so important and this partnership will offer the perfect opportunity and platform to do this.
“Aligned to the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda to reduce geographical and regional inequality, Yorkshire Energy Park has the potential to create up to 4,480 jobs, as well as apprenticeship, training and post-graduate opportunities for local people.
“The University of Lincoln is perfectly placed to support and develop this and we’re excited to see the potential as the partnership grows.”
Research being undertaken already aligns with some of Yorkshire Energy Park’s key objectives. And training opportunities have started already, with students getting involved in the ecological project alongside developers.
Professor Libby John, Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of the College of Science, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen as the academic partner to the Yorkshire Energy Park, which will play a huge role in revitalising the local economy and creating positive societal impact.
“We look forward to working collaboratively with YEP partners to enhance its education, innovation and research capabilities, while driving forward the sustainability and net zero agendas.”
The academic partnership follows August’s welcome of Vital Energi to its board.
Giving an update to The Waterline Summit, Mr Reynolds told how the 212 acre site will be “an energy and technology park based on everything people here are working on,” as relationships are built with the neighbouring port and Saltend Chemicals Park.
He said: “We are talking ptih PX Group, ABP, and effectively it creates 1,000 acres of land - a focal point for all the net zero energy business. We are aiming to start on site in the middle of next year, with an energy centre for Vial Energi.
“It is an ambitious project but the timing is right, energy is a no brainer, we need to make clean energy. We are on a freeport site with tax benefits and occupier benefits, and it is just the place where you look at a map and the UK’S Energy Estuary is bang in the centre of it.”
He is confident about delivery too. “The planning consent lasts for ten years, and I’d be very disappointed if within the next five years we haven’t seen the whole thing built out.
“Demand is there, we have seen the scale of the opportunity.”