In January 2014, OxLEP secured £55.5m as part of the Government’s City Deal programme to support economic growth in the area.

This substantial investment from Government will bring forward £1216m of additional investment from local partners and the private sector. Combined together, this will create a total new investment package of £1271.6m for OxLEP.

This funding will be used for various schemes aimed at improving Oxfordshire's position as a vibrant and sustainable economy.

By 2021, this Deal will create at least 18,000 jobs and accelerate the delivery of 7,500 homes across the county.

The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership and Central Government have agreed to co-invest in the following jointly-agreed priorities:

• The Harwell Innovation Hub £14.1m (£7m City Deal) will be a new facility focussed on promoting open innovation based at the Harwell campus, home to “big” science facilities such as the diamond Synchotron and the recently relocated European Space Agency and Space Catapult Centre. This project will be delivered by The Science and Technology Facilities Council.
• The UKAEA Culham Advanced Manufacturing Hub £21.2m (£7.8m City Deal) will be a new facility focussed on remote handling – which will have applications across a number of different industries where there are extreme environments (nuclear, space, underwater, underground). This project will be delivered by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.
• The Oxford BioEscalator £21m (£11m City Deal) will be a new-breed of incubator space designed nurture small spin-off companies in the life science sector with the capacity to grow into mid-sized companies. Situated in the Old Road Campus in Oxford, it will allow co-location with hospital and research facilities and staff (including clinicians, patients and researchers) and sharing equipment that allow “adjacent innovation” to develop at scale.  It will also support single teams to manage multiple biotech companies which will significantly reduce management costs (“burn rate”). This project will be delivered by The University of Oxford.
• The Begbroke Innovation Accelerator £11.2m (£4.2m City Deal) will be a new facility located at Begbroke Science Park, the project will build on a track record of successful integration of the academic and business communities, and will focus on the advanced engineering sectors of automotive, nuclear materials, advanced materials, robotics, as well as in nano-medicine, pharmaceuticals, motorsport and supercomputing. This project will be delivered by The University of Oxford.
• The Oxfordshire Innovation Support for Business £7m (£2m City Deal) programme will create a tailored business support programme which will bring together a network of existing provision, amplify and enhance existing services to businesses and plug gaps with bespoke programmes in order to promote innovation based growth. This project will be delivered by the Oxfordshire LEP.
• Science Vale Oxford Enterprise Zone access improvements £28.2m (£6.1m City Deal) a package of measures to improve national and local road networks. This will increase reliability and in turn provide the confidence necessary to attract business investment and high skilled employees.This project will be delivered by Oxfordshire County Council.
• Schemes to support the regeneration of Oxford’s Northern Gateway and the A40 approaches to Oxford £17.8m (£7.3m City Deal). This package of measures will relieve congestion and deliver growth at the Northern Gateway development site. This project will be delivered by Oxfordshire County Council.
• Oxford Science Transit £23.5m (£8.7m City Deal) will be a fully integrated public transport system that connects the area’s centres of innovation and economic growth with the two universities.  It will mean that people using Oxford Science Transit will be able to hop on, and off, high-frequency bus and rail services using “smart” tickets (akin to Oyster cards), planning their journeys using real-time information and updates.  The City Deal will enable the first phase of the Science Transit by focusing on the major pinch points in the network: the A34 between Abingdon and south Oxford and the access into Oxford from the A34 along the Oxford Southern Bypass. This project will be delivered by Oxfordshire County Council.
• Apprenticeships (£1.5m City Deal) The development of an integrated programme to increase the number of young people taking up Apprenticeships, with a particular focus on courses that will support Oxford and Oxfordshire’s growth sectors: advanced engineering and manufacturing; space technology and biosciences. This project will be delivered by Oxfordshire County Council.