Roya Croudace, director of the Enterprise M3 Growth Hub, outlines the Hub’s work and offers a warm welcome to this first BQ in the region.
I am delighted to be welcoming you to the first edition of BQ focusing on the Surrey and Hampshire area surrounding the M3 corridor covered by the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership and Growth Hub. We live in one of the most economically buoyant regions in the UK, developing globally significant innovations while still retaining first ranking in the ‘quality of life’ category. It’s no surprise that we have the second largest economy in the South East and the fifth in the UK.
Major industry sectors for us include Digital & Technology, Aerospace & Defence, Pharmaceutical and Professional Services while globally significant innovations are also happening in the counties which provide new opportunities for businesses. These include developments in niche sectors such as cyber security, computer gaming, creative media, digital health, space and space applications and 5G development.
The 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey is now the largest UK academic research centre dedicated to the development of the next generation of mobile and wireless communications and the world’s leading independent testbed for trialling emerging 5G ideas, proving concepts, validating standards and vendor inter-operability testing.
There is a phenomenal amount of activity and innovation happening in our region and as it is important for our businesses to be able to leverage this growth, innovation, talent and entrepreneurship to support their business growth.
The Growth Hub based at the Surrey Technology Centre in Guildford has been launched to provide support and advice for our high growth businesses while enabling collaboration and connectivity. I hope the supplement will give you a flavour of the exciting entrepreneurial activities, case studies from the Growth Hub, opportunities and challenges of businesses and how we are looking to support the continued innovation and growth going forward.
Our multi channel service provides the opportunity for businesses to access support at a time and place that suits them. Our portal provides access to a comprehensive resource network to help facilitate connections, collaboration and access to the support businesses need, via a range of resources including our Market Place of service providers and our Specialist Support Network of specialist high growth and innovation advisors and mentors.
We are investing heavily in a second phase to our portal which will include the functionality of a community to facilitate collaboration, discussion and engagement along with a ‘my Portal’ section which will enable us to tailor content and information for users.
Businesses have access to our live webchat and telephone support Monday – Friday 9.00am – 6.00pm and those businesses who are high growth/high innovation or in one of the LEP’s priority sectors can access our intensive High Growth Service. Our Growth Champions are truly exceptional, their experience is invaluable and businesses can access this for free. The Growth Champion will work with the business to understand its specific needs, issues and often most important its opportunities, and work with the business to develop a growth plan to ensure these are addressed to enable the business to realise its growth and innovation potential.
There really are no catches, we’d encourage any business in the Enterprise M3 area to get in touch to see how best the service can support them.
If you're a business in the Enterprise M3 Growth Hub area that wants to access support please visit the Enterprise M3 Growth Hub website and register your interest.
Outside the area but want to know what's available to you and your business? Please contact the Business Support Helpline.