The University of Hull’s Flood Innovation Centre and Aura Innovation Centre have each been awarded a share of grant funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). The funding will enable them to carry out further innovative work in their respective fields to support businesses and community organisations in the Hull area.
Last autumn, Hull City Council invited organisations to apply for a share of the UKSPF funding, which is a key part of the Government’s ‘Levelling Up’ agenda. It was recently announced that a total of £1.1 million has been shared between 29 projects, which received grants ranging from £4,000 to £100,000. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund aims to promote high quality skills training, supporting pay, employment and productivity growth and increasing life chances. It supports the delivery of economic improvements in Hull, aligned with the Government’s ‘Levelling Up Programme’, which has three main priorities, relating to communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.
The Flood Innovation Centre has been awarded £21,000 to deliver a Community Sector Flood Resilience Pilot project, working with two community organisations in Hull that are at risk of flooding. The funding will allow the team to fully fund and showcase low-cost flood resilience measures to encourage other organisations to take steps to improve their flood resilience in the future. As well as providing a valuable case study and offering best practice guidance, it’s hoped that the project will eventually support the roll-out of a wider community flood resilience programme in the area.
Meanwhile, Aura Innovation Centre was allocated funding of £18,000 for its Decarbonising Hull Innovation Pump-primer (DHIP) project, which will deliver events, workshops and innovation support to help Hull businesses capitalise on the significant opportunities arising from regional decarbonisation plans. By the end of March, 20 local businesses will have been supported by the DHIP project, which will also put in place foundations for the University of Hull’s proposed Humber Innovation Support Programme (HISP). HISP will complement Hull’s central business support service by enabling businesses, particularly SMEs, to innovate, generating jobs and growth as the region makes the transition to a high-value, net zero economy.
Sarah Clark, Aura Operations Manager, said: “We were delighted to learn that our recent applications for UKSPF grants to fund these two invaluable and innovative projects have both been successful. Work on the delivery of these projects is already being carried out by the Flood Innovation Centre and Aura Innovation Centre, contributing towards efforts to make Hull more resilient to the risk of flooding in our changing climate, and enabling businesses to play their part in helping the region to reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.”
The Flood Innovation Centre was set up to drive innovation and support different approaches and solutions to flood resilience. Working in the local community with businesses and charitable organisations, the Flood Innovation Centre is helping to establish the Humber as a centre of excellence for developments in flood innovation.
Aura Innovation Centre is at the forefront of innovation through leading collaboration, pioneering ideas and outstanding innovation. It finds solutions for the challenges we face, from technical and operational to economic and societal, working as a facilitator to accelerate ground-breaking solutions with partners to help them collaborate for innovation – for the region, the UK and globally.
The Flood Innovation Centre are already working with two community organisations in Hull, who are set to benefit from the SPF funding – read our case study to find out more.