The Edge State

In December 2024 Marco Rapaccini posted a question on LinkedIn: why does the North West have so many brilliant companies and so much research, yet so few names people would point to the way they point to London, Cambridge or Oxford? Professor Phil Lee of the University of Cumbria replied with an idea he had been sitting on for years. A year later that comment has become the Irish Sea Rim, an innovation zone linking the regions around the Irish Sea, and a 290 page report launched during the Liverpool City Region Innovation Fortnight.

Marco tells Graham Hadaway how a parked vision turned into a working board of directors, why the Irish Sea Rim does not want to compete with London or copy Silicon Valley, and what is actually being built: the Land Bridge project, which uses data sharing to ease post-Brexit trade between ports, green shipping corridors, an Irish Sea Rim cycle race, and ISR50, a digital platform where businesses, universities and public bodies can find each other. He also explains what the next two years look like, the goal for 2036, and how organisations can get involved now.

What we talk about

- Marco's route from software engineering into ventures, Fulginium, and his bilingual parenting startup Lingo Starters

- What the Irish Sea Rim is: an innovation zone for cross-border collaboration in business, research and funding across the North West of England, the West of Scotland, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Wales and the South West of England

- How Professor Phil Lee's vision was parked by COVID and political change, and revived by a LinkedIn comment

- Building the board: directors of technology, innovation, place and commercial partnerships

- The 290 page report as a health check of the region's capabilities, research, manufacturing and existing clusters

- A "cluster of clusters": why the aim is a super cluster rather than one more local network

- Growing up with Italy's north-south divide, and why complaining about London is a passive approach

- Not competing, not copying: building a model that works for the Irish Sea regions

- The Land Bridge project: pre-cleared customs and data sharing between ports from Liverpool to Belfast, Dublin, Cork and the Isle of Man

- Why the Irish Sea is a good test bed for green shipping with alternative fuels, hydrogen and electric vessels

- A cycle race as a shop window for coastal and rural communities that are often left behind

- ISR50: a digital identity for businesses, and a meeting place with the region's universities

- The report launch at Mann Island, and why the room's challenges were the reality check they needed

- The next 12 months: Land Bridge and a second project on secure futures, covering energy, food security, communities and defence

- The 2036 goal of thousands of new jobs, and what success looks like in two years

- How to get involved before the ISR50 platform goes live

Quotes

> "We don't want to compete with London, we don't want to be the alternative Cambridge or Oxford, we want to have our own model."

> "LinkedIn sometimes is a cringe reflection of humanity, but sometimes you can find some little gems. And in my case, it was the Irish Sea Rim."

> "It's not about competing, it's not about copying."

> "We're talking about taking a very old-fashioned, boring business, logistics and transportation, and making it more efficient."

> "A cycling race is not just a sports event."

> "The right people with the right solutions at the right time."

> "The collaboration starts now."

About the guest

Marco Rapaccini is the founder of Fulginium, a tech and ventures company offering technology consulting and taking part in new initiatives. He has worked in tech for more than ten years, starting in software engineering, and has spent the last five launching ventures. His startup Lingo Starters, which helps parents raising bilingual children, was selected by the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is Director of Technology at the Irish Sea Rim, and lives in Kendal.

About the Irish Sea Rim

The Irish Sea Rim is an innovation zone working to increase cross-border collaboration, research and investment across the regions around the Irish Sea. Find out more, or register interest ahead of the ISR50 platform launch, at irishsearim.org, or find the Irish Sea Rim on LinkedIn.

About the show

The Edge State is a podcast from Tech District Cumbria, Cumbria's independent voice for the technology industries, hosted by Graham Hadaway. Every episode we sit down with the people running businesses in Cumbria and beyond about the technology they actually use and where they think it is heading.

Find out more and join the network at techdistrictcumbria.co.uk