Accreditation
The Inspire monitoring, development and accreditation process© for business incubation is recognised by practitioners, stakeholders and governments as essential for business incubation and other early-stage growth environments such as innovation centres as well as business incubation activities within technology and science parks.
Based on the Business Incubation Development Framework (BIDF) which is based on rigorous national and international research, it covers ‘physical’ and ‘virtual’ business incubation activity that provides specialist and targeted support and development to early stage and other growth companies.
In addition, the Inspire monitoring, development and accreditation process© provides quality 'benchmarks' for stakeholders, funders and supporters (as well as potential clients) helping them to identify and then develop practices leading to the application and public recognition of best practice in business incubation.
Inspire enables you to identify and develop best practice in your particular environment, city or region, maximise investment in your environment/s, prove the impact and added value of your environment, identify strengths and weakness and provides actions for further development and strategic input to ensure that you are providing the right environment for sustainable growth and development.
The process is straight forward, interactive and cost effective. Your environment/s will be assessed using the nationally and internationally recognised Business Incubation Development Framework; identifying compliance with best practice and measuring and evaluating impact.
Inspire provides a framework for you to:
- Measure your environment’s impact on socio-economic factors – placing your environment at the heart of the business support infrastructure.
- Evaluate investment in supporting innovative and entrepreneurial ideas and business.
- Provide an essential monitoring and evaluation tool focussing wider impacts than purely jobs created/safeguarded ensuring you are creating a sustainable business community for the future.
Inspire awarded status:
- Proves that you have the commitment to grow innovative businesses.
- Provides proof that your environmentis an ideal place to start and grow businesses.
- Provides your environment with a competitive advantage over others – essential when attracting clients, funding and support
Here some organisations explain the benefits of having been through the process and being successfully accredited.
The Quadrus Centre
Managed by TEDCO Limited, The Quadrus Centre was opened in 2005. The Centre was established to provide an environment to support service sector businesses with aspirations to grow. The Quadrus Centre was accredited as a best practice incubator in May 2010.
Doug Scott, Chief Executive of TEDCO said: "I am delighted that The Quadrus Centre has secured
secured UKBI Inspire accreditation. We have worked hard to establish Quadrus as a true business
incubator in South Tyneside, an area in transition from old traditional industries. In the face of initial
scepticism about business incubation, the team there has worked with businesses that have
achieved real growth then moved to larger premises within South Tyneside. The Inspire model
provides clear evidence to our stakeholders that we are committed to the incubation model and the
UKBI accreditation process demonstrates our ability to deliver to those commitments."
Manchester Bioscience Incubator at the University of Manchester Incubator Company (UMIC)
In operation since 1999, the Manchester Bioscience Incubator has been run by UMIC since 2004 and operates as a for profit organisation. The Bioscience Incubator forms part of a wider portfolio of environments managed by UMIC. Incubatees at the centre operate within the biotechnology sector.
Martino Picardo, Managing Director of UMIC said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been accredited at this level, the accreditation reflects the hard work of our staff to deliver world class futures, based on quality service delivery, on behalf of the University of Manchester. I am very proud of both the UMIC team and with the nature and calibre of our tenants that we serve. I feel that the accreditation process developed by the UKBI is an important and will help us as practitioners of business incubation to quantify the benefits of our services, differentiate ourselves from others and identify ways in which we can improve the services we offer.”
Sparkhouse at the University of Lincoln
Sparkhouse has been in operation since 2003 and is managed by enterprise@lincoln, the University of Lincoln’s department for business support and enterprise activities. Sparkhouse is operated as a not for profit organisation and applicants for business incubation are start ups and early stage businesses from the innovative technology sector.
Andrew Stevenson, enterprise@lincoln’s Enterprise and Policy Director said: “Going through the Inspire process has been of huge benefit to Sparkhouse at the University of Lincoln. It provided a focus for all the incubation team to examine together how we support our clients and operate the centre. The final report has provided us with a clear route forward and challenged us with a range of potential improvements as we strive to become a model of best practice within the sector”
Technium Pembrokeshire
Technium Pembrokeshire has been in operation since July 2007 and is part of the Wales wide Technium Network. Applicants for business incubation are young and early stage technology businesses.
David Thomas, Centre Manager for Technium Pembrokeshire said: "Thanks again for all your help and valuable feedback. This process has really turned out to my benefit, as the newest of the Techniums in the network, the verification visit has provided me with all the necessary hard evidence to move our centre on to the next stage."
Alba Innovation Centre and Hillington Park Innovation Centre
Innovation Centres Scotland was established in 2000 and runs both Hillington Park Innovation Centre and Alba Innovation Centre. Both centres have been awarded Inspire status.Hillington Park Innovation Centre currently focuses on wireless and mobile technologies and Alba Innovation Centre’s incubatees are start ups and early stage ventures with growth potential.
Tom Ogilvie Chief Executive of Innovation Centres Scotland said: "We started the process because we believe it is extremely important to keep reinforcing the message of how high quality innovation and incubation support services make a significant difference to young technology companies’ growth and chances of success. For us we want to continue national recognition of Hillington Park Innovation Centre and Alba Innovation Centre as Scotland’s leading facilities, accredited through a thorough appraisal process, and also to be up there amongst the top providers in the UK. All the evidence is there, not just in the UK but globally, to confirm that at the highest level, such services are an excellent economic development investment. We need to ask policy and strategy makers not to forget this in their planning and decision making.”
Berwick Workspace
Managed by TEDCO on behalf of Northumberland County Council the Berwick Workspace was
opened in 2008. Clients at the Centre are exisiting ventures from the service sector. The Berwick
Workspace was accredited as a best practice business incubator in May 2010.
Doug Scott, Chief Executive of TEDCO, The Berwick Workspaces management company said:
"The Berwick WorkSpace model is based on the successful Quadrus model implemented in the
context of a market town. The Inspire accreditation together with the 2009 award for the best new
business incubator gives TEDCO and its stakeholders great confidence that we are doing the right
things well as the Centre matures."
For further in formation on Inspire, contact Faye Busby f.busby@ukbi.co.uk