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BGU's LORIC helping small businesses prototype new products
BGU’s Lincolnshire Open Research and Innovation Centre (LORIC) is organising a free prototyping event for small and medium companies next week. The event, which will be run by the Data Place, will help participants come up with ideas for new products and services, assess their viability, then come up with a 'prototype' to bring to market. It's a great opportunity for any company, including start-ups, that is looking to make a real change in their chosen industry or field. No special skills are needed, any company looking to brainstorm new ideas for projects and services is welcome. Katya Bozukova, Open Research Fellow at LORIC, explains how the day will work: “The trainers from the Data Place will take you through a complete process of uncovering needs and opportunities, generating ideas and building prototypes. “This is a hands-on workshop with a bit of theory; you will not only be supported in creating a potential product or service but you’ll also learn some principles and techniques to apply to future projects.” The free event will be held in the LORIC building on 23 Newport on Thursday 13 September. Places are limited, and are given on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more information and to book your place, please visit the event page. -
Lecturer leads on behavioural diversity at European business event
Chris Jackson, Senior Lecturer and Team Coach in the Business and Enterprise Department at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), represented the University at the recent Academic Adventures event at Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) in Finland. Traveling as Part of the Erasmus+ programme, Chris delivered two sessions on the importance of behavioural diversity in learning teams and took part in sessions that discussed how BGU use the Team Academy model of 'learning by doing' in our own BA(Hons) Team Entrepreneurship programme. The event was attended by delegates from across Europe who were keen to explore how self-determined or 'project-based' learning can be used in disciplines other than business, including HR, Physiotherapy and Teacher Education. This is in response to some academic institutions moving away from subject-specific delivery and embracing different models of learning. Returning from the Academic Adventures event Chris commented: "The response from delegates was very positive. This was largely due to the fact that delegates were able to hear first-hand from students and team coaches as to how the methodology is implemented and then acted upon. Just as at BGU, the process of the business course learning is that students have to design and run their own business projects - they're expected to earn as they learn!" "However, Team Academy methods aren't restricted to learning about business within higher education. Other disciplines may well want to explore business or enterprise elements, but then it's possibly more about adding value and difference than making money. "The way that this process works in academia is that projects are designed and executed by students in ways that address a particular issue. As the process evolves, they identify gaps in their knowledge - they discover what they don't know. The thing is, this differs from project to project and student to student, making the individual learning very relevant. As projects progress, learners are encouraged to underpin their experience with relevant academic theory - their experienced combined with their academic learning provides observable and assessable criteria." Finland are world-leaders in education and BGU have been using methodology closely aligned to the Tiimiakatemia model of business learning for four years. If you’re interested in a future in international business or in starting your own company, our business courses are the perfect path to take. You can find more information on them on our website or by contacting our Enquiries Team. -
Brewing Innovation: Roadshow Aims to Drive Business Success in Lincolnshire
In a bid to support innovation throughout Lincolnshire, businesses across the region can find out how to secure a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), funded by Innovate UK, during a three-day roadshow serving up free barista-style coffee and business advice. The roadshow is a collaboration between Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) and the University of Lincoln, UK, and will see ‘The Very Cool Coffee Bus’ visit several locations across Lincolnshire this March. Visitors will be able to chat with professional teams from both universities, find out more about the benefits of a KTP and how to apply for one. KTPs aim to help businesses improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills within the UK knowledge base. They offer an opportunity to collaborate with an expert academic team from either university which will support the delivery of a particular business initiative. Contributions are determined by the size of the business and the sector it belongs to. Bishop Grosseteste University’s KTP lead Linette Wallace said: “Innovation is the lifeblood of any organisation. Knowledge Transfer Partnerships offer robust support and can help to embed the expertise needed to make this happen. “We’d love to hear from any business if they have an idea to grow or make transformational changes within their business but don’t have all the in-house expertise needed to develop it, as a KTP may be the perfect solution.” BGU recently secured its first Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Lincolnshire Community & Voluntary Service (LCVS). The partnership will be worth £162,063 over a two-year period, with UKRI Innovate contributing two thirds of the funding. Lincolnshire CVS is a local charity that is dedicated to empowering the voluntary sector and promote the health and wellbeing of the wider community. The collaboration aims to enable the organisation to develop new and existing services, promote new business opportunities and effectively communicate the charity’s impact to its wider audience. David Fannin, CEO at Lincolnshire CVS, said: “This collaboration with BGU will support our core business development and our ability to communicate impact and the value of empowered communities. “Better still, it will help LCVS to do what we do best: strengthening the conditions that enable stronger, inclusive communities and empowered people. This is helping to foster the conditions for dynamic local economies that are key to unlocking prosperity, where people can reach their full potential.” The roadshow will take place over the following days: Tuesday 7 March Lincoln Science and Innovation Park 9.30am - 11.30am Sparkhouse, Lincoln 11.45am - 12.45pm Bishop Grosseteste University 1pm - 2pm Freedom Fire Security and Maintenance Ltd car park, Great Northern Terrace 2.30pm - 3.30pm Wednesday 8 March Aura Skegness Business Centre 9.30am - 11.30am Boston Enterprise Centre 1.30pm - 3.30pm Thursday 8 March Europarc Innovation Centre, Grimsby 9.30am - 10.30am. Visitors will also be given the chance to win a ‘One4All’ voucher by entering a raffle. -
BGU Awarded £2.6M European Funding to Support Local Businesses
Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln has been awarded over £2.6 million of European funding for two major projects to support entrepreneurship and innovation with businesses and social enterprises in Greater Lincolnshire.The award, from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), is the biggest business and research investment ever secured by BGU.It reflects the university’s strategy to increase its positive support for the development of businesses, communities and the economy of Greater Lincolnshire.BGU has purchased St. Hugh’s on Newport, an iconic Grade II listed building, to provide a new home for the projects. The building is on the site of an Augustinian Friary and has been used as offices for many years.The projects are: Lincolnshire Open Research and Innovation Centre (LORIC), which has a total value of £3.5 million (ESIF contribution £2.1 million) BGU Business Inspiration, which has a total value of £878k (ESIF contribution £527k). The two projects will run until spring 2019 and spring 2020 respectively, and will provide support for over 130 small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and social enterprises and will create eight jobs.Mark Bowen, Enterprise Development Manager at BGU, said: “The LORIC project will provide support to businesses, public and third-sector organisations across Greater Lincolnshire and position the university at the leading edge in the use of open data to support innovation.“The Business Inspiration project is designed to develop entrepreneurial leadership, with a particular focus on innovative approaches to growing small and micro-businesses. It includes a £307k grant-making fund that will encourage businesses in using creative and innovative approaches. It will provide successful applicants with up to 100% funding as well as financial support to employ graduate interns and placements.“We plan to refurbish St Hugh’s to create LORIC. The work is expected to take about 11 months to complete, but we already have a live project running in the background.“As a result of setting-up LORIC and our associated project BGU Business Inspiration, we are intending to create eight new jobs but, by the time we have reached our target, around 40 people will be working at St Hugh’s.” Mark added: “Once again this highlights the commitment of BGU to developing the communities that have supported us for more than 155 years.“Thanks are due to the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Lincolnshire County Council’s Technical Assistance team and the Business Lincolnshire Growth Hub for their unstinting support throughout the challenging application process, which took more than a year to complete.”BGU will be making a total investment of £1.6 million with participating businesses contributing £153k. Open Data Open Data is increasingly in the news. The demand from businesses and organisations to be able to analyse and interpret large, complex datasets into useable information which they can easily work with is increasing.In the future, the stars of the data scene will be people and businesses with the skills to interpret and connect different datasets in ways which will not only be easily accessible, but which will help businesses to find new opportunities and solve problems which they may not currently be aware of.They will not only be tech and digital sector enterprises, but businesses in mainstream service, health, manufacturing, visitor economy, educational and skills sectors for example. They all have the potential to benefit from open data.Insights could help to identify new market opportunities and develop new capabilities within a business to improve productivity, efficiency or profitability.“At BGU, we are keen to develop the capacity of our research students and academic teams to work with organisations and to transform datasets into a language which end users can understand and use to add value in practical ways,” said Mr Bowen.“For example, the services we are offering could be useful to help health and social care organisations to plan more effectively for the future. A business could find analysed data useful in helping them to understand changing patterns, needs and preferences within communities.” -
#12DaysofBGU Day 11: £2.6M Funding to Support Local Businesses
This year BGU was awarded over £2.6 million of European funding for two major projects to support entrepreneurship and innovation with businesses and social enterprises in Greater Lincolnshire. -
BG Futures Business & Enterprise Centre Tenant Case Study – Complete Careers LLP
By Cassie Rainey, BG Futures Complete Careers LLP is a partnership of careers professionals with over four decades of experience from a diverse range of roles. Janet Hutchinson, a partner of Complete Careers, took some time out of her busy day to talk to me about what Complete Careers do, her journey, and how being a Tenant at BG Futures Business & Enterprise Centre has benefitted their thriving business. Originally a Secondary school teacher in English and Maths, Janet’s career originates in education. Janet then moved on to a pastoral care role, then Head of Sixth Form. With the wealth of experience gained in these positions, Janet went on to work for careers companies like Connexions; a Department for Education funded independent service whose responsibilities included providing support for careers education in schools. With the introduction of the Education Act in 2011, schools became responsible for funding and providing careers education. Janet noted that “although public funding for careers education in schools stopped, the demand for these services did not.” Janet and her colleagues began to offer careers services privately to schools, taking advantage of adversity and developing a profile as trusted careers professionals. After spending her whole career employed, Janet found the change of mindset from being an employee and working to a job description, to identifying what needs to be done, working out ways to take the responsibility to source work a challenging adjustment. However, three years down the line Janet has overcome these and many other challenges as an entrepreneur and developed “a thriving, growing company which is beginning to consider hiring employees.” Being a BG Futures Tenant has given Janet and Complete Careers partner John Ambrose the opportunity to network and make great connections with people in a similar field (such as LiNCHigher), boosting their business growth and profile in the careers industry. If you’d like to see what support Complete Careers can offer you, visit their website: www.complete-careers.com -
How LORIC is changing the way Lincolnshire businesses use data
Having only launched in September 2018, the Lincolnshire Open Research and Innovation Centre (LORIC) has already transformed the way several organisations across the county do business. From designing insight-led business strategies to using data and research to empower companies, in less than a year LORIC has guided multiple socially-conscious organisations across Lincolnshire to investment and innovation. -
BG futures business centre gives hr professionals a flying start
Human resource professionals, Amica HR, credit BG Futures with playing a key role in putting them on course for commercial success. The business incubation complex on the Bishop Grosseteste University campus provided the former home-based consultancy B&G HR with the perfect premises and support to supercharge their success. Following rapid growth B&G HR rebranded and expanded to become Amica HR (with a sister venture Amica Legal). Now they have two offices in Lincoln, a third in London along with a newly opened fourth office in Humberside. When B&G HR started out, Director David Grech brought more than 10 years’ experience of human resources, employment law and leadership experience of working with SMEs and management teams going through rapid change, to the table. He was joined by fellow Director Suzanne Tricker, an accomplished and committed HR professional, added a further 20 years’ experience in delivering HR solutions to clients across the public and private sectors. This encompassed transformational advice on change management, restructures, outsourcing, TUPE transfers and redundancy situations. Both were passionate about building meaningful partnerships with companies by providing them with a wide spectrum service, irrespective of their business sector. They also knew that B&G HR needed a respected business address which made the BG Futures centre an ideal location, as David explained: “BG Futures Business & Enterprise Centre is a brilliant complex for fledgling businesses. With its professional reception, on-site support and its mix of tenants, means it offers ambitious businesses a safe starting point. “Initially, we rented a small office in keeping with the size of our client base, but we also had enough room to take on an intern. A year later, we realised we needed twice the room to service our clients, but we were easily able to switch to a bigger office within BG Futures. “What was so fantastic about this aspect was that we could upgrade without suffering any downtime or disruption to our day-to-day operations.” Suzanne was also full of praise for the opportunities offered by BG Futures: “We are convinced that starting out with a professional office helped us to attract more business and grow faster than we would have done otherwise. Usefully, BG Futures units are also come furnished and they are cost-effective to rent. “It was great to build relationships with other businesses and to have other commercial expertise on site. We were also able to assist BGU by writing the HR Module for the Undergraduate Business Degree course, which will be taught to this year’s students.” David and Suzanne know first-hand how challenging it can be when you are just starting out in business. They said it is vital to start out with the right attitude, a clear plan for growth and the right premises: “Our advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is – believe in yourselves, write a clear business plan, base your business in premises tailored to your needs and which, ideally offer on-site support services. After that you will be able to concentrate on building trust in your clients and those word-of-mouth referrals will follow!” Nikki Smith, Careers, Employability and Enterprise Advisor at BG Futures, expressed congratulations to Amica HR on their well-deserved ongoing expansion and success and praised them for their work with the BGU community: “Whilst running their very successful business they always had time to encourage any of our students who were interested in or wanted to find out more about the world of Human Resources. Since their relocation, they have continued to offer this support. We’re thrilled that Amica HR are still actively engaging with BGU.” If you have got a vision for your own business but aren’t sure where to begin then the BG Futures team are the perfect place to start. With facilities and expert support available in their incubation centre, they’ll be able to get you on the road to success. Visit our website or contact them today to see how you can start your own adventure. -
Enterprise Team Keeping Career Support 'Open for Business'
In true enterprising fashion, the team have adapted to the Campus closure and introduced activities to enhance the existing enterprise agenda. -
BGU Master's Students Plan Expansion for Social Care Business
As the world continues to grapple with the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it is reassuring to note that despite so much uncertainty and bad news some businesses are not only surviving, but thriving.EarlyBird Lifestyle Support (EBLS), an award winning, friendly well-being service, has found the pandemic presented the opportunity to expand their workforce and move into a larger office space within BG Futures Business and Enterprise Centre at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU). Originally based in a smaller unit within the Centre, EBLS, created and run by BGU students Damian Taylor (MA Health and Social Care Leadership) and Neil Martin (MA Education with TESOL) prides itself on striving to empower the most vulnerable in society to lead the life of their choosing.Damian expands:“We support people throughout the city of Lincoln and surrounding areas with tasks such as cooking, cleaning, collecting prescriptions and medication, food shopping, trips out, escorting individuals to appointments and more.We work with many groups left most vulnerable due to COVID-19, primarily our older clients but also younger individuals suffering from mental health or other disability related problems.Ultimately our team works to promote independence for vulnerable people, allowing them to lead their choice of lifestyle. That choice can be so easily lost at times like this and I’m proud to think we’re helping them to keep some level of freedom.”Damian explains that the success of EBLS is owed to his dedicated team of support professionals:“I’d like to thank all our staff for their hard work during this time. Their enthusiasm and professionalism haven’t dropped once. They’re truly the backbone to the business, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without them.We are also delighted to announce the appointment of Alex Aslan, who has also completed the MA Health and Social Care Leadership, as our new Care and Services Manager who has a wealth of knowledge in this field. This means our service can grow even bigger and reach a larger demographic of people within Lincolnshire and also supports us to now enter the world of running regulated services.”On moving into a bigger office space, Damian hints at EBLS’s next venture: “A larger office will allow us to expand our workforce, provide more support in the community and presents the opportunity to increase revenue and to create stronger connections in the network. The larger space provides practical solutions to social distancing guidance, so we are able to hold inductions and training sessions in a safe environment to ensure our service runs safely.We are almost at the end of the registration period for the Care Quality Commission which means we will be able to include other vital services to our remit. We are currently recruiting for a new apprentice administrator and applications are still open for support worker roles.”Support from EarlyBird is available to anyone in Lincolnshire and the surrounding area, to find out how they can help you can visit their website, or get in contact via email or phone on 01522 424161.Damian added:“The team at the BG Futures Business & Enterprise Centre have been such a vital service & support network for us. They really did go above and beyond to help us in our start-up journey and the most exciting thing is that we have been able to support the centres vision by incorporating our business to widen the support to students. We have supported the BA Health and Social Care with work experience placements and offer voluntary opportunities to all students who would like to get involved, we are also happy to offer mentoring to students seeking an insight into business and would strongly welcome any students of the University to come and get involved in what we do. For example: be it students from drama who would like to put on a show for our vulnerable service users or those in the field of social sciences wanting to further understand mental health, disability or aged care, we really do welcome and encourage collaborative working”Damian and Neil are the one of the many success stories to emerge from the BG Futures Business and Enterprise Centre at Bishop Grosseteste University. If joining our community of start-up businesses appeals to you find out more on our website or contact the BG Futures team.
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