Hi-tech firm is tapping into rich vein of success

Nov 17 2006 By Herb Kim, The Journal

Sunderland is becoming a major player in North East England's digital revolution, according to Codeworks, the region's centre of digital excellence.

Its chief executive Herb Kim explains how.

************

Last month, after three successful years based in the Centre for Life in Newcastle, Codeworks relocated to new offices at the St Peter's Gate building on the banks of the River Wear.

So what drove our decision? And what does it mean for Sunderland and the region as a whole?

Delivering innovation

At its heart, Codeworks is an innovation company.

We depend on developing and delivering innovative projects that lead directly to the formation of new digital companies or supporting growing ones already based in the North-East.

In the US, Scandinavia and the Far East we see time and again that the areas in and around university campuses are real hotbeds of new innovation and creativity.

And here in the UK, Sunderland University has long focused on digital technology and digital media - so it was a natural choice for Codeworks.

Of course, Silicon Valley and its symbiotic relationship with Stanford University is the most commonly-cited example of this university/commercial innovation nexus.

Back in the 1990s, two Stanford University graduates created an algorithm for searching the internet that became what is now one of Silicon Valley's most famous businesses, Google.

However, while Google is by far and away the leader for text-based searching, nobody has yet created a good way to search for images or video. But that could soon change.

Professor John Tait of Sunderland University is a well-known expert in the quickly growing field of image and video search. Working in collaboration with John's group, we've already had some big wins for Codeworks and the university, including a successful £1m bid into the DTI's Technology Programme. Another £4m bid into the EU's Framework Programme also looks promising.

The output of either project could result in a spin-out company worth tens of millions of pounds or more - and a solution to the problem of searching for images and video could be produced right here in the North-East, with Sunderland-based expertise leading the way.

More in the pipeline

While the technology research strength of Sunderland University was one of the key reasons behind our move, it's fair to say the area has a lot more going for it than its academic set-up alone. First off, Sunderland is a great place to start a business. The city has excellent facilities for innovative new companies to grow and succeed. At St Peter's Gate, for example, established businesses mix with up-and-coming new technology start-ups. And at the nearby Business and Innovation Centre (BIC), Sunderland's innovative, enterprising companies are being given a helping hand through a range of training and support programmes.

A few miles further up the road, Doxford International Business Park, a prestigious 50-hectare site off the A19, has been a huge success for digital businesses - such as Paul Callaghan's Leighton, a group of technology and communications companies that has established itself as a breeding ground for the development of high growth ventures.

One of the largest internet pipes in Europe runs through Doxford, making it an ideal location for software firms and `data centres' (where websites and company data are hosted and protected against disaster) to base themselves. Such easy access to the pipe gives companies based there massively increased bandwidth - meaning they have much faster internet connections and can store far more data.

Cities and areas that are geographically distanced from the pipe cannot `tap into' it without building the extensive physical infrastructure required - a highly expensive process. Sunderland, therefore, has a key advantage over other areas in this respect, making it an attractive proposition for technology businesses seeking a good location to set up.

The perfect position

The North East's £2.4bn digital sector employs an estimated 40,000 people working in a wide range of business types - from software development for some of the biggest and richest concerns in the world, to animation and videogames, right through to website design and data recovery.

The good news for Sunderland is that it's ideally positioned to become a strong force in this fast-changing, fast-growing Digital Age.

It has access to academic expertise, strong support for growing technology firms, and an infrastructure ideally suited to knowledge economy businesses.

And for Codeworks, Sunderland an ideal base not only because it enables us to keep innovation at our heart, but also its fairly central position within the region means we can fulfil our other key goal: to drive the region's digital sector forward - working with companies from Teesside to Tyneside and everywhere in between.