Plymouth Science Park recognised for innovative mentoring scheme

PLYMOUTH Science Park’s groundbreaking mentoring scheme for businesses has been recognised by industry leaders as a UK first. The Park provides all tenants with free access to an advisory board made up of a panel of experts in a variety of specialisms in order to help them transform and grow their businesses.

The Plymouth Science Park Advisory Board was formed in 2013 to provide expert advice to high growth businesses. Up to 100 hours of time is available in areas such as business planning, high growth goal and strategy setting, and market awareness. This ensures that companies are truly “investable”.

Hosting the United Kingdom Science Parks Association’s (UKSPA) annual conference, the Park outlined the success of the scheme which has helped to see tenants on the park grow their businesses by an average of thirty (30) per cent every year.

Director of Operations at Plymouth Science Park, Christian Jenkins, said: “We have completed over twenty assignments for park tenants and each has delivered a successful outcome, often involving complex business transactions.  The flexibility of our service means we can deliver a bespoke support programme for our businesses and it is fast becoming a major reason why businesses want to relocate to the park”.

Council Leader Tudor Evans added: “The mentoring scheme is one of the reasons why this science park is so successful and businesses continue to grow at the rate of 30 per cent a year – that’s an incredible statistic! It shows that growth is so much more than bricks and mortar, it is about sharing skills and experience, building links and making sure the right people are on hand to offer guidance and support.

“We are very proud of this and will continue to give our whole-hearted support to the park, which now has so many success stories within its campus. We are working extremely hard to encourage small businesses to get off the ground and as economic growth is one of our top priorities, they have a hugely important role to play if this city is to prosper.

“Over the past  three years we have seen a net growth of 585 businesses and in the space of year we gone from 27.5 new business start-ups per 10,000 of the population to 42 – the highest mover in rank of any UK city. These are people here in Plymouth who are putting their business ideas into practice, getting the confidence and know-how to get started – this is great progress.”

More than 70 members of the UKSPA from 35 Science Parks across the UK enjoyed two days of high-level speakers plus an opportunity to visit Plymouth University’s Wave Tank and Ship Simulator followed by an evening meal hosted at the National Marine Aquarium.

The full programme included sessions on UK Research and Development; Innovation: what is it? And how do we support it?; Growing Science Parks - Growing Life Science; Building a better future for UK Science; Academia and Innovation; Science and Innovation - Current Investment Landscape and Growing Innovative Companies - supporting their business.

The final session looked at Science Minister Jo Johnson’s "One Nation Science" approach, the increased focus within Government on “place” and the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills Science and Innovation Audits.

Professor David Coslett, Interim Vice-Chancellor of Plymouth University, who spoke at the opening of the conference said: “With the government’s focus upon productivity, it has never been more important for universities to be ‘open for business’ and responsive to the needs of their regional economies.

“At Plymouth, through our Growth Acceleration and Investment Network, we engage with our SME business community across the peninsula, and nowhere is that better demonstrated than here in the city where Plymouth Science Park provides a forum for knowledge exchange, networking and partnership.”