Innovation Centre – University of Essex Knowledge Gateway

The University has created the opportunity to build an Innovation Centre as the focal point on its Knowledge Gateway Research Park. This development and the way in which it will be operated going forward is designed to have the potential to significantly increase the University’s ability to realise its ambition of driving local and regional economic growth through becoming a globally recognised centre for data analytics.

The role of an Innovation Centre:

• Attracting companies to come to the University of Essex to establish and grow their business. Companies will be attracted by the value-add of co-location and by the business support proposition and not just by the quality or pricing of the office space
• Engaging ‘downstream’ with the Entrepreneurship and Employability strategies supporting and encouraging research spin-outs and graduate/post graduate start-ups
• Engaging ‘upstream’ with move-on space in the Knowledge Gateway , Colchester and the wider region such that there is movement of companies through the Innovation Centre
• To introduce, and lever in, regional and University of Essex business support capabilities and programmes

Inward investment

The Innovation Centre will attract companies to come to the University of Essex to establish and grow their business, contributing to student employability strategies and enhancing the position of the University as a national centre for SMEs. It will also provide a benefit to the wider economy which will be measured in terms of new business starts/business growth, jobs created (423 net new jobs) and GVA added (£9.2 million) plus sectoral clustering. There will be additional benefits for the University in terms of increased business engagement, knowledge transfer and also a flow of expanding businesses to populate other “grow-on” units on the wider Knowledge Gateway (3 high growth businesses graduating each year).

£579m of investment to East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock

In total the SELEP Growth Deal with Government has brought £579m of investment to East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock. Over the lifetime of the Growth Deal (2015-2021) we aim to deliver 78,000 jobs and 29,000 homes across the SELEP area, with the Deal set to attract a further £960m of investment into the South East over the six year period.

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