Date: September 29th, 2009
Representing an entry point for Inventors, entrepreneurs to engage in business opportunity development, UMIC is pleased to announce the re-launch of the UMIC Innovation Portal. Originally launched in 2006, the portal has received over 100 ideas from Entrepreneurs and SMEs throughout the North West region, which have then gone on to be assessed by UMIC staff for commercialisation.
“The portal has proven very attractive to Inventors and entrepreneurs as a way of seeking assistance with assessment and commercialisation of their ideas. Based on feedback from the community, we have taken the opportunity to improve access and the process of evaluation”, said Dr Martino Picardo, UMIC’s Managing Director. “UMIC is very keen to engage with inventors and entrepreneurs who may otherwise be struggling to move their ideas forwards independently. As a University-based campus Incubator, we are also able to tap into a wide range of resources within The University and beyond to include our own broader network, so that ideas can become real commercial opportunities.
“UMIC recently had some marketing gap analysis work carried out by Richard Jones (RMJ Ltd) and following on from that, we were able to bring in a team of Manchester Business School students. The team (notably Himanshi Vora) was able to quickly review the portal, identify and recommend changes and this has now led to a redeveloped portal which we hope will be easy to use for inventors and entrepreneurs” said Laura Etchells, UMIC Project Manager. “In addition, we have taken the opportunity to make available the portal to a broader community that includes SMEs looking for business support from UMIC and or access to incubation facilities across our portfolio of Incubators in Manchester”, commented Martino. “Turning an idea into a profitable business requires thorough research to find the answers to crucial questions that cannot be left unexplored – the main one being ‘Is this a viable business idea?’.
Skipping the research stage is one of the main reasons for business failure. The UMIC Innovation Portal is specifically designed to help you assess the potential of an opportunity before taking the leap. It should be the starting point for anyone with an idea.” said Valerie de Leonibus, Director of Inventya Ltd, who helped to develop the Portal and make it suitable for access by inventors and easy assessment by UMIC staff.
Local entrepreneur and inventor, James Sutton who is developing the Bloomtrigger concept with UMIC, came through the Innovation Portal: “I heard about it by word of mouth, it was actually Martino who asked me to look at it. It help me to consolidate my idea, it was very positive and gave my idea a high score. This was encouraging and fairly useful at what
areas to focus on.”
We are now looking for an increased number of inventor/entrepreneurs to visit the portal, share their ideas and Business concepts with UMIC (under confidentiality if required) and then work with us to build that idea into a viable business offering, whether it be through new business creation, or through direct licensing.
For further details, please contact Laura Etchells, UMIC Project Manager at [email protected])
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For more information please call +44 (0) 161 606 7200 or email [email protected]
Notes to editors
About UMIC
The University of Manchester Incubator Company Limited (UMIC) develops and manages office and specialist laboratory facilities alongside a range of mentoring and business support services for high-growth young firms. With a portfolio of bioscience and high-tech incubators UMIC has helped more than 50 companies to form and grow. Since 1999 over £150 million in investment capital and loans has been raised by Manchester spin-out companies and during 2009, UMIC celebrates ten years of successful biotechnology sector growth in the northwest region. www.www.umic.co.uk
