UWE opens new Education Innovation Centre - University of the ...

Somerset businesses have the
energy to achieve
Professor Martin Bigg from UWE’s Faculty of Environment and
Technology was a keynote speaker at last month’s Somerset in
Business Conference, which had Somerset’s transition to a low
carbon economy as its theme.
As Director of the Environmental Technologies iNet, he
provided more than 200 delegates with an overview of the
UWE-led business support initiative.
Sharing a stage with several well-known business and
environmental figures, including the Interim-Chair of the Heart
of the South West LEP and senior representatives from EDF
Energy and the Department of Energy and Climate Change,
Professor Bigg highlighted the sector-specific focus of the iNet
programme.
“The Environmental Technologies iNet offers a unique package
of valuable support to innovative cleantech companies in
Somerset and the wider South West,” he said.
“Quite simply, we are here to assist. Whether you need help
with protecting your ideas and products, accessing funding,
breaking into overseas markets, building relationships
with academia or establishing research and
development projects, the iNet should be your first
port of call.”
Chris Williams, Managing Director of Clevedonbased
renewable energy company Goodridge
Environmental, gave a view of the iNet from the
perspective of a beneficiary company which has
engaged with Professor Bigg’s team over the past few
months.
Goodridge had attended an Environmental
Technologies iNet ‘investor readiness’ workshop
in Exeter, went on to take part in the Technology
Roadmapping Initiative at Brunel’s SS Great Britain
in Bristol, and signed up for iNet’s free IP support
package.
They are also a participant in the Innovation Credits
Scheme, a collaborative offering between the
Environmental Technologies iNet and its sister project
covering the Creative Industries, which matches the
design needs of cleantech businesses with the agencies best
placed to provide solutions, before part-funding the resulting
creative projects.”
Chris Williams said, “I would really recommend that companies
approach the iNet,” he said. “It can be so difficult for SMEs
9
to find time to raise their heads above the parapet and seek
support, but in the case of the iNet it is well worth it.”
Also representing UWE at the annual conference was David
Lennard from the Research, Business and Innovation service
(RBI), co-facilitating a workshop showing the many ways
businesses can engage with the region’s higher education
institutions.
Professor Bigg has also recently presented at the first of
the Environmental Technologies iNet’s intellectual property
(IP) workshops, the first stage of an ongoing and bespoke
IP support package offered free of charge to innovative
environmental businesses in the South West.
“Recent government findings suggest that only 15 per cent of
small companies seek advice on safeguarding ideas,” Professor
Bigg said of the scheme. “This timely initiative will help to
address the issue in the South West’s environmental goods and
services sector by enabling participants to secure specialist,
bespoke support that could otherwise prove too costly.”
To find out more about the Environmental Technologies iNet,
visit www.inets-sw.co.uk/environmental or e-mail shaun.jordan@
inets-sw.co.uk tel 0117 32 86704
Fourth from right: Professor Martin Bigg, (Director, Environmental
Technologies iNet) with Somerset in Business conference speakers
On 16 March 2011 the UWE Philosophy Students Society organised a
workshop and champagne reception to celebrate the publication of a major
new work on the History of Philosophy, co-authored by three members of
the UWE Philosophy team, Jeremy Dunham, Iain Hamilton Grant and Sean
Watson. Idealism: The History of a Philosophy (Acumen 2011) is the first
book in many years to provide a comprehensive introduction to an area
of philosophical thought that while neglected throughout much of the
twentieth-century is currently enjoying a well deserved renaissance. The
event was attended by over 60 students, staff, and interested members of the
public. Pictured are Alison Assiter, Iain Grant and Andrew Jones.