It has been designed to encourage businesses to take advantage of the established close links and collaboration between the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) and Future Space, which is located at UWE Bristol’s Frenchay campus.
Businesses currently based at Future Space are being encouraged to apply now. The vouchers will fully or part-fund a variety of projects such as research expertise and analysis from a range of UWE Bristol senior academic specialists, postgraduate students with specialist knowledge and cutting-edge skills from a variety of research areas, plus research equipment and facilities including access to labs, workshops and testing facilities on site.
Commenting on the launch of the scheme Professor Martin Boddy, pro vice-chancellor, research and business engagement at UWE Bristol, said: “We’re thrilled to be able to open this opportunity up to firms in our hugely popular Future Space.
“We realise this support could make all the difference in taking products and ideas to the next stage. We’re keen to emulate the success that other firms which have come through our doors have already achieved.
“This support initiative could be used for an R&D project to launch a new product or to improve efficiency or efficacy of an existing product or service.
“Future Space provides dedicated and bespoke support across a number of areas to its businesses. The application process has been designed to be simple and straightforward – this is vital where sometimes universities have been seen as difficult to engage with on R&D projects.”
Centre director, Elaine McKechnie said: “We have a wealth of talent and ideas within the businesses at Future Space and this collaborative-scheme with UWE is a good example of how our strong links with them can benefit the companies we work to support.
“We are invested in seeing the occupiers of Future Space grow and develop through innovation. Many of the companies are working at the cutting edge of their sectors – there’s some very exciting work being done and we’re excited to see can be realised as a result of this new initiative.”
