Business Incubation and Acceleration in Universities

10:00 am - 4:00 pm 25/10/2017

Western Avenue, Cardiff


   

Hospitality Suite, Cardiff School of Management, Western Avenue, Cardiff, CF5 2YB

This one day ‘Enterprise Exchange’ event enabled delegates to:

  • Hear from Nesta on the findings of their recent research into incubators and accelerators.
  • Consider the alignment of your desired incubator outcomes, goals, activities and measurables.
  • Learn from those with many years experience of business incubation and acceleration as well as those who are just starting out on the journey.
  • Understand how universities can best prepare graduates for more commercial incubation and entrepreneurship experiences.
  • Network with enterprise and entrepreneurship educators from across the UK.

Background and summary

EEUK Enterprise Exchange events are one day best practice style mini conferences where educators and practitioners come together to share and exchange good practice and expertise related to enterprise and entrepreneurship education.

This event focused on business incubation and acceleration within the university context. The day started with a presentation from Nesta on the findings of their recent research into incubators and accelerators. This was followed by Aston University and the University of Gloucestershire who will presented their Erasmus plus SUPER project (www.super-project.eu).  The discussion element of the session allowed delegates to work together to consider alignment between incubator goals, desired outcomes, key activities and measurables.

In the afternoon we heard contrasting accounts from the University of Southampton where there is a long history of business incubation and acceleration and Cardiff Metropolitan University who shared their learning from a much more recently introduced incubation initiative. The final speaker of the day, from e-spark / Be The Spark, helped delegates to understand what they can do to support students and graduates in the transition to a more commercial incubation environment.

Speakers:

  • Jonathan Bone, Nesta
  • Dr Anna Rebmann, Aston University
  • Jason Evans, University of Gloucestershire
  • Steve Aicheler, Cardiff Metropolitan University
  • Caroline Thompson, Be The Spark
  • Alan Scrase, University of Southampton (SETsquared partnership)

You can download the event slides below:

Alan Scrase SetSquared

Anna Rebmann Aston Jason Evans Gloucestershire

Caroline Thompson Be The Spark

Jonathan Bone Nesta

Link to Be The Spark video

Steve Aicheler Cardiff Met

Attendee details

See above for how to book onto this event