The IDEAS at Daresbury Programme

IDEAS was awarded funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) to deliver a programme of in-depth knowledge exchange from March 2009 to June 2010. The ‘IDEAS at Daresbury’ project was delivered largely from Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus (DSIC), and aimed to drive innovation into 40 regional SMEs - primarily high-tech micro businesses located within the DSIC network and related regional facilities.

The programme consisted primarily of three interactive workshop programmes on the critical issues facing high growth, high-tech SMEs:

• Customer Focused Innovation (Delivered May/June 2009)
• Competitive Advantage through People and Processes
  (Delivered November/December 2009)
• Beyond Networking: Creativity, Collaboration and Growth
  (Delivered January/February 2010).

The IDEAS partners jointly developed and delivered these sessions from DSIC in order to provide the best and most relevant support to participants in the project. The collaboration and neutral delivery space provided by this arrangement provided participants with effective and efficient access to highly practical and relevant support.

The programme was structured to have a deep and lasting impact on participants. Academic expertise was distilled down to help solve business-critical issues frequently experienced by small businesses, and particularly focussing on the areas of business skills that are often lacking in technology-led businesses.

For an overview of the structure, partner contributions and delivery of the IDEAS at Daresbury ERDF project, please take a look at our timeline.

Participants

All participant companies were high-tech small to medium enterprises (SMEs) based within the North West of England. Registration was encouraged from businesses who wanted to work with like-minded companies to develop innovative practices and approaches to deal with business-critical issues. Participants were also offered free, bespoke follow-on support to embed knowledge and capability-building provided in workshop sessions, and peer-to-peer learning that took place.

Funding and Outputs

The project was primarily funded by ERDF, with additional funding from NWDA and match funding from the IDEAS HEIs. The main outputs followed ERDF standards, with intermediate or intensive level businesses assisted measure. The following outputs were also required:

• Businesses assisted in improving performance. Measured by improvement in Gross Value Added (GVA), defined as total salary/wage costs + profits before tax + depreciation.
• Jobs created
• Jobs safeguarded

Additional SMART objectives included:

• Developing networks of innovation
• Real-time application of research
• Incubation innovation
• ‘Thought’ leadership

To find out more about the ‘IDEAS at Daresbury ’ ERDF project, please see our workshops, follow on support, outcomes or final dissemination event sections.