Business Minister Anna Soubry visited The University of Nottingham to mark the start of work on a new £4.7m centre which will house the next generation of Nottingham’s entrepreneurs.
The Technology Entrepreneurship Centre (TEC) which will be delivered by Woodhead is a new 2,000m2 3-storey building based at The University of Nottingham Innovation Park. As the focal-point of the University Enterprise Zone, it will provide office-based accommodation for up to 50 technology-driven start-up businesses and early-stage SMEs, from the local business community and from within the University. The University was awarded £2.6m from government for the TEC through the University Enterprise Zone programme, one of only four universities in the country to be awarded enterprise zone status.
As part of her visit to the University of Nottingham Innovation Park, the Minister will also visit some of the student and academic entrepreneurs at the Haydn Green Institute who will benefit from the new Centre.
Business Minister Anna Soubry said: “The University of Nottingham’s new Technology Entrepreneurship Centre will be a huge boost to Nottingham and will help make the Midlands the engine for growth I know it can be.
“The Government is committed to ensuring every part of the UK benefits from a growing economy and we want to be the best place in Europe to start and grow a business. This new centre will help provide small businesses and start-ups with the support they need to grow, create jobs and reach their full potential.”
The TEC Centre will be the new home of the Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s ‘Ingenuity Lab’. This is designed to help students develop and nurture entrepreneurial skills that will enable them to thrive as business owners and leaders.
It will focus on supporting businesses which operate in sectors of key local and national importance, such as Big Data & Digital, Advanced Manufacturing, Aerospace and Energy. The aim of the Centre is to create 50 new businesses by 2019, generating 350 new jobs and delivering a combined turnover of £25m by 2021.
Professor Sir David Greenaway, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Nottingham, said: “I’m delighted Anna Soubry, the Minister for Small Business has been able to visit us today to mark the groundbreaking of the Technology Entrepreneurship Centre. We are very proud to be one of only a handful of universities in the UK to win University Enterprise Zone status.
“The new Technology Entrepreneurship Centre, which will be the heart of our UEZ, will enable us to significantly accelerate the work we are already doing locally to foster business innovation and growth. It will also be a major asset to support the development of local entrepreneurs, as well as supporting student and academic enterprise here at the University.”
The TEC is being built by the Edwinstowe based construction company, Robert Woodhead, based on a design by the award winning architects, Bond Bryan.
Designed to reflect the local industrial heritage of the area surrounding Innovation Park, the architecture of the Technology Entrepreneurship Centre, which is based on the shape of a tyre, honours the Raleigh cycles factory, which dominated the Triumph Road site from the 1930s until the end of the 20th century.
David Woodhead, Managing Director of Robert Woodhead, added: “It’s great to be working with The University of Nottingham again to build such a landmark building. As a local SME, it gives us the opportunity to deliver an iconic structure, to high levels of sustainability that will become a landmark within the heart of the city but to also have an impact economically, through the sourcing of local supply chain partners and labour. I’m looking forward to seeing the project develop over the coming months.”
The TEC building will include a range of different office spaces for start-up technology businesses, as well as communal catering facilities, seminar rooms and meeting rooms. It will be built to meet BREEAM ‘excellent’ standards, ensuring the structure meets an international standard for best practice in sustainable building design and energy efficiency, while reducing carbon emissions and incorporating low carbon technologies.