Since 2018, the Arrow programme has helped over 300 businesses to step into the future.
From collaborating with underwater battery manufacturers to teaming up with a start-up to preserve heritage monuments - Arrow supports businesses by connecting them with university expertise, to help them develop innovative new products or services, boosting our regional economy along the way.
Arrow gives businesses access to researchers, expertise and facilities from across four leading North East universities.
What is Arrow?
Developing new products and services brings a variety of challenges, but enterprises don’t have to do it all alone.
Investment in innovation is recognised as a key factor in business success. Arrow adds to the innovation capacity of organisations by offering access to world leading researchers and facilities at Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria and Sunderland Universities, along with wider collaboration links to regional networks.
The Arrow programme provides a range of support to help businesses grow and equip themselves with the tools they need to succeed on their innovation journeys.
This support includes:
- a dedicated team of innovation practitioners
- support for innovative enterprises
- help with research and development
- proof of concept and validation
- specialist data science expertise
- access to state-of-the-art research facilities and equipment
What has Arrow achieved so far?
Arrow has been a gateway for North East businesses, charities and entrepreneurs to access world-class facilities and university expertise. It breaks down barriers, offering bespoke support and advice, allowing companies to test-drive the relationship to ensure a good fit.
Over 300 businesses have already benefitted from the programme, whether through access to research, university experts or facilities to accelerate product development towards market launches, or access to wider networks, long-term collaborators and collaborative bids.
Our vision is to make a difference both in the region and around the world.
Through its support for hundreds of North East enterprises to date, Arrow has stimulated innovation across the whole region, in turn bolstering growth and employment. Furthermore, the long-term nature of Arrow’s successes will continue to have an impact on the economic and social make-up of the North East for generations to come.
How has Arrow supported regional businesses?
Arrow helps a wide range of regional businesses and organisations to innovate and progress to meet their goals.
Some of the businesses the programme has collaborated with include:
Walker Subsea
Walker Subsea partnered with Northumbria University’s Arrow team to refine the thermal management and safety of its underwater battery pack, using the team’s advanced materials and sustainable chemistry. The challenge lay in selecting the right coolant to improve thermal management and safety within the batteries. From its Arrow project Walker Subsea gained a robust immersion fluid selection strategy and a short-list of suitable industry suppliers.
Building on this success, the relationship is set to grow with future collaborations including a potential Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP). Since the Arrow project Walker Subsea has recently formed a multi-million pound partnership with UK battery technology company Volklec to develop the first-to-market D-Sea underwater battery pack for subsea vehicles.
Learn more about the Walker Subsea Arrow collaboration.
Andrew Turner Inventions
Entrepreneur Andrew Turner was commissioned to design a device for Northumbrian Water that could travel through the water network, capture meaningful data, operate autonomously and be easily retrieved.
Using computational fluid dynamics expertise the Arrow team at the University of Sunderland developed six potential design concepts for Andrew, each focused on ensuring the device could successfully navigate through pipes. The collaboration allowed Andrew to test and refine his invention efficiently, keeping the project on schedule. The feasibility study proved successful, and the project is now advancing towards real-world trials with international collaborators.
Discover how Arrow helped Andrew Turner Inventions.
ROXID
ROXID is aiming to be the first heritage database to help support and protect heritage sites for future generations.
The manual data collection process was labour-intensive and limited the project’s ability to scale, sparking the idea for an AI-driven solution. To address this the Arrow team at Newcastle University partnered with experts at National Innovation Centre for Data to design and deliver AI-based approaches to automate data extraction from available resources.
This enabled ROXID to integrate cutting-edge expertise with real-world applications, ensuring that the classified database system is both technically robust and commercially viable.
As a direct result of the Arrow project, ROXID has secured investment and Innovate UK funding, enabling the creation of two new part time jobs for research and development while advancing their AI-powered platform. The project has also enabled Roxana to file a patent on one of the technologies that underpins the ROXID platform.
Discover more about ROXID’s Arrow project with NICD.
Intelligent Gels
Intelligent Gels pioneers eco-friendly innovations. Developing gel-based solutions for use across a wide-range of industries – it recently launched it’s boldest project yet – an eco-friendly fishing bait.
Working with the Arrow team at Durham University and utilising the university’s Orbit prototype lab space the project team focussed on the critical issue of natural colouring integration. They explored optimal component ratios and alternativesources of natural dyes, while preserving the bait’s fishability and temperature resistance.
As a result of working with Arrow, Intelligent Gels now has a deep insight into how natural colourings interact with a gel formulation. This has helped to identify the actions they need to take to achieve EU-compliance.
Explore Intelligent Gels’ work with Arrow
How to work with Arrow
Collaboration is key to innovation and success, and Arrow is actively breaking down the barriers between higher education and regional businesses.
As a result of the programme’s success over the last eight years, Arrow offers access to four partner universities in the North East, allowing to access a wide pool of researchers, experts, academics, and facilities across the whole region.
We are always open to hear from individuals, businesses and organisations who are keen to collaborate with the University and take the next steps on their innovation journey.
Find out more about how Arrow could support your business or get in touch to register your interest.
How is Arrow funded?
Arrow's support at no cost to the business is made possible through its part-funding by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund with the North East Combined Authority and Durham County Council as the lead authority in their respective areas.
