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Multi-university scheme widens eligibility

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jul 30, 2004

The EFS programme is to be open to anyone in the West Midlands with technology-based idea that can involve a member university.

The innovative West Midlands-wide Enterprise Fellowship Scheme (EFS), pioneered by the University of Warwick and Coventry University, is to be opened up to anyone in the West Midlands in a unique initiative aimed at supporting the growth of technology and design-based businesses in the region.

The EFS has been responsible for the start of more than 30 businesses and has gone from strength to strength since the Universities of Central England, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire and Keele joined the programme in 2002.

Applicants were then limited to current or former students and in most cases university staff as well.

But now anyone with a suitable idea can come forward - although their proposal must have some potential benefit to one of the participating universities and any business created must be based in the West Midlands.

"We have had lots of approaches from individuals and organisations who would not have been suitable within our original selection process, but now they are and we are open for business", said EFS Director Isabell Majewsky.

In addition to individuals, Majewsky sees the new process as a way for local companies, with a non-core idea they have not had the chance to develop, to take it "off the shelf" and make it happen.

Before an idea can be taken up by EFS, there must be a collaborative relationship established with one of the participating universities.

This can take many forms, from using university facilities or taking advantage of research capabilities, or even by turning existing research results into a commercial offering.

This is the latest success for EFS; the programme was the first of its kind in England when The University of Warwick and Coventry University launched a pilot scheme in December 1999, and now other organisations including the Regional Development Agency Yorkshire Forward, the University of Cambridge-based i10 Consortium and Oxford Brookes University have based their schemes on the Warwick model.

EFS is designed to encourage people who are affiliated or associated with the participating West Midlands universities to turn their technology or design-based ideas into real businesses.

Funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Mercia Institute of Enterprise, and in association with HSBC, the scheme works by offering support to eligible people in assessing the feasibility of their business idea and then providing an environment and tailored help to create viable commercial businesses.

Applicants need to prove they have the time and commitment to develop their idea, which must be innovative and design or technology-based.

They must be able to demonstrate the potential of their plan and must be willing to set up any future business in the West Midlands.

They are assessed by an expert panel before being offered a place on the EFS programme, where the new "fellow" is offered a unique package of business support.