The Pool Innovation Centre is a £6 million project being led by the South West of England Regional Development Agency to create 3,500 sq m of high quality modern office accommodation aimed at growing information, communications and technology (ICT) businesses in the heart of Pool.

Supporting around 250 high quality jobs, PIC is being proposed on land fronting Trevenson Road next to the college and will be the first stage of creating an office quarter in Pool as part of the Trevenson Road Implementation Plan. 

PIC is one of three innovation and business incubation centres being proposed in Cornwall, the other two being at Tremough next to the Combined Universities in Cornwall, and at the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske. PIC would be the first of the three to be built.

Although led by the South West RDA, the project has been driven by a Steering Group comprising partners including CPR Regeneration, English Partnerships and Cornwall Enterprise, with the support of ICT businesses and organisations in Cornwall.

The project has been designed to drive forward the uptake and use of ICT to support the transition to a knowledge-based economy in Cornwall and help businesses compete in a global marketplace. ICT is one of Cornwall's growing industrial sectors which currently employs around 1,900 people and is worth almost £92 million to the local economy.

PIC's mission is to foster innovation and entrepreneurship through research, training, business development and incubation in information technologies. The aim is to help turn more ideas into commercial propositions, and thus have an impact on the Cornish economy. Cornwall Enterprise has calculated that PIC could generate more than £11 million a year to the local economy.

PIC will be a high quality office building incorporating state of the art ICT and environmental technologies. It is being designed to encourage interaction between businesses with a large atrium at its core, space for formal and informal meetings and conference facilities.

A planning application is due to be submitted in May and if approved we are aiming for PIC to be open by the end of next year.