The North East of England is one of 18 new administrative areas to join the international Bloomberg Philanthropies i-team initiative, which has reached over 100 cities across 16 countries and four continents, representing more than 100 million residents.
North East Combined Authority, UK – (September 26 2025) – North East Mayor Kim McGuinness today announced the launch of a municipal Innovation Team (i-team). The i-team, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, will include three specialised staff charged with helping city officials and civic partners design and implement solutions that meet pressing local challenges. The i-team will expertly deploy data, collect insight, and collaborate across sectors—crowding the energy and resources across the region —to develop resident-centred interventions that improve people’s lives. The i-team will receive technical assistance from regional and global specialists, and benefit from learnings from peers in city halls across the region and around the world.
The i-team will bring to the North East of England expertise in data analysis; artificial intelligence; digitisation; insight development; rapid prototyping; and project management and delivery. It will focus on driving more innovative approaches to tackling child poverty, which affects 1 in 3 children in the region, as well as decarbonising existing housing stock, making homes cheaper to heat. The i-team, which will be hired by the Combined Authority, will regularly provide updates to the Mayor on progress, ensuring it is positioned to move efficiently and get results.
“Tackling child poverty is my number one priority as Mayor, so it is a golden thread that runs through everything we’re doing in the North East, from digital inclusion and making transport more accessible, to maximising incomes and improving housing,” said Mayor Kim McGuinness of North East England. “We’ve already announced sweeping interventions as we take on that challenge, which includes ambitious plans for the delivery of retrofit activity across the region to make existing houses warmer and cheaper to heat. The i-team, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies and this international initiative, will help us deliver—ensuring that all our programmes to address these challenges in the North East make a real difference in people’s lives.”
National and global policies increasingly depend on local progress – and in recent years, municipalities have served as intermediaries for infrastructure, recovery, and more. To seize their potential, local governments require access to the talent and tools that will help them solve problems across departments, harness data and emerging technology, and bring resident needs into the heart of policymaking and programme design.
In Europe, this is particularly acute: more than 60 percent of mayors surveyed by Eurocities report that capacity to implement cutting-edge solutions is a top strategy to achieve their priorities – though most lack what they need to solve challenges currently at hand. The Bloomberg Philanthropies i-team program, part of the organization’s Government Innovation portfolio, provides municipalities funding and expertise to establish a multidisciplinary, mission-minded unit that meets this need.
“Realising efficient, effective government is an inside job—and the Innovation Teams we support around the world are critical to building that engine within the city halls they serve,” said James Anderson, who leads the Government Innovation programme at Bloomberg Philanthropies. “We are glad to expand this model to 18 new municipal teams in Europe, who will join the growing number of public officials working locally, creatively, and ambitiously to break down silos, break through problems, and deliver results residents see and feel.”
To date, the Bloomberg Philanthropies i-team initiative has reached over 100 cities across 16 countries and four continents—representing more than 100 million residents—and inspired hundreds of other local governments to embrace innovation systems and practices.
The North East Combined Authority is one of 18 new European municipalities and areas selected to participate in the initiative, which includes eight countries and represents 34 million residents. These new i-teams will focus on issues ranging from fortifying disaster response to reducing youth poverty to lowering household energy burden and will be in: Brussels, Belgium; Zagreb, Croatia; Helsinki, Finland; Turku, Finland; Vantaa, Finland; Freiburg Im Breisgau, Germany; Leipzig, Germany; Mannheim, Germany; Oslo, Norway; Madrid, Spain; Valencia, Spain; Zaragoza, Spain; Stockholm, Sweden; Edinburgh, UK; North East Combined Authority, UK; Liverpool City Region, UK; Greater Manchester Combined Authority, UK; and South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, UK.