Good things in small packages

Jun 4 2009 by Stewart Watkins, The Journal

A REPORT by HSBC and trend forecasting agency The Future Laboratory featured Durham and Newcastle as in the vanguard of the economic recovery.

The study suggests the North East will emerge from the recession stronger than ever due to the innovation and technological development going on in the region, which is expected to bridge the North-South divide.

The report, compiled using quantitative data from 500 representatives in 17 UK cities, predicted nanotechnology was the area in which the North East would excel.

County Durham has achieved a great deal in this new technology, continuing a century-long tradition of innovation in the region.

Nanotechnology is already in use at NETPark in Sedgefield. During an adjournment debate in the House of Commons recently, Sedgefield MP Phil Wilson praised NETPark for its contribution to nanotechnology commercialisation.

Currently there are several companies applying nanotechnology in the North East, such as ANTnano – dealing with the monitoring, sampling and analysis of hazardous biochemicals – and ROAR particles, dedicated to the research, development and manufacture of nanotechnologies for forensic and security purposes.

Thomas Swan & Co Ltd in Consett is manufacturing carbon nanotubes, which are lightweight but extremely strong and also excellent conductors of heat and electricity.

NETPark acts as a catalyst for businesses like these, offering support and helping them to develop. It all adds to the strengthening reputation that the North East has earned for pioneering in science and technology.

The North East is primed and already moving forward with these new technologies. It is now a matter of bringing more ideas from the universities and putting them into practice in the commercial world.

Anything that serves to strengthen our economic growth should be embraced.

Stewart Watkins is managing director of the County Durham Development Company