SEERA SELECT COMMITTEE ON ENTERPRISE HUBS AND GATEWAYS

1
SEERA SELECT COMMITTEE ON ENTERPRISE HUBS AND
GATEWAYS

• CONTEXT AND ISSUES
• Presented by
• Ancer Spa

2
The Brief

• Impact of Enterprise Hubs in the context of the
  RES
• Effectiveness of Enterprise Hubs in nurturing
  clusters
• Ability of Hubs to facilitate transfer of
  knowledge from HEIs to business
• Potential for Enterprise Gateways to influence
  the wider economic development needs of the
  region
• Impact of the Enterprise Hubs in building
  entrepreneurial attitudes

3
Our Approach

• Mapping of Enterprise Hubs and Gateways, their
  responsibilities and achievements
• Review of the national and regional policy
  context
• Assessment of the fit with regional strategy and
  government guidelines
• Review of sub-regional impacts
• Assessment of integration with other policy areas
• Comparison with other UK regions
• Identification of issues and areas for future
  development

4
Context

• RES objective to become one of the worlds 15
  most entrepreneurial, innovative and productive
  regions (by 2012)
• To achieve this objective requires
• Acceleration in number of business start-ups
• Improvement in survival rates of young companies
• Business growth through innovation

5
Key Features of Enterprise Hubs

• Business to business mentoring and networking
  learning from each other
• Tailored business support
• Flexible workspace
• Affiliation to a knowledge base
• Early stage finance
• Lean approach to funding economies of scale
• Inter-hub collaboration
• Hub directors play a key facilitating role

6
Key Features of Enterprise Gateways

• Targeting a wider range of businesses mainly
  non-sector specific
• Flexible workspace
• Reflect wider sub-regional factors
• Address specific issues in local economies, eg
  BME and women owned businesses, rural development
  and social enterprises
• Business Link as overall delivery body

7
Achievements

• An extensive network of business incubation
  facilities
• Strengthened links between HEIs and research
  establishments and new business generation
• Additional impetus to sector and cluster
  development
• Stimulus to entrepreneurial behaviour in
  fledgling companies
• Improved access to credible generic and
  specialist business advice, counselling and
  mentoring
• Enhanced assistance to businesses to find routes
  to finance

8
Issues (1)

• Balance between central model and local
  flexibility
• Means of establishing priorities for Hub and
  Gateway delivery
• How to establish strong brand image(s) for Hubs
  and Gateways
• Need to publicise importance to regional business
  competitiveness priorities
• Effective measurement of impact and performance

9
Issues (2)

• Focused role v critical mass
• Pivotal role of hub directors relative to growing
  demand
• Sensitivity of relationships between
  Hubs/Gateways and business support providers
• Impact on educational linkages
• Resource levels and financial sustainabiltiy

10
Conclusions

• Key flagship initiative, providing on exemplar
  model for other regions
• Highly focused use of resources
• Joint structure of hubs and gateways
• conducive to inclusiveness and excellence
• Important channel for disseminating and applying
  international best practice