Member Article

North East LEP Innovation Director praises the BIC

North East LEP Innovation director, Hans Moller, has praised the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) after a recent visit to the 14 acre site.

Innovation manager at the BIC, Elizabeth Shaw welcomed Hans, who was also chief executive of Sweden’s Ideon Science Park, and gave him a guided tour of the site, which can accommodate over 160 companies in purpose-built offices, and helps hundreds of new enterprises to start up each year.

The SME Innovation Programmemanaged by Elizabeth, utilises £724,000 of ERDF investment and is part financed by the European Union’s ERDF Competiveness Programme 2007-2013. The programme has exceeded the targets set out in 2012, engaging with 50 businesses across healthcare, manufacturing, digital and engineering as well as creating and safeguarding over 170 jobs.

After his visit Hans said: ““The BIC is one of the prosperous Innovation Hubs in North East with a proven track record of promoting growth and innovation in SMEs.

“The North East LEP’s priority is to create more and better jobs for all by demonstrating how regional businesses can gain competitive advantage by embracing innovative working practices. By working with partners like the BIC and others to communicate the benefits of innovation and instigate culture change is therefore extremely important to us.

“Part of our core role is to compete nationally to bring funding into the North East and we’re highly successful in this area. Various funding streams, are already being used to facilitate activities in the Innovation space and it is great to see the BIC’s work in support of this.”

Elizabeth added: “It was an honour welcoming such an influential figure here to the BIC. As an innovative enterprise agency we are fully committed to investing in innovation and making it accessible to SMEs.

“Here at the BIC we offer over 20 years of expertise across a broad range of networks and our main focus remains supporting and growing the region’s innovative activity, as well as on playing our part in helping to realise the LEP’s vision.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sarah Spence .