The whole team at Future Space were delighted to welcome our new innovation director Laura Stevens in the summer and with the centre celebrating full capacity on its third birthday last month, she has hit the ground running.
Charged with driving fast growth for the businesses based at the innovation centre, Laura is responsible for supporting Future Space start-ups and entrepreneurs to address the challenges often faced by companies at this stage of maturity, usually centred around obtaining funding, accessing equipment and recruiting staff.
Managed by Oxford Innovation (OI) on behalf of the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), Future Space was established to spark collaboration between researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs. Laura will facilitate relationships for resident companies with the university and sources opportunities for them in the wider South West life sciences and tech sector.
With an impressive wealth of experience across strategy, trade policy, international sales, marketing and business consultancy, Laura has been working with SMEs in various capacities for more than 30 years and has already been making her mark at Future Space just a few months in role.
Describing the innovation centre as “an inspiring place to work”, Laura is determined to implement the infrastructure at Future Space to enable its residents to grow, now that a community of companies has been firmly established over its first three years in operation.
Commenting on her appointment, Laura said: “Innovation director at Future Space is proving to be the most interesting, diverse and exhilarating role. It’s a remarkable opportunity, working with companies which could genuinely change modern life as we know it.”
“The Bristol ecosystem – the UWE University Enterprise Zone encapsulating Launch Space and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, and beyond – is full of incredibly passionate and talented people and I’m looking forward to the work we could do together.”
“Future Space now has a solid foundation, but there is still more that we could do to take advantage of the huge collaboration opportunities, particularly with such a great range of companies physically based alongside the University.”
Centre director Martin Reid commented: “We’re embarking on an exciting new phase and it’s fantastic to have Laura at the helm of innovation. Given her experience, she is an invaluable consultant and sounding board for our resident companies and I know she’s going to drive them to achieve incredible things.”
If you are interested in learning more about how we offer support to the Future Space businesses, or believe that you could offer something to the community, you can reach out to Laura at l.stevens@oxin.co.uk.
