Innovate to Elevate: Babergh & Mid Suffolk

Overview

This scheme will fund collaborative projects between participating businesses and the University of Essex. Participants will receive hands-on intervention from an Innovation Manager and access to a team of highly qualified academics and research staff who can offer expertise in the following areas, among many others:

• Entrepreneurial culture development
• Accelerate new thinking and processes
• Innovation proof of concepts
• Supply chain management
• Technology adoption
• Automation
• Scale digitisation
• Data and strategy
• Health and wellbeing in the workplace
• Employee productivity and incentives
• Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, and Robotics
• Plant sciences including vertical farms and hydroponic growing techniques
• ... and more

Costs

All real-terms costs such as University staff time, travel, and some project-related equipment will be covered by the scheme, but participating businesses will be expected to dedicate adequate in-kind resources to support the project. These projects are intended to be collaborations rather than consultancies and the more you engage with the project, the bigger the impacts will be. We will work with you to cost the project based on your needs during the application process.

Evaluation and follow on

We’ll help you produce a report on the outcomes from the project which you will be able to share with your decision makers, key stakeholders and investors. We will check back in with you after 6 months and 12 months to see how things have gone, and whether we can support you any further.

This scheme is jointly supported and funded by the UK Government through Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils and the University of Essex.