Opportunity North East - December 2023 Newsletter

Throughout 2023 Opportunity North East (ONE), ONE Digital Tech, ONE Food, Drink & Agriculture and ONE Life sciences Boards and team members continued to support the diversification of the regional economy, working with entrepreneurs to innovate and create and grow high-skill, high-value jobs.

This newsletter reflects on progress achieved in the year and recent developments.

Best wishes for a safe and peaceful end to the year and a healthy and prosperous 2024.

Diversifying the economy in 2023

“2023 has been a year of major milestones in delivering transformational projects. These projects are the key to future growth opportunities for ambitious entrepreneurs and start-ups, scaling businesses innovating and growing now, and expanding activity in the natural environment - creating a region where people choose to visit, live, study, and find fulfilling work. It has been a year of progress in driving economic diversification in the region. ONE continues to identify opportunities with industry, secure resources and funding and deliver at pace.”

Jennifer Craw, CEO, Opportunity North East

• ONE worked with 400 businesses supporting entrepreneurship, innovation, market development, internationalisation, and leadership.
• ￡1.4 million of ONE Enterprise Fund interest-free loans provided to ambitious businesses at critical points in their growth.
• ONE Tech Hub is at the heart of the digital tech community, the third largest in Scotland, where entrepreneurs and founders, innovative businesses, and support organisations are based and meet, share, learn, work and grow together.
• ONE SeedPod innovation hub to accelerate the growth of food and drink businesses, moved into the build phase in spring 2023 and will open in 2025.
• ONE BioHub opened in August and is the new-build home for start-up and scale-up life sciences companies. More than 1,200 members of the region's life sciences community have already used the meeting, collaboration and events spaces.
• The momentum achieved in attracting visitors to the region before the pandemic reinforces the continued need for investment in the visitor economy. ONE is now the majority funder of VisitAberdeenshire, and supports the Tourism Business Game Changer programme, Provenance Food & Drink Festival and the industry-led Hospitality Apprenticeship North East programmes.
• North East Adventure Tourism (NEAT) capital secured from the Just Transition Fund firmly established the region as a must visit destination with the launch of Tarland Trails mountain biking trail centre on Deeside and the pump track at Transition Extreme at Aberdeen beachfront.

“Our focus on diversifying our economy is bearing fruit and as we look to a new year there is real cause for optimism. At a time when the Scottish and UK economies have stubbornly poor levels of growth and productivity, the work ONE is doing is more relevant and essential than ever.”

Sir Ian Wood KT GBE, Chair, Opportunity North East

Food and drink summit demonstrates appetite for growth

Brand leaders and industry experts shared their experiences and insights on enabling start-ups to scale faster, aligning ambitious businesses with supportive investors, product innovation, advanced manufacturing, and the next mega-trends at the Future of Food & Drink Summit in Aberdeen.

The summit, co-created by The Times and Opportunity North East, was a forum to focus on sector growth and share north east Scotland's industry ambition with an influential national audience of entrepreneurs, investors and innovators.

Held at P&J Live, the event showcased ONE SeedPod's role in accelerating growth and innovation in food and drink manufacturing to more than 200 industry professionals.

“Hosting the summit in Aberdeen was an important step in setting out our ambitious vision to put food and drink manufacturing at the heart of North-east Scotland's future economy. At the summit, we told the capacity audience that our region aims to lead Scotland in low-carbon food production, advanced digital automated manufacturing, and premium market development.”

David Kilshaw OBE, Chair of the ONE SeedPod Board

Building adventure tourism profile

The unique approach to developing the region’s adventure tourism opportunity is driving forward investment in new infrastructure and attracting national and international recognition.

Capital funding secured from the Just Transition Fund is delivering the first iconic projects for the North East Adventure Tourism (NEAT) project.

The first phase of Transition Extreme’s ambitious development plans saw the installation of a pump track at its Aberdeen beachfront location.

Tarland Trails mountain biking trail centre opened in the summer following a ￡1.1m investment, creating a world-class and multi-award-winning mountain biking destination on Deeside. It hit its annual visitor target in its first five weeks with over 14,000 riders bringing economic benefits to the region.

Aberdeenshire Trail Association was recognised with a Protect and Preserve award at the 2023 International Mountain Biking Association Europe Summit in Switzerland and collected Trail Association of the Year at the Scottish Mountain Bike Awards for the second year running. Aberdeenshire was named destination of the year, again for the second consecutive year. Limitlass, hosted at Glen Tanar on Deeside, was named the event of the year.

The second year of NEAT Just Transition funding supports investment in facilities at Tarland Trails, the next stage of outdoor development at Transition Extreme and new water sports infrastructure at Huntly Development Trust’s Greenmyres site.

Connecting innovative businesses with international investors

ONE brought 11 ambitious and innovative digital tech and life sciences businesses together with a delegation of US and European investors at ONE BioHub and ONE Tech Hub in November.

Working with Scottish Development International, ONE connected the investors with businesses developing new tech solutions and novel treatments for global health challenges – showcasing investment opportunities to drive growth in two of the region’s key sectors.

The investors included asset managers acting for high-net-worth individuals and family offices, institutions and VC interests, angel investors and serial tech entrepreneurs.

Two high-energy pitch sessions with lots of investor interest were the starting point for serious follow-up discussions with the entrepreneurs and founders. The investors were particularly impressed by the founders and businesses and the tangible entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region.