Member Article

North East BIC lands £820k to relaunch Innovation Programme

The North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) has received £820k to relaunch its Innovation Programme.

Designed to unlock the innovation potential of the region’s businesses, the scheme is set to make its return, building on the legacy of its initial rollour which ran until August 2015.

The BIC received the funding from the England European Regional Development Fund, as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.

The Fund will assist businesses in the North East to become more innovative, allowing them to increase their competitiveness and exploit more opportunities, bringing benefits to the region.

Elizabeth Shaw, Innovation Manager, said: “I am delighted to announce that following the highly successful SME Innovation Programme delivered to NE businesses and the appetite in R&D expenditure for the benefit of increasing innovative activity, we now have the opportunity to continue to help businesses unlock their innovation potential.

“Each SME will receive access to third party expertise in the innovation process and, as a result, will gain an understanding of the knowledge and skills required to undertake further projects within the business.”

Over the next three-years, the programme will support over 60 SMEs, providing the funding required to outsource help from innovation experts, enabling them to produce new products, services or processes to the business and/or the market.

Elizabeth added: “In order to prosper, businesses must innovate and whilst most would agree with the sentiment, it can be difficult to know where to begin.

“This project will enable us to work with individual businesses to diagnose potential development opportunities and make vital connections.”