Sunderland Software City

Funded by the European Regional Development Fund

Sunderland Software City is designed to inspire and encourage the growth of the Software Industry in the North East of England, and to make the area an attractive location of choice for software businesses.

We are a private sector initiated, public-private partnership of the City of Sunderland, the University of Sunderland, the North East Business and Innovation Centre, One NorthEast, Codeworks Connect and the private sector software industry.

As one of the Innovation Connectors in One NorthEast’s Regional Economic Strategy, we aim to enable the development of world class facilities, initiate new approaches to integrating business and universities and act as a catalyst for the growth of new and existing businesses. 

Although Sunderland is our base , our work has an economic and regenerative impact throughout the whole region, seeking to create an environment where a software industry can thrive in the North East by attracting inward investment from National and International software businesses.

We also engage with the community through an extensive education programme spanning schools, colleges and universities, encouraging young people to see the software industry as an attractive career which will allow them to build a bright future in the North East, and for the North East.

The initiative is benefiting from over £6.5m of European Union investment from the ERDF Competitiveness Programme 2007-13, secured through regional development agency One North East. The ERDF programme is bringing over £300m into the North East to support innovation, enterprise and business support across the region.