Last month we hosted the first in a new series of Digital Policy Roundtables — an initiative designed to bring together voices from the local tech industry, education, government, and innovation sectors to help shape the region’s response to fast-moving national and regional digital policy. The event, organised in partnership with our Ecosystem Partners, marks a new chapter in how South Yorkshire’s digital economy connects to Westminster and Whitehall.

The city’s digital community needs to have a stronger voice in national and regional policy discussions; and current policy debates must be better understood by local firms and partner organisations. A key part of Sheffield Digital’s remit is to represent our members and that’s why we’ve introduced these roundtable discussions.

With new government strategies emerging around specific industry sectors, AI, digital infrastructure, regulations, skills, and public sector innovation and procurement, it’s more important than ever that Sheffield’s strengths, concerns, and opportunities are clearly understood by policymakers.

This first event brought together 19 representatives from industry, local authorities, central government departments, both universities, and innovation bodies to discuss the biggest opportunities and challenges facing the region. Here’s what was covered—and what it means for Sheffield.

Who was in the room?

The following organisations were represented at the roundtable:

• Sheffield Digital – Chris Dymond & Emma Marshall
• Tes Global – Ryan Temple
• INX Systems – Pierre Drezet
• Paper Studio – Cam Spilman
• The Curve – Mai Mai Steele
• The Developer Academy – Neil Bizzell
• ITS Technology Group – Marcus Harrison
• Sheffield Innovation Spine – Charlotte Thompson
• Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) – Jessica Housden
• Department for Business and Trade (DBT) / Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) – Justin Homer
• Innovate UK Business Connect – Andy Curtis & Emma Cooper
• Sheffield City Council – Yvonne Asquith
• TechSY / SYMCA – Tracey Johnson
• Sheffield College – Matthew Goodlad
• University of Sheffield – Helen Smith & Preeti Raghunath
• Sheffield Hallam University – Dr. Yasir Javed

Setting the policy scene

The session began with a briefing on the UK’s upcoming Industrial Strategy — a mission-led framework designed to coordinate investment and innovation around major national priorities such as net zero, AI, and global demographic shifts.

These missions are to be supported by sector-specific growth plans, with different departments responsible for sectors such as digital and technology, advanced manufacturing, and life sciences, etc. The strategy aims to align public and private investment, skills development, and regulatory reform behind these missions to drive long-term economic transformation.

Attendees welcomed the strategic direction but reflected that national policy frameworks and investment strategies still often feel geared toward large-scale, capital-intensive industries. There was a strong call for digital policy to better reflect how modern digital businesses operate — lean, fast-moving, collaborative, and service-oriented.

Participants suggested that innovation funding, procurement models, and regulatory frameworks need to evolve to support more agile and inclusive ecosystems. There was also a recognition that while regional and local investment is important, advanced technologies and high-value firms can be found in every ecosystem — regardless of geography. Participants stressed that national missions and sector strategies must be designed to connect and include these assets, not exclude them based on physical location. Success depends on building networks and support mechanisms that reflect the distributed nature of innovation across the UK.

National policymakers made clear that government departments want to hear more from regions like South Yorkshire. Departments such as DSIT (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) and DBT (Department for Business and Trade) are actively seeking input, and encouraged attendees to provide clear, evidence-based proposals that articulate local needs and their potential impact.

Infrastructure: the bedrock of growth

It’s hard to build a digital economy without solid foundations. Connectivity gaps — especially in industrial areas — were a major concern. Participants noted that broadband and digital infrastructure rollouts are still largely shaped by residential priorities, leaving key economic zones underserved.

There were also calls for better coordination between digital infrastructure, energy, utilities, and economic planning. Some councils, like Barnsley, are already taking the lead here, but the picture is uneven. Improved mapping of planned investments, along with regulatory reform, was seen as critical to unlocking growth — including the importance of ‘dig once’ approaches that coordinate infrastructure work across sectors to minimise disruption, reduce costs, and accelerate delivery.

South Yorkshire’s AI ambitions

The region has submitted an Expression of Interest to become one of the UK’s new AI Growth Zones. Doncaster’s availability of land and energy infrastructure made it a leading candidate. Participants highlighted the need to identify and integrate AI-relevant assets from across South Yorkshire into strategic planning. This includes existing infrastructure, data capabilities, sector expertise, and innovative use cases that could complement and strengthen the region’s bid to become an AI Growth Zone.

Beyond infrastructure, the conversation turned to ethics, IP, and inclusion. AI’s impact on the creative industries, the risk of unlicensed training data, and the importance of local compute capacity were all discussed. Attendees agreed that government must balance innovation with strong safeguards — and ensure that growth benefits both tech and creative sectors.

There was also significant discussion around AI skills — not just for developers and implementers, but also for people working in frontline services, and the general public. Empowering users to understand and engage with AI-enabled systems was seen as vital, particularly in areas like health, education, and welfare.

The discussion also emphasised that the outcomes of AI adoption need to go far beyond simply rationalising or automating existing workflows. Instead, AI should be used to fundamentally reimagine how value is created and services are delivered — from the ground up. Participants described this as a seismic shift, not only in technical capability but in the very processes by which things are made, decided, and experienced across the public and private sectors alike.

Fixing procurement

Public sector procurement came in for serious scrutiny. Many small firms feel shut out by large frameworks and opaque processes. One local company, Paper Studio, is campaigning for reform in how the public sector procures the design and development of digital services — highlighting how procurement rules have gradually eroded from a system that once supported small, high-quality providers into one dominated by large firms.

This shift, they argue, limits access, stifles innovation, and reduces the overall quality and value of digital services. Their campaign calls for a more transparent, equitable model that allows small digital agencies to play a meaningful role in designing and delivering public services.

Conversely, the discussion also touched on how fragmented and duplicative procurement processes affect the delivery of training and skills. Devolved skills funding structures often force different regions to bid separately for similar programmes — resulting in complexity, inefficiency, and unequal access.

There were some bright spots. Barnsley’s “dual track” approach — using big tech alongside local startups — was praised. Sheffield’s Diverse Business Board was also noted as a promising step toward more inclusive procurement. But overall, the message was clear: procurement needs to change if regions like Sheffield are to fulfil their potential. Several participants proposed further conversations and working sessions to explore how local procurement of digital services could be improved in practice.

Making policy work for places

The session closed with a challenge: how can businesses and local ecosystems feed into policy in a meaningful way? While multinational corporates can speak directly to ministers, SMEs often struggle to be heard.

Participants asked for a clear, practical route to engage with national strategy — and were encouraged to be bold in making their case. National officials stressed their openness to listening and encouraged Sheffield’s tech community to act collectively to influence the policy agenda. Sheffield Digital was also invited to act as a conduit for messages and insights emerging from the local digital ecosystem, helping ensure that regional experiences and priorities are heard by national policymakers.

These messages can be shared both directly with departments such as DSIT and DBT, who participated in the roundtable, and via the UK Tech Cluster Group — of which Sheffield Digital is a founding member. The group connects many of the UK’s digital ecosystems and provides a powerful route for collective advocacy.

The takeaway

There was strong support for continuing the roundtable format, with plans to hold at least two each year. A follow-up session focused on skills, place, and business support is already in the works.

The Sheffield Digital Policy Roundtable is more than a talking shop — it’s a step toward making sure digital policy works for places like South Yorkshire. From infrastructure to AI, from procurement to skills, the insights shared at this first session will help shape both local action and national influence.

If you work in digital, design, data, or delivery — and you want policies that work for you — now’s the time to get involved. Seats at the roundtable will be limited, but the conversation continues in the #-policy channel in the Sheffield Digital Slack, which is open for the whole community whether they are Sheffield Digital members or not.