Seven venues along the Sheffield Innovation Spine will welcome visitors next Tuesday, with immersive films, live product demonstrations and a three-storey slide

Sheffield’s laboratories, start-up studios and tech incubators are trading security passes for a welcome mat next week, as the city stages its first Open Doors Innovation Festival.

On Tuesday 20 October, between 9.30am and 4.30pm, seven venues along the Sheffield Innovation Spine will invite the public inside. The Spine is the 190-acre urban innovation district that runs through five mixed-use neighbourhoods of the city centre between its two universities. Visitors can meet the scientists, student entrepreneurs, engineers and deep-tech founders who work there. Admission is free.

The format follows the familiar open studios and open gardens model. Visitors move between venues at their own pace, guided by the free Spine Guide app for Android and iOS. Checking in at each venue earns leaderboard points and unlocks founder stories that have not been heard before. Entrants aged over 16 can opt into a draw for a £100 gift card, donated by Sheffield Business Improvement District, which can be spent in city centre shops and hospitality venues.

From the Igloo to the helter-skelter

At Sheffield Hallam University’s Strines Building, visitors can step into the Igloo, a 360-degree immersive environment that screens films inspired by place. They can then tour a photogrammetry suite in which 144 cameras capture 3D models for gaming, fashion and biomechanics.

Electric Works will have local tech entrepreneurs and business advisers on hand. It also has its three-storey helter-skelter slide, a seven-second descent for anyone who would rather skip the stairs.

In the Cooper Building at Sheffield Technology Parks, the incubator will have live inventions for visitors to try, and the labs that house early-stage start-ups will be open to view. At the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub in the UKSE Innovation Centre, senior enterprise manager Dr Rachel Smith will explain how national engineering networks help local firms build green, growing businesses with global reach.

The University of Sheffield is opening two venues. In its Engineering Heartspace, visitors can help test products emerging from university research in the Siemens Digital Innovation Zone. At the Ella Armitage Building, the Emerge Startup Studio will show work by academics, students and entrepreneurs who are tackling social and industrial problems.

Pennine Five completes the trail. It offers tours of deep-tech labs, demonstrations from scale-ups including Exciting Instruments and FourJaw, the chance to record a vox pop in its podcast studio, and views across the city from the top of Block One.

Tom Wolfenden, chief executive of Sheffield Technology Parks, said the Spine was a focus for well-paid jobs and collaboration, and the festival gave people who knew little about it a chance to look inside.

“This type of event is important because the Spine is somewhere people live, work and visit. It isn’t a ‘project’. It’s a ‘place’. And it belongs to the communities that use it,” he said.

“We are excited to be working with venues across the city to open up spaces and share what we’re doing with curious residents, students, workers and visitors.”

This is the first time Spine venues have worked together to open to the public in this way. The festival also begins three days of fringe events around TECH SY’s Northern Tech Summit, which will bring businesses, investors, policymakers and civic leaders to Sheffield.

Sheffield Innovation Spine convened Open Doors. It is delivered with TECH SY, the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, Business Sheffield, Electric Works, Emerge, the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub, Pennine Five, Sheffield Technology Parks and Llama Digital.

All venues are fully accessible. The only equipment visitors need is the app, and perhaps a head for heights at Electric Works.

More information here.