Enterprise and Innovation

Enterprise and Innovation Centre

The Enterprise and Innovation Centre (EIC), a £12 million flagship project due to open in May 2012, will be a landmark innovation project for the university and will signal a new approach to university-business engagement.

The facility, which is funded through the European Regional Development Fund, aims to establish a unique environment to support spin-in and spin-out companies linked to the university to foster growth and economic regeneration within Huddersfield and the region. The Centre will bring together all the elements required for successful business growth under one roof – access to markets, finance, technology and skills, as well as traditional business support services. The centre will enable university researchers to engage directly with industry and maximise the impact of their research and development activities. It will also provide the infrastructure and resources to enable knowledge transfer and other collaborative project work between the University and external partners fostering a new approach to Open Innovation within the university environment.

Dr Liz Towns-Andrews, Director of Research and Enterprise at the University of Huddersfield, said: "The EIC will be business focused, business facing and it will be the primary vehicle for the University engaging with business. It will include networking opportunities and facilities which create an environment and community which will facilitate innovation in a number of ways.

We want the centre to be more than just office space. It will have facilities and initiatives that will generate innovation across supply chains from SMEs to large corporates and our own start-ups.

It will be linked to the other business centres that Kirklees has in place already but will also have a different offering.

We want the companies to be high growth, high tech businesses that are aligned to the research strengths of the university."

Read our newsletters below for an update on the EIC: