The second Sheffield Digital Policy Roundtable took place on Monday the 21st July, 2025 at the Electric Works. The event was commissioned by Business Sheffield and had a particular focus on the spatial aspects of local and regional economic development policies, particularly as they will affect local digital tech and media industries over the coming decade and more.
The Sheffield Digital roundtables were launched earlier this year in response to a growing need for the city’s digital community to have a stronger voice in national, regional and local policy discussions; and for contemporary policy debates to be better understood by local firms and our partner organisations.
We’re currently in a period of major policy upheaval, as the new UK Government restructures the economy and focuses on new technologies to drive the growth and prosperity needed for the country to overcome the entrenched social and economic challenges it faces.
This second event brought together 15 representatives from industry, local authorities, universities, and innovation bodies to discuss how redoubled public and private investment in digital tech and creativity is being translated into spatial plans for Sheffield and the surrounding area.
Who was in the room?
The following organisations were represented at the roundtable:
- Sheffield Digital – Chris Dymond
- Reach Studios – Jonty Ward
- Sheffield Technology Parks/Sheffield Innovation Spine – Charlotte Thompson
- Hydra Creative – Richard Kerr
- The University of Sheffield – Jonny Wright
- Sheffield Chamber of Commerce – Danny Johnson
- Sheffield City Council/Business Sheffield – Yvonne Asquith
- Innovate UK Business Connect – Emma Cooper
- Sheffield Hallam University – Vincent Traynor
- Sheffield College – Laura Faulkner
- The Curve – Mai Mai Steele
- Pipe Ten – Gavin Kimpton
- Hive IT – Jonny Rippon
- LOHA Health – Richard Moore
- SYMCA/TECH SY – Emi Bagshaw
What was discussed?
The Sheffield Innovation Spine
https://www.sheffieldinnovationspine.com
Initial discussions focused on the Innovation Spine’s role in developing Sheffield’s capacity for innovation-led, high-growth sectors such as digital, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, health, and clean energy. The Spine is anchored in three city centre neighbourhoods, each with a core hub and distinctive character, designed to facilitate knowledge spillover and business-research co-location.
Themes included access and inclusion, especially the isolation of nearby areas like Kelham; spatial coherence; and the importance of creating vibrant, mixed-use areas that are both functionally and culturally attractive to tech firms. The city’s ambition to increase residential population in the city centre was noted as part of the strategy to achieve vibrancy and sustainability.
The identity of the Innovation Spine as a recognised cluster is still developing, but some companies are beginning to use the term. Infrastructure gaps like broadband access, collaborative workspaces, and education alignment were discussed. A walking tour of the Spine and ongoing pilot evaluation (concluding October 2025) were proposed to deepen understanding and inform next steps.
Runway Park
The University of Sheffield has recently launched Runway Park: a 100-acre development encompassing the former Sheffield City Airport designed to attract investment, create high-quality jobs and accelerate economic growth in the region. The area is already home to world-leading companies harnessing the University’s state-of-the-art research and development facilities and collaborating with its leading researchers to advance technology and manufacturing. It is shaped around four distinct zones: research, innovation, manufacturing and leisure, with each designed to support focused activity while encouraging collaboration. The development is designed to suit occupiers with their own ideas of custom builds, from small-scale co-working to large-scale manufacturing and is already generating interest from investors.
Participants discussed gaps in connectivity, with concerns over car-centric planning and lack of public transport. There are plans for active travel routes and potential improvement via public control of Supertram. The vision is to complement and complete the AMID innovation ecosystem.
TECH SY
TECH SY is a South Yorkshire-wide initiative driving forward the region’s digital economy. It combines hands-on support for tech startups and scale-ups with targeted interventions to boost regional visibility and long-term strategic planning. Key activities include business growth advice, Idea Validation Grants, a regional Tech Summit, and Dealroom-driven sector mapping to understand where support is most needed.
Funded through Spring 2026, TECH SY is delivering a flagship Action Plan for the region’s digital sector – one that aims to lay the groundwork for a sustainable tech ecosystem. The ambition is to turn that plan into lasting infrastructure and support, through follow-on investment.
The programme has already helped put South Yorkshire on the national tech map, and a number of additional aspects were discussed, including the return of the highly successful Tech Welcome Grants scheme in future, the need for more accelerator capacity, the development of ties with other areas such as West Yorkshire, Leeds and Manchester, and the ambition to host a larger Tech Summit for the whole of the North.
UK Industrial Strategy and Sector Plans
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-uks-modern-industrial-strategy-2025
There was discussion of the recently published national Industrial Strategy and five associated Sector Plans.
Participants observed that national strategies largely omit mention of inclusive growth, which is a key priority in local and regional plans, and that it will be important to interpret these national strategies through the lens of local values and ambitions – as codified in the Sheffield City Goals for instance. This applies to areas such as the development of military technologies, or “dual-use” technologies as they are referred to in the Sector Strategies, as well as inclusive growth and a focus on the environment and the city and region’s green credentials.
It was also noted that there is a lack of representation of Sheffield, South Yorkshire and Yorkshire generally, in the Government’s current perception of where specialist activities are clustered.
A new Local Growth Plan is being developed by SYMCA to align with national frameworks, which is due to be published in the Autumn. The importance of acting quickly to respond to time-limited national funding calls and cluster designations was stressed, particularly around creative industries and digital infrastructure.
In addition, the UK Tech Cluster Group, of which Sheffield Digital is a founding member, has been successful in winning a £1m bid from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to support regional tech ecosystems – the Regional Tech Booster programme, and there is a strong hope that some of this funding will be allocated to improving the local tech ecosystem.
The takeaway
The roundtable revealed a clear sense of urgency – and opportunity – for Sheffield and South Yorkshire to reposition themselves as serious players in the national innovation economy. At the heart of this is a recognition that the region must do more to align its rich mix of innovation assets, physical infrastructure, talent, and policy levers around a clear, investable story.
Participants agreed that the Sheffield Innovation Spine has potential to drive this shift, by creating a dense corridor of innovation activity through the city centre. But there’s still work to do in shaping its identity, closing gaps in digital and transport infrastructure, and making the case for long-term investment. The idea of turning this spatial framework into a lived and legible experience – through better placemaking, broadband, branding, and walkability—was echoed across the group.
Across the table, there was enthusiasm for Runway Park and its vision to unlock advanced manufacturing and digital convergence at Sheffield’s eastern edge. While still in its early stages, it is already drawing investor interest, and participants stressed the need to integrate it meaningfully with existing hubs and institutions.
In the digital space, TechSY was seen as a valuable step forward, especially for building the evidence base, raising South Yorkshire’s profile, and anchoring tech activity across multiple centres. But concerns remain about the risk of ‘cliff edges’ between funded pilots and long-term infrastructure – highlighting the need for follow-on investment and coherent leadership at regional level.
Throughout the conversation, three themes stood out:
- Connectivity – both physical and relational – matters. Whether it’s superfast broadband, public transport, or informal creative meeting spaces, participants stressed the need to remove friction for collaboration and growth.
- The policy moment is now. A new government, refreshed national strategies, and the forthcoming Local Growth Plan create a rare window to align messaging, funding, and delivery.
- Sheffield must tell its story better. The city has depth and diversity in its innovation ecosystem – but still lacks visibility, scale and shared narrative.
While views varied on some details, the group shared a strong appetite for collaboration. Follow-up actions include a walking tour of the Innovation Spine, efforts to bring more SME and creative voices into planning processes, and commitments to support strategic alignment across spatial, innovation and growth agendas.
As one of the Sheffield Digital Company Members remarked:
“It’s good to see all this stuff going on. I think it’s quite easy to become disconnected from what’s going on in the city, especially when we work predominantly with external businesses. Yeah, it’s exciting. We’d love to get more involved with the city and what it’s trying to achieve.”
Sheffield Digital Policy Roundtable meetings are exclusive to Sheffield Digital’s company members and partners, and bring national, regional and local policy makers, institutions and businesses together to discuss and learn about the confluence of politics, policy and the digital economy and give local tech and media firms a greater voice in decision making. For more information about this series, please contact Chris Dymond.