DAN’S OUTLOOK · CY PARTNERS

The North East is having a moment. The question is whether the talent pipeline is ready for it.

AI data centres in Blyth. A new space technology centre at Northumbria. Billions earmarked for clean energy and R&D. As a recruiter who’s worked this region for years, I’m watching an extraordinary amount of investment land here at once – and one number in the middle of it all that should give every employer pause.

Dan Younger · CY Partners, Newcastle

I’ve been placing scientists, engineers and technical specialists across this region for years, and I can’t remember a period with this much committed investment landing at once. AI infrastructure. Space technology. Clean energy. University research commercialisation. Billions of pounds, thousands of jobs, all converging on the North East within the same eighteen months. But investment doesn’t hire itself – and there’s a workforce statistic buried in a government report that every business leader reading this should know about.

01 Blyth and Cobalt Park are becoming one of Europe’s biggest AI hubs

In September 2025, the government designated the North East as an AI Growth Zone – built around a hyperscale data centre campus at Blyth and the existing Cobalt Park site near Newcastle. Blackstone has already committed £10 billion to Blyth, with the zone opening the door to a further £20 billion from other partners. Separately, UK firm Nscale is partnering with OpenAI and NVIDIA to deliver “Stargate UK” compute infrastructure, with Cobalt Park as one of the first sites – OpenAI alone is taking up to 8,000 GPUs initially, scaling toward roughly 31,000.

Government figures put the job potential at more than 5,000 roles directly, spanning construction, data engineering, AI research and safety – with knock-on demand across manufacturing, healthcare, energy and finance as those sectors adopt AI more easily. Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland and Northumbria universities are all named as talent pipelines for the zone.

£30bn	5,000+	1.1GW
Potential private investment in the AI Growth Zone	New jobs projected directly from the zone	Planned energy capacity at Blyth within 6 years

Source: GOV.UK, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, September 2025.

02 Northumbria is quietly building a genuine space engineering cluster

Less visible than the AI headlines, but just as significant for the kind of specialist hiring we do: Northumbria University‘s £50 million North East Space Skills and Technology Centre (NESST) opens later this year, backed by the UK Space Agency, Lockheed Martin UK Space and the university itself. It’s projected to create more than 350 direct jobs and contribute over £260 million to the regional economy over the next 30 years.

This sits inside a wider trend – the North East’s space sector has grown from roughly 50 organisations to around 80, with regional space employment up about 12% and now standing at more than 1,300 jobs. In May, UK Research and Innovation‘s board visited the region specifically to see this work, along with Northumbria’s space weather research, polar science, and renewable energy doctoral training – evidence that the funders are paying close attention to what’s happening here.

03 The region is also being trusted to turn research into companies

In May 2025, the North East was one of only four UK regions selected for a new government spinout initiative. The Strategic Commercialisation Ecosystem North East (SCENE) – led by Durham, with Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside all involved – received over £8 million over five years specifically to strengthen how university research gets commercialised, engaging businesses, sector bodies, Catapults and investors more actively in the process.

That matters for exactly the kind of clients we work with: spin-outs and early-stage companies that need commercially-minded scientific talent long before they can offer a “safe” big-company career path. A better-funded commercialisation ecosystem means more of these companies reaching the stage where they’re hiring at all.

04 Here’s the number that should worry every hiring manager in the region

Government analysis of the R&D workforce found that between 2012 and 2021, the North East consistently had one of the lowest shares of its total workforce employed in R&D-related occupations of any English region – sitting at 5.4%, just ahead of Yorkshire & the Humber (5.1%) and Wales (5.0%), and well behind the South East, which led the country at 7.6%.

That’s the gap sitting underneath all the investment above. Clean energy alone is projected to add up to 15,000 direct jobs in the North East by 2030 (up to 20,000 in total), built around projects like the East Coast CCUS Cluster and SeAH Wind – and that’s before AI, space and spinout hiring is added on top.

The upside

It’s not all a shortfall story. The same report found North West England saw the fastest R&D salary growth of any English region since 2013 – close to £7,000 – with the North East close behind on a similar increase. Pay is moving to attract people here. The harder part is finding them.

Source: DSIT, R&D Skills Supply and Demand: Long-Term Trends and Workforce Projections, 2025.

05 A Bionow member story worth knowing: NETPark’s newest graduate

This is exactly the pattern I’d point to as proof the ecosystem works. NETPark in County Durham – a Bionow corporate member alongside Durham and Newcastle Universities – is home to more than 40 companies and 700 jobs across life sciences, advanced materials, semiconductors and space technology. In April 2026, one of its tenants, engineered graphene technology firm SEEDS, announced it is moving into a dedicated new facility on the park as part of NETPark’s £100 million Phase 3 expansion, taking the company from research and development into commercial production.

SEEDS built its route to market through the park’s own ecosystem – working alongside the Centre for Process Innovation, Durham University and Business Durham‘s support service to turn early research into a scalable, commercially proven process. It’s now supplying its technology into microelectronics, energy storage, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, with collaborations including Mitsui and Pragmatic Semiconductor.

Durham County Council‘s Cllr Joe Quinn called NETPark’s lab and manufacturing space “ready now and unique in the North East” – and it’s a fair description of the wider opportunity. Every SEEDS-style scale-up on that park is a business that will shortly need process engineers, materials scientists and commercially-minded technical hires it doesn’t currently have on staff.

Source: Durham County Council newsroom, April 2026; Business Durham.

06 What this means if you’re hiring here in the next 12 months

The government’s own R&D funding announcements back this up at a national level – £86 billion committed to science and tech through to 2029, with the North East Mayor specifically citing the region’s advanced manufacturing base and its fast-emerging position in space and AI as reasons for local leaders to get new decision-making power over how that funding is spent. The ambition is real. The workforce to deliver it is the part still being built.

• Don’t assume the specialist you need is sitting on the regional bench – the data says this talent pool is thinner here than the size of the investment implies.
• Build relationships with Newcastle, Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside now, not when the role is already open – these universities are the named pipeline for AI, space and clean energy hiring.
• Expect to compete on more than salary. Regional pay is already rising to close the gap with London and the South East; culture, project ambition and genuine career runway will matter just as much.
• If you’re a NETPark-style scale-up or a SCENE-backed spin-out, plan your first technical and commercial hires early – funding timelines and hiring timelines rarely move at the same speed.

Hiring into the North East’s growth story?

Whether it’s a university spin-out making its first technical hire, a diagnostics company scaling manufacturing, or an established employer competing for increasingly scarce scientific talent, CY Partners helps organisations build recruitment strategies that support long-term growth not just fill today’s vacancy.

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