UKSPA Directory
Incubation Matters at UKSPA – 2016 / 17
An increasing range of Incubators are now engaging with UKSPA with a considerable number of these profiled in this Directory . Our new Incubator Members join a diverse mix of innovation locations – Incubators and Bio-Incubators , Innovation Centres and Accelerators , Science and Research Parks – all with a common goal of delivering business support and developing economic growth for their tenant companies .
Incubation has always been a focus for UKSPA . As long ago as 2006 in “ The Planning , Development and Operation of Science Parks ’ the chapter on Incubation written for UKSPA by Walter Herriot and John Turner , defined a business incubator as : “ an economic development tool designed to accelerate the growth and success of entrepreneurial companies through a range of business support resources and services . Their main role is to produce successful businesses that graduate from the incubator , create new jobs , commercialise new technologies , and strengthen local and regional economies ”.
Successful incubation requires a strong entrepreneurial culture which exists within the communities created by UKSPA members , and our new members will find much common ground with colleagues from around the country .
UKSPA will increasingly address the management and activities of the whole ecosystem more effectively , from Incubators , to Innovation Centres , to few / single occupancy buildings across parks , suburban and urban innovation centres .
The reality of Incubation
The reality is that a start-up goes through a gradual evolution with developing requirements . The incubation process provides a highly efficient , intensive support and growth programme for the incubates . Business incubation remains a key component of our local , regional , national and indeed international economic development and growth landscape .
There is now a widely accepted criteria for creating the right and relevant physical business incubation spaces for entrepreneurship , innovation and growth , as well as resources to help establish the right processes needed to add value to clients within the environment . Such best practice environments vary significantly as they have been developed and continue to evolve to serve the needs of defined , but often changing communities and stakeholders .
There are , however , a range of components within the business incubation ecosystem all of which need to be integrated into a seamless offering . Such environments are based on the need for a significant degree of human interaction and learning between clients and between the clients and their business support teams .
Developing Skills
In recent years business incubation in the UK and overseas has successfully adapted to recognise market , social , community and cultural forces in tandem with the increasing knowledge , understanding and application of best practice such as the Inspire development and monitoring process which will be continued by UKSPA .
Inspire is the ideal development tool for business incubation environments to fine tune and expand their business support processes and complements the UKSPA Aspire continuous improvement framework . Huge emphasis is placed on the ‘ people ’ aspect of incubation as a result of this it ’ s extremely important that UKSPA continues to recognise the skills and competencies of the teams within incubators and their ‘ professional development ’ and therefore of the industry as a whole .
The Inspire Certificate in Business Incubator Management is a series of five workshops , completion of which leads to the awarding of the certificate .
Delivering Good Practice
The Inspire workshops run in addition to the existing UKSPA event schedule . Our first event of 2015 was held at the Imperial College Incubator in London and provided an opportunity for our new Incubator members to feel part of the single association for the innovation community in the UK .
The first few months of 2015 also saw the delivery of a new series of factsheets on every aspect of Incubation – starting with a Brief Introduction to Business Incubation through to advice on Marketing , Financial sustainability and Infrastructure . All are free to Members and further details are available on the website or by contacting info @ ukspa . org . uk .
The essential elements of best practice in starting and - more importantly - growing investable businesses , remains largely the same whether through a more traditional business incubation model or some of the newer “ Business Accelerator ” programmes . The experience of UKSPA over three decades of operation will also deliver great value to Incubator members who , in turn , will add to the diversity of UKSPA ’ s membership .
It is this ‘ common ground ’ that makes UKSPA a strong membership network and the number of incubators and innovation centres joining us in 2016-2017 will deliver increased value for all parts of the Innovation ecosystem , both in the UK and beyond .
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