Kent and Medway Engineering and Design Growth and Enterprise (EDGE) Hub

LGF funding of £6.12m is needed alongside £7.2m invested by Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) and £6.5m by Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) for the construction and equipment costs of Kent and Medway EDGE Hub. This will be a new 3,588m2 facility in Canterbury, with satellite facilities at Discovery Park, Kent Science Park, Medway Campus and other parts of Kent, to support high value employment, growth and investment in Engineering and Technology businesses. In addition, CCCU will be investing £10.5m and HEFCE £0.5m the delivery of the innovative educational programmes.

Kent and Medway EDGE

The Hub will be worth an estimated £7.6m to £11.4m per year to the Kent and Medway economy once it is fully operational, with 1250 new learners with higher level Engineering and Technology skills coming into the labour market by 2024, plus a range of research and innovation benefits. Kent and Medway EDGE Hub is a new, partnership-based, industry-led initiative to drive economic growth in national, SELEP and KMEP priority sectors. A Strategic Industry Advisory Board, led by a leading industrialist, and involving other company members of KMEP’s Advanced Manufacturing, Life Sciences and Healthcare Guilds, will advise on the Hub’s strategy.

Plans to expand science offer

LGF investment will take the University’s existing plans to expand science at the former Canterbury Prison site to the next level by: Significantly broadening CCCU’s Higher Education offer, in line with its strategic aims, by adding a whole new suite of Technical and Professional Education opportunities (Higher and Degree Apprenticeships, Foundation Degrees, Undergraduate Degrees, Masters and Doctoral programmes) in Engineering, Product Design and Technology, with 1250 additional learners by 2024.

• Creating a new Engineering and Technology Innovation Service that will work with small businesses, larger companies, inventors and entrepreneurs to take innovations from prototype to commercialisation.
• Supporting companies with business-focused PhD, Masters, Undergraduate and commercial research projects using state-of-the-art facilities.
• Offering new business-focused short courses and CPD opportunities, meeting the needs of small and larger companies.

Award of additional LGF funding

The LGF COVID-19 response fund was established to support those existing LGF projects which were experiencing a funding gap due to cost increases or loss of local funding sources as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A new LGF project pipeline, consisting of existing LGF projects, was agreed by the Strategic Board in December 2020 and will be used as the basis for awarding all currently unallocated LGF funding.

This project was included on the new LGF project pipeline and the award of an additional £901,128 LGF was approved by Accountability Board on 12th March 2021.

At the Accountability Board Meeting on 10 September 2021 the project received a further £322,872 LGF from the LGF Additional Funding pipeline. The Board also agreed that the project met the conditions for spend beyond 30 September 2021. This was endorsed by the Strategic Board at their meeting in October 2021

£579m of investment to East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock

In total the SELEP Growth Deal with Government has brought £579m of investment to East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock. Over the lifetime of the Growth Deal (2015-2021) we aim to deliver 78,000 jobs and 29,000 homes across the SELEP area, with the Deal set to attract a further £960m of investment into the South East over the six year period.

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