Cornwall's Innovation Centres in European spotlight
Cornwall's three innovation centres have been highlighted by the European Commission for their work in helping small business to grow.
The Commission has chosen the innovation centres as its project of the week, featuring them on its website and citing the success of the individual centres and the way in which they feed into the wider efforts to promote economic growth in Cornwall.
All three Innovation Centres are operated by Plymouth University and companies using these centres are automatically a part of the Growth Acceleration and Investment Network (GAIN). GAIN was set up by Plymouth University, Plymouth City Council, Tamar Science Park and including the Cornish innovation centres with the aim of accelerating the creation, growth and investment in high quality businesses and ideas across the South West.
The Pool Innovation Centre (PIC) was the first to open in July 2010 and has been successful in establishing a blueprint for the Cornwall Innovation Centre programme. Reaching 50 per cent capacity inside six months - more than two years ahead of schedule - the Centre is now at its optimum operating level, home to 44 businesses with a combined annual turnover of more than £12m. In its first year of operation alone, PIC assisted client businesses to achieve average growth of over 40% with 45 new jobs created, and 15 others safeguarded. That job creation figure is now approaching 80.
PIC has close links to the second innovation centre at Tremough (Tremough Innovation Centre -TIC) which opened in January 2012 and is home to 35 clients, working specifically with the arts, media and creative and environmental and sustainability technologies.
The third centre - the Health and Wellbeing Innovation Centre - in Truro (HWIC) is due to open in early 2013 and will take advantage of significant potential synergies with an emerging health and wellbeing cluster located close to the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust campus.
Professor Julian Beer, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Regional Enterprise at Plymouth University, said: "The Cornish innovation centres provide an excellent example of how putting the right physical and supportive environment in place can help businesses to thrive. GAIN takes this to a regional level, bringing together and adding value to the existing range of business services, assets and infrastructure to promote innovation and support business growth."
Chris Pomfret, Chair of the Local Enterprise Partnership and Deputy Chair of the Convergence Local Management Committee, which steers the Convergence programme said: "The three Innovation Centres in Cornwall are an important building block in the economic development strategy for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. They nurture start-up and nascent businesses and provide the infrastructure needed for Cornish businesses to research, develop and collaborate together. With the ERDF investment we were able to design and build the centres in a short timeframe, first PIC, then TIC and now HWIC creating an economic buzz around the businesses located in the buildings. With job creation and with PIC reaching its capacity target two years ahead of schedule it sends out the message that Cornwall is ready for business not only now, but also into the future."
The European Commission's project of the week appears at: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/newsroom/detail.cfm?LAN=EN&id=352&
