FORTY software businesses could be created on Wearside after £2.9m investment in the sector.
The University of Sunderland has secured the funding from regional development agency One North East to finance its contribution to the Sunderland Software City (SSC) initiative, which is developing the region’s infrastructure to create and develop software enterprises and attract inward investment.
In total, the initiative will create at least 47 jobs and assist 120 businesses.
The project has also secured £945,000 from the European Union’s ERDF Competitiveness Programme, and £1.9m further investment from One North East.
John MacIntyre, dean of applied sciences at the University of Sunderland, said: “A cornerstone of our project is to stimulate graduate enterprise by creating a software hatchery to provide a dedicated support environment for small businesses to develop ideas.
“The hatchery will be fully equipped to support fledgling software businesses with access to a broad range of software platforms.
“Our main objective is to stimulate companies in the region to convert ideas into marketable software products. Funding will support product development and knowledge transfer activity among software companies across the region."
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