Decision

To contribute £100,000 in the delivery of the third year of the Innovate to Elevate scheme in partnership with the University of Essex and Freeport East.

Reason for Decision

Mid Suffolk District Council has worked in partnership with the University of Essex to develop and deliver a fully funded business accelerator called Innovate to Elevate programme on a pilot basis. The first two year’s pilot has been successfully delivered with significant benefits for the participating businesses.

This third year of the programme is more specialist and responds to specific needs, focusing on AI and Cyber Resilience and is jointly funded by University of Essex (£67,000) and Freeport East (£50,000), to deliver a programme of support totalling £217,000.

The scheme will fund collaborative projects between participating businesses and the University of Essex. Participants will receive hands-on intervention from an Innovation team at the university and access to a team of highly qualified academics and research staff who can offer expertise to develop the innovation idea. These projects will lead to a range of impacts including increased sales or margin and may lead to follow on funding for example with Innovate UK.