Northern Ireland’s business community played a prominent role at the recent Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, with NI Chamber hosting a series of events designed to showcase the region’s strengths and potential. Central to this engagement was a new strategic partnership between NI Chamber and Queen’s University Belfast, formed to promote collaboration between business, academia, and policymakers.
The partnership, announced last month, is built around a shared goal of driving sustainable growth and innovation in Northern Ireland. It will combine NI Chamber’s extensive business network and policy influence with Queen’s University’s world-class research capabilities and analytical expertise. Together, our organisations aim to strengthen the evidence base that informs policy and ensure that the region’s unique position is fully understood and leveraged.
One of the first major elements of the partnership was a joint fringe event at the Labour Party Conference, titled “Northern Ireland: A Testbed for Global Innovation.” The session brought together business leaders, academics, and policymakers to explore how Northern Ireland’s economy can play a leading role in delivering the UK’s growth ambitions.
Delivering on the Industrial Strategy
Our discussions focused on Northern Ireland’s unique role in delivering the UK Industrial Strategy and the critical importance of translating all aspects of the Strategy to Northern Ireland. As a region of manageable scale with world-class research institutions, a strong record in innovation and a vibrant private sector, Northern Ireland offers an ideal environment for testing new ideas and products.
Participants at the fringe event, who included Secretary of State Hilary Benn and Sir Michael Ryan of Spirit AeroSystems, reflected on Northern Ireland’s capacity to grow strongly in the next decade, with the right policy decisions and interventions. Together, they highlighted how sectors such as aerospace, advanced manufacturing, digital technology, health sciences and creative industries can drive productivity growth across the region.
Northern Ireland’s established reputation for resilience and adaptability is a key competitive advantage, alongside its strategic position that allows businesses to operate barrier-free within both the UK and EU markets. The event also underlined the need for continued investment in innovation infrastructure – from research funding and skills development to digital connectivity and energy resilience. As a Chamber, we have well-thought-out ideas in each of these areas, all designed in partnership with industry and succinctly outlined in our Mission: Business Growth document, which we presented at the conference – if you haven’t read that already, I strongly recommend taking a look at it on NI Chamber’s website.
A Strategic Partnership for Growth
NI Chamber’s partnership with Queen’s University Belfast reflects a shared belief that collaboration is essential to addressing economic challenges.
Northern Ireland’s progress and sustainable economic growth will depend on maintaining strong collaboration between government, business, and universities, ensuring that research excellence is matched by commercial outcomes and regional impact. This triple helix is something we also stressed to the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Matthew Patrick MP, at an additional policy-focused roundtable, which was one of the first in his new role.
By combining Queen’s thought leadership with NI Chamber’s advocacy reach, we are ideally positioned to help ensure that Northern Ireland’s perspective features prominently in national debates on growth and innovation. At the Labour Party Conference, this approach was clearly on display.
Our participation was one aspect of our mission to position Northern Ireland not as a peripheral region but as an active contributor to the UK’s economic growth. This region has already shown that it can outperform broader UK trends, including export growth in recent times, and there is growing recognition that the region’s collaborative spirit, international links, and research excellence make it a valuable partner in delivering national objectives.
Liverpool marked an important step in ensuring that the voice of our business community is heard clearly at the highest levels of UK policymaking. It also demonstrated NI Chamber’s commitment not only as an advocate for members but also as a convenor capable of bringing business and academia together to influence the national conversation.
