First clients move into Tremough Innovation Centre
Cornwall's latest state-of-the-art business innovation centre has welcomed its first clients.
The £13m Tremough Innovation Centre (TIC) opened its doors on 1 February. Located adjacent to the Tremough Campus in Penryn, TIC can support up to 70 businesses and is operated by Plymouth University as part of GAIN on behalf of Cornwall Council.
Plymouth University provides clients with access to a supportive and creative communal environment in which they can develop their ideas, accelerate their growth, and create jobs.
TIC is the second innovation centre to be completed in Cornwall with Pool Innovation Centre (PIC), which opened in 2010, already exceeding all targets.
In the first year PIC helped client businesses achieve average growth of over 40%, creating 44 new jobs.
Work on a third innovation centre specialising in the Health and Wellbeing in Truro is expected to be completed in October 2012. The University has a contract to operate all three centres for 25 years.
Among the first business to move to TIC was graphic design firm Collaborative Thought, founded by James Beresford in Truro 18 months ago.
He said: "Moving to Tremough will help me to take the business to the next level, providing the base I need to bring in skilled freelancers to work alongside me on new projects. I'm also looking forward to tapping into the creative community here."
TIC Director Bernard Curren said: "There has been a tremendous amount of interest from the local business community and prospective clients. And with the University at the heart of GAIN, all of our clients are automatically plugged into a region-wide strategy to accelerate the creation, growth and investment in high quality businesses and ideas, creating wealth and jobs."
TIC has been led by Cornwall Council, supported by Cornwall Development Company (CDC), with investment from the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) Convergence Programme and the South West RDA (Regional Development Agency).
