Innovation Fund — May 2012
What is the Innovation Fund?
The University of Gloucestershire Innovation Fund is provided and delivered by the University’s Centre for Enterprise & Innovation (CEI). It is funded through the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) to support academic staff with ideas for enterprising products/services, initiatives and collaborations. The current round of this fund is open for applications until Monday 28 May 2012.
Awards of between £1k and £5k will be available to support your time and/or associated costs, in development of pipeline innovation opportunities and/or delivery of innovative collaborative projects with external organisations. Examples of how the fund might assist include:
| PIPELINE DEVELOPMENT |
INNOVATION DELIVERY |
| Expenses and meeting costs |
Feasibility studies |
| Proposal research/identification |
Market research |
| Project bidding |
Buy out of staff time |
The Innovation Fund is designed to help enhance knowledge exchange between those in business and those in academia, supporting opportunities for working together on collaborative projects as a foundation for longer-term collaboration and development. The collaboration should target businesses that would benefit from a significant interaction with potential for significant benefit to the business, the academic and the University.
Who is it aimed at?
• Staff already engaged in collaborative business services
• Staff new to knowledge transfer and commercial business
What are the funding criteria?
• The opportunity must have a commercial partner identified
• The project should have potential to generate income
• The work should deliver knowledge transfer and innovation
• The output must contribute to your faculty business development targets*
How can I get involved?
Contact Collette Coll or Kate Hall at the Centre for Enterprise & Innovation to discuss your idea on 01242 714014 or email cei@glos.ac.uk.
Submit an Innovation Fund Application Form, outlining your proposed collaboration or idea with a breakdown of estimated costs. Applications for this round must be received by Monday 28 May 2012. A selection panel will evaluate applications and provide feedback.
*For more information on faculty business development targets, please see your Faculty Lead for Business Development (AS: John Deane, BEPS: David Dawson, MAT: Kevin Hapeshi)
The Enterprise activity below was supported by Knowledge Escalator.
The Knowledge Escalator project is part financed by the European Union's ERDF Competitiveness and Employment Programme 2007-13 securing £1,833,000 of ERDF investment through the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA).
Sustainability & Enterprise Workshop — June 2010
On 11 June 2010 the University was delighted to welcome Elisabeth Bittner, an expert on entrepreneurship and sustainability, to deliver the latest in a series of Enterprise Workshops. The workshop was the result of a collaboration between University’s RCE Severn and Sustainability teams, and the University’s Centre for Enterprise & Innovation.
Over 40 staff, students, sustainability partners and local businesses attended the workshop, where Elisabeth shared her insightful thoughts on entrepreneurship and explored its relationship with sustainability.
To read more about the event, to see Elisabeth’s presentation and to read a participant’s perspective of the workshop, please click here to access the University’s ‘sustainability’ pages
http://www.glos.ac.uk/vision/sustainability/unurce/Pages/masterclass.aspx
KTP Enterprise Workshop — April 2010
The Enterprise Development Fund is provided and managed by the University’s Centre for Enterprise & Innovation, to support staff and students with ideas for enterprising products/services, initiatives and collaborations. The fund runs until September 2011 and draws upon the Knowledge Escalator Project, a 3-year programme part financed by the European Regional Development Fund and South West Regional Development Agency. As part of a series of Enterprise Master classes and Workshops, the Centre for Enterprise & Innovation hosted an Enterprise Workshop on Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) on Tuesday 20 April. Sixteen members of staff attended the afternoon workshop, including colleagues from the Business School, Pittville, Oxstalls, CCRI, and Research.
Presentations were given by Gill Rysiecki (regional KTP supervisor) on the scheme itself, by Martin Wynn (Business School) on the University’s considerable experience with KTPs, and by Collette Coll (CEI) on support available through the CEI and KTP Support Office.
In addition to those who attended the KTP Enterprise Workshop, new interest in KTPs has also been expressed by colleagues from right across the University and we hope to repeat this workshop to enable us to reach further colleagues and help them find out more about the KTP programme and how to get involved.
KTP Workshop Presentation
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is a UK-wide government-funded scheme which places high-quality graduates, known as Associates, into companies of all sizes to undertake projects of strategic importance to the company, with the supervision of an academic. The projects enable businesses to improve their competitiveness and/or productivity through the knowledge, technology and skills residing within academic institutions, and over the 30 years that the scheme has been running, has proved an excellent way of delivering innovation and business development.
The University of Gloucestershire has been successfully delivering KTP projects for many years and was, in 2009, the first University in the South West to secure one of the new Shorter KTP projects. We currently have 11 live projects and have been involved in helping companies expand into new markets, develop new marketing or business development strategies, re-engineer business processes, implement new IT systems, develop e-business platforms and develop new products. KTP projects have also been used elsewhere to deliver such diverse project as improving environmental systems; creating digital music libraries; designing new roof-lights; and reconciling clinical training to Working Time Directives.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships can offer you an opportunity to:
- apply your knowledge and expertise to important business problems
- develop business-relevant teaching materials and case study research
- bring your understanding of current business requirements and operations right up to date
- develop in-depth relationships with local and national employers
- generate income for your department
For more information about KTPs or any other enterprising initiative or idea, please contact the Centre for Enterprise & Innovation on 01242 714104 or email cei@glos.ac.uk
Enterprise Development Fund
For Staff and Students
The Enterprise Development Fund is provided and managed by the University’s Centre for Enterprise & Innovation, to support staff and students with ideas for enterprising products/services, initiatives and collaborations. The fund runs until September 2011 and draws upon the Knowledge Escalator Project, a 3-year programme part financed by the European Regional Development Fund and South West Regional Development Agency.
The Enterprise Development Fund offers 2 strands of funding, for which awards will be spread over the period to Sept 2011:
• Knowledge Fellowships
Awards of up to £5k to support your time and/or associated costs, or that of an external business, in working on a collaborative project.
The Knowledge Fellowship scheme is designed to help enhance knowledge exchange between those in business and those in academia, supporting opportunities for working together on collaborative projects as a foundation for longer-term collaboration and development. The collaboration should target businesses that would benefit from a significant interaction at the level of a knowledge fellow, with potential for significant benefit to the business, the academic and the University.
This funding is to cover additional costs and is available only to members of the University’s staff.
• Proof of Concept
Awards of typically £5k-£8k* to help you develop an idea you have, that may have commercial potential (* Smaller or larger awards can be made where appropriate or where there is potential for substantial commercial returns)
The Proof of Concept scheme is designed to provide financial support at the early stages of developing an idea that may have commercial potential. The funding could be used for example to develop a business plan, market test an idea, develop a prototype, undertake a pilot etc and aims to help you move an enterprising idea from concept to its next stage.
This funding is to cover additional costs and is available to members of the University’s staff and students.
How can I get involved?
- Contact the Centre for Enterprise & Innovation to discuss your idea at cei@glos.ac.uk or call 01242 714104
- Submit an application form, outlining your proposed collaboration (Knowledge Fellowship) or idea (Proof of Concept) with a breakdown of estimated costs.
Calls for applications will be made and evaluated quarterly, though you are free to submit an application at any time.
A selection panel will evaluate applications and feed back to you.
Please note successful applicants will need to provide information about the use of the funds awarded.
Proof of Concept Application Form
Proof of Concept Information Sheet
Knowledge Fellowship Application Form
Knowledge Fellowship Information Sheet
Enterprise Evening - November 2009
To mark the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the Centre for Enterprise & Innovation hosted the University’s first Enterprise Evening and Masterclass on Monday 16th November. 60 members of staff and students attended an inspiring and engaging evening with lots of enterprising discussion and networking with colleagues from across all of the University’s faculties.
The Centre for Enterprise and Innovation was delighted to welcome Vice-Chancellor Patricia Broadfoot to open the event and to outline the importance of the enterprise agenda as part of the University’s strategic plan. Professor Stephen Hill, Dean of Teaching & Learning Innovation shared with colleagues details of the newly launched ‘Graduate Challenge’ programme, through which the Centre for Enterprise & Innovation are placing unemployed graduates into Gloucestershire businesses. This programme has been delivered with funding secured from HEFCE’s Economic Challenge Investment Fund in response to the recession, providing local businesses with 4 months of free graduate level assistance, the graduate with invaluable work experience and master’s level study credits, University academics with opportunities as mentors to the graduates, and the University with valuable new relationships with local organisations.
John Caines OBE, was then warmly welcomed in the first of a series of Enterprise Master Classes, exploring what it means to be enterprising in a rapidly changing environment, with his talk ‘Entrepreneurial Horses and Courses’. John Caines is a prominent local entrepreneur who was recently awarded an OBE for his services to entrepreneurship, and brings significant experience as an entrepreneur, a business angel, director and chairman of many businesses. Guests heard his experiences of being enterprising and his thought-provoking ideas as to just what it means to be entrepreneurial and how this can be achieved within a University, discussing the challenges and the prizes of the entrepreneurial journey.
The CEI closed the evening with the exciting launch of a new Enterprise Development Fund, available to staff and students as part of a regional ‘Knowledge Escalator’ programme funded by the South West RDA and European Regional Development Fund. This funding is available to help enable colleagues engage in new enterprising initiatives, with ‘Proof of Concept’ awards of typically £5k-£8k available for staff or students with ideas that they would like to take forward to test their commercial potential, and ‘Knowledge Fellowship’ awards of up to £5k for collaborative work between University staff and businesses. More information about the Enterprise Development Fund can be obtained from the CEI including information on how to apply for this funding to help you take forward your enterprising ideas and opportunities.
For more information about the Enterprise Evening, Graduate Challenge, the Enterprise Development Fund or any other enterprising initiative or idea, please contact the Centre for Enterprise & Innovation on 01242 714104 or email cei@glos.ac.uk
BUG Programme 2010 Launch Event - November 2009
This year’s BUG Business Planning Programme recently got underway at a launch event during Global Enterprise Week, held in the CeAL building of FCH Campus. The event saw over 50 people attend to take inspiration from the guest speakers and to find out more about how the BUG Programme can help them to achieve their entrepreneurial ambitions.
The evening progressed smoothly, with everyone enjoying the cupcakes provided by one of our guest speakers, former BUG Winner and University Graduate Pia Cato; who has now turned her winning idea into an exciting new business (www.vanillapodbakery.com). University staff member Riz Galiyara, who won last year’s competition also spoke about his business idea and its future.
The BUG Programme is run by the University’s ‘Centre for Enterprise & Innovation (CEI)’ and is now entering its 3rd year. This year it is hoped that BUG will help even more of the University’s staff, students and recent graduates to develop their entrepreneurial skills and learn how to successfully plan and start up a new venture. BUG participants will be supported throughout the programme, with access to business planning lectures, a series of interactive workshops and entrepreneur mentoring sessions, free to all participants. Towards the end of the programme participants will be given the option to submit a 20 page business plan on a business idea that they have developed to go through to the competition phase. From these entries finalists will be shortlisted to present to a panel of expert judges from local businesses who will decide the winners and award the prize monies.
If you would like to find out more about the BUG Programme and how it could help you develop your entrepreneurial ambitions please contact: bugcompetition@glos.ac.uk or phone 01242 714105.
Read more about the BUG Programme at www.glos.ac.uk/bugcompetition
Enterprise Change Academy — July 2009
Around 50 staff took part in an Enterprise Change Academy, run by the University’s Centre for Enterprise & Innovation. This 2-day event provided an opportunity for a cross section of colleagues, drawn from across all faculties of the University, to explore strategies to support expansion of our commercial and business-facing activity and to help shape the University’s Enterprise strategy and enabling projects.
A number of projects were identified at the to drive the Enterprise agenda forward. These projects focussed on the following issues and will, over the coming months, see teams from the Change Academy working on them and moving them forward.
- Student Enterprise
- Short Courses
- New products and services
- Managing and progressing new opportunities
- Information Management
If you did not attend the Enterprise Change Academy but would like to get involved, perhaps in working with one of the above project teams, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact the Centre for Enterprise & Innovation on 01242 714104 or email cei@glos.ac.uk