CSTC Co-Authors Successful £5m CommercialiSE Bid
Cambridge, UK, September 2006 - A consortium of eleven universities in the South East of England have won a competitive bid, CommercialiSE, for £5M from the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), aimed at supporting the Government’s drive to build closer ties between business and higher education institutions. The CommercialiSE partnership – which includes the Universities of Reading, Sussex, Kent, Brighton, Buckinghamshire Chilterns, Chichester, Cranfield, Greenwich, Kingston and Portsmouth,– will be led by Oxford Brookes and will use the HEIF award to create an integrated, unified and sustainable commercialisation and funding framework for academics, students and alumni from the participating universities.
Alongside the HEI partners are Finance South East Ltd, a specialist funding organisation for the region, which will manage the CommercialiSE proof of concept and seed funds. The SEEDA Enterprise Hubs and South East Sector Consortia will facilitate the commercialisation of ideas supported by the consortium. Applicants with early-stage business ideas will be considered for up to £50k of proof of concept funding, while applicants with proven ideas ready to progress to full commercialisation will have access to the CommercialiSE Seed Fund, which will offer awards from £50k to £250k.
In a statement announcing the HEIF 3 awards on 18 May 2006, Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, said the CommercialiSE partners are ’ leading the way in linking innovation to business, and it's vital they work with business to help translate new ideas and technology into increased productivity and regional growth. Their collaboration with regional firms will help redefine the relationship between business and Higher Education.’
CSTC ’s Managing Director Dr Karl Heeks who co-authored the successful bid, together with the leading partner in the university consortium, said ‘We are extremely pleased to have won this £5M grant from the HIEF which will enable the CommercialiSE partners to support the best and brightest ideas from within the universities to help make them to be commercially successful and to accelerate the growth of businesses in the South East of England.’
CommercialiSE will use the new funding to help give access to the best available support to innovators from universities in the South East region, with the aim of generating £20M of added value for the UK within two years. The partnership aims to support up to 80 CommercialiSE Fellows, 40 Proof of Concept projects and 12 Seed Fund opportunities over two years, and is structured to be financially sustainable beyond its initial two-year remit. Further details available from enquiries@cstcltd.co.uk, or from on the CommercialiSE website: www.commercialise.org.uk
page updated: 15-09-06 00:00:00
