25 January 2011

Strong Start for Pool Innovation Centre

The Pool Innovation Centre, which opened its doors last year as part of regeneration work to stimulate economic growth and development in the heartlands of Cornwall, has performed much better than expected in its first few months.

The Centre is already home to 20 companies, and with several others in the pipeline, it is approaching an occupancy level of 50 per cent - a figure that had not been expected until the third year of operation.

Recemt statistics have also revealed that 4,000 members of Cornwall's business sector have interacted with centre in the weeks since its opening in July 2010.

The University of Plymouth is managing the centre - the first of its kind in the county - on behalf of Cornwall Council. Backed by £9m of ERDF Convergence investment, and almost £3m from the South West RDA, the centres offers business incubation and networking benefits to businesses.

Bernard Curren, director of the PIC, and part of the university's research and innovation directorate, said: "The response from the business community has been fantastic. We have delivered over 500 individual events, partnered with many organisations and our clients have already reported a number of success stories to us."

The three-storey centre has space for 49 offices of varying sizes, seven shared meeting rooms and a conference facility. Its fibre optic broadband infrastructure has attracted several digital and creative businesses, as well as professional services, arts and media companies.

The news comes only shortly after plans for a second Cornish innovation centre, on the Tremough Campus in Penryn, were announced.

Carleen Kelemen, director of the Convergence Partnership Office for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said: "Business innovation centres are one of the key tools that Convergence is being invested in for our economic growth - helping transfer knowledge and innovation into the heart of business."