Plans for a new “Silicon Valley in Cumbria” designed to help sustain jobs and the economy for the long-term have been taking steps forward this summer.

Copeland Borough Council has been developing the concept of the Industrial Solutions Hub (ISH) for the last two years.

The hub is intended to be a place where businesses can develop capabilities with Sellafield Ltd, which can also be commercialised and sold elsewhere in the UK and overseas and beyond the nuclear industry.

The council hopes it will reduce reliance on Sellafield in the long-term, which currently provides 60 per cent of the employment in the region.

Development of the plans has been backed by up to £75,000 in funding from Sellafield Ltd and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

In January Copeland bought the Leconfield Industrial Estate, in Cleator Moor, supported by £1.14m of Growth Deal Funding from Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership.

In June it applied for £14m to the Government’s Levelling Up fund to help create the Industrial Solutions Hub at the site.

The regeneration is being supported by £22.5m from the Government’s Towns Fund, also announced in June.

Over the summer John Maddison - director of innovation at technical professional services firm Jacobs - was seconded to be the programme director for the project.

Jacobs said ISH is already supporting several pathfinder projects involving the use of robotics, automation, artificial intelligence and digitisation to create safer and cheaper systems for nuclear decommissioning, waste handling and asset management. Many of these systems have broader applications in other industrial sectors.

“Bringing together world-leading decommissioning skills and capabilities from Sellafield Ltd and its supply chain, our aim is to create a geographical cluster of businesses that will transform the economic prospects of West Cumbria and become a significant export earner for the UK,” says John.

Copeland Mayor Mike Starkie says start-ups and SMEs will be key to development of the hub and it will also incorporate business advice, equipment and other facilities to help them grow.

Sectors other than nuclear are being encouraged to play a part from the start by developing new technologies and approaches that can be applied across industry. It is also hoped academic and training organisations will have a presence at the site to help educate, attract and retain young people in the area.

"We've been looking at the site and ideas and a potential opportunity together at the same time," says Mike.

"What we're looking to do is facilitate a collaborative business cluster like Silicon Valley in Cumbria, so it's got a better capability to support Sellafield but will ultimately grow beyond Sellafield.

“For a long time we've had the big Sellafield supply chain with a lot of the money generated finding its way out of the area and this is hopefully a way of locking more pounds into West Cumbria.”