Ten Years Old and 432 Reasons to Celebrate
Ten years after opening its doors one of Britain’s leading business incubation units, Hillington Park Innovation Centre, has 432 reasons to celebrate.
They are the number of new jobs the Centre has helped create by nurturing innovative technology start-up companies during its first decade of operation. Situated close to Glasgow airport the start-up business support facility has assisted a total of 171 fledgling enterprises.
Over the ten year period HPIC nurtured 136 of its tenant companies to a stage in their development where they outgrew the business support ‘nest’ and graduated into the stand-alone commercial world. A recent review of Centre by UKBI, the organisation representing business incubator industry across the UK, showed that the survival rate of HPIC graduate companies was 95% after a year and 85% after 5 years.
Hillington Park Innovation Centre (HPIC) was established in 2000 by Scottish Enterprise and MEPC, a prominent name in UK commercial property for over 60 years. HPIC was one of the first joint private/public sector initiatives and is now operated by Innovation Centres Scotland Ltd on behalf of MEPC. The Centre goes beyond simply providing bespoke accommodation for start-up companies, offering a range of business advisory services from legal to financial advice and assistance.
In the past three years alone, during one of the worst global financial crisis and recessions ever, the business advisory team at Hillington assisted client companies raise £millions of investment capital and grant funding. A total of £18.4 million of financial support was secured which included £8.8 million from the private sector and £6million in the form on innovation grants.
A further development of the centre saw Wireless Innovation created from a cluster of companies located in HPIC developing mobile and wireless solutions and soon became known as the best practice model for specialist technology and commercialisation support in Scotland supporting over 250 companies.
Recognised as a catalyst for technology innovation the expertise of the HPIC business advisory team competed for and won the contracts to run two national business support programmes for Scottish Enterprise.
Wellness & Health Innovation and Interactive Scotland offer support and assistance to develop innovative technology products and services to encourage healthy living and grow Scotland’s digital media sector.
The diversity and excellence of support services offered by HPIC led to it being named Business Incubator of the Year 2006. In 2009 HPIC became one of the first incubation centres in Britain to attain the industry’s highest accreditation standard of Leading Edge status.
The internationally recognised standard was introduced in 2009 to encourage and recognise best practice within the industry.
It benchmarks an incubation operation against:
- impact on socio-economic factors
- investment in supporting innovative and entrepreneurial ideas and business
- four core principles: selection policy, business incubation strategy and delivery, skilled business incubation team, exit policy
- four core elements: processes, infrastructure, operations, people (management)
Announcing the award Peter, Harman Deputy Chief Executive, UKBI, said: Hillington Park Innovation Centre is a prime example of leading edge business incubation - providing the right people, processes and infrastructure to really support the growth of innovative businesses now and in the future.”
To mark the 10th Anniversary a special celebration event is being held at the Centre on November 25th which will culminate in the presentation of the Hillington Innovation Awards.
Open to current or graduate tenants of the Centre, the awards will recognise the success of businesses across a range of sectors, all of whom have a common goal, to create an innovative idea and grow a successful business.
The Awards celebrate four categories: Most Innovative Technology; Most Promising Emerging Business; Most Successful Export Business; Business of the Decade.
Marian Gardiner, Chief Operating Officer, said: “Hillington Park Innovation Centre has made a significant contribution to the Scottish economy over the past ten years through jobs created and start-up businesses successfully supported.”
“But importantly it has also encouraged and helped establish a community of entrepreneurial enterprise while acting as a catalyst for the development of innovative technology that will ensure Scotland’s economic prosperity in decades to come.”
She added: “Our tenth anniversary is an occasion to celebrate success and look to the future. We will build on our success and continue to champion new technologies by growing our renewable energy cluster of companies, developing new partnerships with leading players in the field of digital media and promoting health-based technology. We remain committed to helping develop a robust, sustainable and innovative technology sector that will drive Scotland’s economy in the 21st Century.”
Dr. Colin Urquhart, CEO of Dimensional Imaging, a tenant of HPIC since 2003, said: “We have benefitted greatly from the advisory service at Hillington Park Innovation Centre. When you are in a community, with the business advisors in the same building, it creates a strong relationship that allows the company to grow.”
http://www.innovationcentre.org/hillington/
