What is Innovation?
How can you benefit?
About Innovation
Being innovative means to do things in a new way; having new ideas and exploiting new opportunites. Your ideas can lead to new or improved ways of doing business or running businesses, developing new products, processes, or services. Innovation can add value in any sector from science and technology to retail or social enterprise.
An innovation doesn’t have to be radical or revolutionary, a new approach or small modification can lead to big results in the world of business – perhaps efficiency savings or the opportunity to tap into a new market.
We recognise the importance of innovation to our regional businesses. We know the creation and development of new ideas will set Yorkshire businesses apart from the competition which is even more important in this current economic climate. Together with Yorkshire Innovation (previously Yorkshire Science) we developed the Regional Innovation Strategy. And we’ve already introduced activities to help regional businesses to be more innovative. You can find out more about this below.
There’s never been a better time for businesses to use their ideas, to stand out from the competition and look to the future.
What are we doing in this area?
We’re supporting regional businesses to work in a more innovative way. Here are just a few examples of how you can benefit from our current and future activities:
Growing and developing your business through knowledge and expertise
You can access our Innovation Voucher Scheme. Innovation vouchers are worth up to the value of £3000 and are available to you if you’re a small to medium size business (SME) in the region. You can redeem vouchers to fund the cost of gaining practical knowledge and expertise through working with Yorkshire's universities and other academic and research organisations.
This scheme is available now and you can find out more by visiting www.businesslink.gov.uk/yorkshire/innovation.
Increasing competitiveness and profit through design
You can access business support through Designing Demand from the Design Council. You’ll find out how using design can help you become more innovative, more competitive and more profitable. Yorkshire businesses can access this scheme through Business Link.
Developing your business with new ideas
The Innovation Specialist Service is due to launch in Autumn 2009. The aim of this service is to provide guidance to companies looking to actively progress and develop their business through new and potentially untested means – ‘innovation’. This guidance will be provided by individuals with extensive real-life experience of the business innovation arena and can be tailored towards both product and process innovation. Designed by What If Innovation – market leaders in their field, and delivered through Business Link Yorkshire. To find out more visit www.yorkshire-forward.com/innovate
Responding to future challenges and opportunities through innovation
Due to launch later in 2009, business-led Innovation Networks aims to stimulate companies to identify and respond, through innovation, to future business challenges and opportunities. They will focus on potential market changes and opportunities which may be the result of changing global demographics, aging or shifting populations, new and emergent materials and sciences, changes in consumerism, environmental or economic changes in raw materials availability, energy or fuel.
Three Innovation Networks on specific areas are currently being established but have not yet launched. The hosts and areas are:
- Advanced Materials Solutions hosted by NAMTEC. To find out more visit http://www.namtec.co.uk/
- Product Formulation hosted by Yorkshire Chemical Focus. To find out more visit www.ycf.org.uk
- New Technologies for Healthcare hosted by TWI. Visit http://www.twi.co.uk/ to find out more.
These will be open in autumn 2009 with a fourth network focusing on Sustainable Design for Products and Processes, following in 2010.
Addressing low carbon challenges in the future with cutting edge solutions
A project currently underway; Centre for Low Carbon Futures, will bring the regions world leading research expertise in the area of low carbon into one accessible entity. Initially involving the Universities of York, Leeds, Hull and Sheffield (but soon to extend to all the universities in Yorkshire), this centre will eventually work closely with the Sustainable Design Network – to be launched in 2010 - to ensure the region’s large businesses and SMEs have access to cutting edge solutions to address the low carbon challenges in the future. The Centre will be launched in late autumn 2009.
How can you access this support?
Business Link Yorkshire & Humber is the best places to start to get the most up-to-date information on what support is available to your business. Visit http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/yorkshire.
