Quadruple Success Business Innovation Centre
As we start European SME week the BIC whose headquarters is in Stafford, has four separate announcements to make.
The BIC first of all celebrates FIFTEEN successful years
supporting local businesses and their new product developments. It is particularly proud that over the last eighteen months it has helped local companies to secure £850,000 worth of funds from the Advantage Proof of Concept fund to develop innovative new products and processes.
Secondly it is proud to announce that its Chief Executive Geoff Riley
has been appointed the new Chairman of the UK’s Business Innovation Centres Group. There are currently fifteen Business Innovation Centres throughout the UK and their aim is to encourage and promote innovativepractices to help business development.
Thirdly Geoff Riley has just been appointed the UK Representative Board Member for the European Business Network.
This is the European membership based organisation which specialises in innovation, spin-offs, incubation, entrepreneurship, SMEs, and regional economic development and which dictates the Quality Controls for all official European Business Innovation Centres of which the BIC has passed with flying colours for thelast fifteen years.
Finally the BIC is pleased to announce that it has just been granted a £1.3m European funded package over three years
from Advantage West Midlands to provide in-depth support to help local high growth and high value businesses to grow. The BIC is already known locally for providing excellent Incubation start up support for businesses and this project will allow this support to continue but it will also allow the BIC to support customers virtually using modern technology to provide practical support and on-line business advice.
This project will in particular support companies in the following industries
ICT; Creative Digital; High Value Added; Medical Technology; Business & Professional Services; Building Technologies
The BIC has its Head Quarters in Stafford on the Technology Park and has ten other offices
throughout the region.
All centres feature incubation facilities, the preferred model of Business Innovation Centres to provide young start up companies with essential support right from the start. They are provided with a small office, a desk, a chair, a computer with Broadband Internet connection, a printer and a filing cabinet and very importantly unique to the BIC model – the advice of on-site Business Advisors to help them with their business development including access to numerous other funding schemes for their clients.
The BIC also encourages innovation within people by running a series of events and workshops to give people the skills to be more innovative – the key to business success in today’s competitive world. Forthcoming events include the following workshops:
Intellectual Property Rights – 8 July 2010
Leadership in Innovation – 22 September 2010
New Product Marketing – 6 October 2010
For further information please contact the Staffs BIC on 0845 8458020 or visit their web site www.thebic.co.uk