South East BIC participates in collaborative projects to share skills, develop knowledge and continuously provide an improved service. By leveraging international collaboration and innovation, new business opportunities are born within the region.
SuNSE (Support Network for Social Entrepreneurs) had a goal of developing a network of social entrepreneur hubs across North West Europe, to act as local points for stimulating community driven economic activity. As a partner, South East BIC delivered a range of business supports which included training programmes, 1-2-1 consultations and an incubation hub for emerging and existing social entrepreneurs in the region to start and grow their enterprises. The supports provided spanned across a range of sectors including arts and culture, childcare, wildlife welfare, circular economy, energy renewables, digital technology. As a direct response to the challenges of Covid-19, a transnational hub was developed to provide 24/7 access to expert information on how to develop and grow a social enterprise in addition to an evening academy for entrepreneurs.
SmartAgri Food aimed to provide SMEs and web-based business owners with a mentoring programme in order to create a significant number of smart agricultural services and applications that would be highly utilized by end users. The programme consisted of three progressive stages, where only the most successfully evaluated SMEs could proceed and secure funding for subsequent stages. South East BIC client, Telenostic, finished first out of 50 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union’s SmartAgriFood accelerator programme. Today, Telenostic is a global technology company dedicated to creating innovative point-of-care digital parasitology diagnostic solutions who are committed to developing next-generation devices that lead the way for the future of the industry.
The Atlant-KIS project was established to enhance the Knowledge and Technology Transfer and innovation processes for SMEs through the promotion of KIS in the Atlantic Area (Ireland, Spain, France, Portugal, UK). South East BIC created an inventory of SMEs in the region along with an inventory of Knowledge Intensive Service (KIS) suppliers, assessing the level of interaction between the two in the region. As a work package Lead Partner, we bridged the gap between knowledge intensive service providers and SMEs, matching supply and demand.
Photonics – the science and technology of light – are being used to create previously unimaginable products in wide-ranging end-user industries from sustainable energy, agrifood, healthcare and security, to smart transport, building and communications systems. It is a key enabling technology for the transformation of production methods and new business models. In order to accelerate the uptake of photonics technologies and to help to boost competitiveness and to foster new business and business models, Photon Hub Europe has established a unique European full-service one-stop-shop Photonics Innovation Hub, deeply rooted within the wider ecosystem of innovation hubs.