Trailblazing Innovation Support
Innovate and grow in partnership with a leading enterprise university.
With the unique combination of our specialist business support alongside UWE Bristol’s leading-edge facilities, academic insight and student talent at your fingertips, you’ll soon be working at the cutting-edge of your industry.
Our practical innovation support is available for all our resident businesses. As well as connecting companies with the university for cutting-edge R&D activity, we also design and develop a varied support programme of workshops and events, running peer networks and 1:1 business support.
Powered by the University of the West of England, we offer a university-partnered approach to growth and innovation, nurturing your company with R&D and business support.
Research & development
Ideas and product development consumes 20% of effort in a small business, creating huge barriers to embarking on, and benefitting from, R&D. Connecting all our companies with UWE Bristol’s facilities, insight and students, we facilitate the kind of exploration and product development needed to stand at the forefront of your industry, driving innovation.
This includes:
- R&D consultancy projects in Applied Sciences, Product Design, Data Science and Engineering, led by students and supervised by academics.
- Access to the university’s facilities and prototyping equipment, with links to the Health Tech Hub and Bristol Robotics Lab based next door.
- Bid writing support from the Research & External Engagement Team.
- Collaborative research opportunities between businesses, academics and UWE graduates, such as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships.
- Discount on the university’s professional development short courses.
- Access to all Future Space breakfasts, socials and ecosystem events.
Business support
We understand that every business is different and requires different levels of support across a variety of areas, be it funding, marketing, legal and beyond. Business support is at the heart of what we do, granting our companies access to a vast network of business experts, skills and talent across both the university and the wider ecosystem, nurturing growth.
This includes:
- Unlimited 1:2:1 business support from our in-house Innovation Team, helping with everything from investment advice to pitch-deck reviews.
- Consultations with all our Business Partners and our wider pool of advisors, covering everything from legal to recruitment, IP to AI.
- One fully-funded UWE internship per company, covering 296 hours.
- Unlimited marketing support, including brand messaging, explainer videos, market research and access to UWE’s graduate creative agency.
- Exclusive access to our monthly innovation forums run by our in-house Innovation Team plus our Business Partners and external advisors.
Led by Oxford Innovation Space, the UK and Ireland's largest network of innovation centres, we provide our companies with all kinds of business insight tools and exclusive partner discounts.
GROWTHmapper™
All Future Space businesses, both resident and virtual, are given full use of GROWTHmapper, developed by Oxford Innovation to help high-growth businesses achieve their goals. This digital diagnostic tool is used to model your business across multiple areas for future strategic growth.
Beauhurst
All resident Future Space businesses are provided with access to Beauhurst, a searchable database of the UK’s fastest-growing businesses, along with the data surrounding the funds and accelerators that back them. You’ll be able to track over 32,000 companies across the country.
Leading Edge Only
All resident Future Space businesses are given access to Leading Edge Only (LEO), the world’s largest Global Innovation Platform. Operating in over 120 countries, LEO connects innovative businesses to corporations seeking the latest technologies, products, services or expertise.
AWS
Future Space is one of 160 official Amazon Web Service Partners worldwide, which means that all resident Future Space businesses are able to benefit from free support packages. This can include up to $25,000 of AWS credits.
Exima
Emixa offers all resident Future Space businesses the opportunity to access a team of experts to help implement the Siemens’ Solid Edge solution, as well as training sessions on the program itself. The offer is open to companies less than three years old and with less than £1m of investment.
SafeHR
Bath-based Safe HR offers support and software to small businesses across the UK. They work on a monthly rolling contract basis and can also offer optional payroll software which integrates with Xero or QuickBooks Online. All resident Future Space businesses are able to access these services.
Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies is able to offer all resident Future Space companies 20% off a wide range of laptops, desktops, monitors and accessories. To receive your discount code, you’ll just need to contact a member of the Future Space Innovation Team and we will send it over to you.
Microsoft
Microsoft, one of the world’s largest multi-national technology companies, is able to provide resident Future Space companies a comprehensive programme of support to help them to more effectively build their innovative products and services in the cloud.
Future Space has provided us a with a great space to launch our business and be amongst a community of entrepreneurs. It gives great access to support services and workshops, plus links with the University of the West of England to foster collaboration and accelerate R&D. I doubt we would have achieved as much as we have without the support of Future Space."
Jenny Bailey Cooper, CEO & Founder at FerryX
