View: NI Chamber's partnership with North Carolina marks one year of collaboration and growth

It was an ambitious commitment, which saw us pledge to work together to identify opportunities for member businesses to collaborate, share research and expand their business footprints on both sides of the Atlantic.

Over the course of the past 12 months, the team has been working intensively with businesses, academics and potential investors in North Carolina, a state which we identified as having many synergies with our own economy. Its growth sectors match our own and, as we have discovered, there is a great deal we can learn from its focus on innovation. In that time, we have helped a series of exciting developments come to fruition and are now witnessing our MOU translate into truly game-changing opportunities.

Last week marked another important milestone in that partnership, when we returned to the US State, accompanied by a delegation of Northern Ireland’s most innovative businesses.

Led by the First Minister and the deputy First Minister, our joint mission was about making connections, learning from best-practice and business and politicians together, pitching Northern Ireland as a unique and compelling place to invest and do business.

The delegation included stand-out companies like B-Secur; a team of world-leading Belfast technologists who are dedicated to improving heart health; Axial 3D; a Northern Ireland medtech company which is helping surgeons to improve patient outcomes by combining 3D and AI; Neurovalens; a health-tech company that creates non-invasive neurostimulation products to solve some of the world’s greatest health challenges and EOS IT solutions; a family-run global technology and logistics company headquartered in Banbridge with 18 sites across the world.

We were also joined by Artemis Technologies, who went on to announce a multimillion-dollar deal to drive zero-emission maritime innovation in the US. In addition, our group included the Head of the NI Civil Service and senior figures from Queen’s University, Belfast, Invest NI and Catalyst. The strength of the delegation truly enabled us to put Northern Ireland’s best foot forward.

Our mission was also about learning from best-practice and in particular, Raleigh’s outstanding research and innovation ecosystem. The Research Triangle Region is home to one of the largest and most prominent research and development hubs in the United States.

Research Triangle Park (RTP) is renowned for fostering collaborations between corporations, startups, and research institutions. Our group was there to uncover how such an ecosystem can be used to support business growth and help technological advancements to flourish. We have taken away how replicating something of this nature in Northern Ireland could help boost City and Growth Deal innovation projects, which harness so much potential for economic growth.

We were also hosted at the Poulton Innovation Centre inside NC State University’s Centennial Campus, which serves as a hub for collaboration between academia, industry, and government entities, before a series of political engagements, including a private meeting with North Carolina’s Secretary of State, Elaine F. Marshall and Lieutenant Governor, Rachel Hunt. We were also honoured to be hosted by NC State University at a special reception to mark the anniversary of the MOU and the significant traction it has earned to date.

Our delegation could not have been more positively received in North Carolina. At every engagement, we encountered genuine interest in our mission, an openness to new collaborations and absolute buy-in from politicians, businesspeople and academics alike. We have returned home more enthused than ever about the strength of the relationship and have already extended a formal invitation for a reciprocal delegation of US businesses and investors to Northern Ireland later this year.