Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
The package forms part of the Government’s Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth, which has been published today. It sets out plans to boost growth through substantial investment in research and innovation across the UK.
Key actions announced today by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) include:
- A new online business advisor training tool that will give advisors the skills and information they need to help businesses protect the value of their intellectual property.
- An online register of advisors to help businesses find the right advisor for them quickly and easily.
- Consulting businesses, business advisors and IP specialists about how lower cost IP legal and commercial advice can be provided.
- Offering free intellectual property audits to businesses through routes such as the Technology Strategy Board.
- Enhancing existing schemes such as mediation to provide a more efficient dispute resolution service that can prevent potentially costly legal cases.
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Tags: Baroness Wilcox, Digital Marketing, SMEs, support for SMEs, Technology Strategy Board, UK Intellectual Property
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Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
Business Secretary Vince Cable today announced new measures to ensure more young people benefit from an apprenticeship, and to help employers gain the skilled workers they need to grow.
As part of the Government’s plan for growth, Ministers are taking action to make it easier for companies to take on apprentices, and ensure that the quality of apprenticeships is continually improved. He told businesses in Londonrecently that the Government would slash the red tape that can deter hard pressed firms from taking on apprentices, and provide a financial incentive to help the smallest firms recruit their first young apprentices.
The following measures to further strengthen the UK’s world class apprenticeships programme were recently announced:
· To encourage thousands of small firms that don’t currently hire apprentices to take on a young apprentice aged 16 to 24, the Government will offer employers with up to 50 employees an incentive payment of up to £1,500. This will support up to 20,000 new apprenticeships in 2012/13. An initial payment will be made two months after the individual has started their apprenticeship; the balance will be paid after the apprenticeship has been completed and the trainee has progressed into sustainable employment.
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Tags: Business Secretary, Government Measures, Innovation & Skills, SMEs, Vince Cable
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Monday, October 17th, 2011
The UK’s ability to stay at the forefront of world-class manufacturing received a boost of over £170 million today as the Government announced a package to drive future growth.
A high value manufacturing technology and innovation centre will receive over £140 million over a six year period and is open for business.
The centre is formed from seven research and technology facilities from across the country. It will help to kick-start a sustained manufacturing revival by commercialising science – taking ideas from the drawing board to help make them into real products.
The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) will run a competition of nearly £18 million, Technology Inspired Innovation, to fund products inspired by new discoveries and breakthroughs, such as advanced materials, biosciences and nanoscale technologies.
The TSB and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) will also be running a £15 million competition for investment into the research and development of low carbon vehicles. (more…)
Tags: Office for Low Emission Vehicles OLEV, Technology Strategy Board TSB, Vince Cable
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Monday, October 17th, 2011
The new service will be delivered by the Manufacturing Advisory Consortium (MAC) and will help create an estimated £1.5bn in economic growth, 23,000 jobs and safeguard 50,000 jobs.
The Manufacturing Advisory Service will continue to deliver a national service to all manufacturing businesses in England but the new consortium now means that there will be a specific focus on:
- driving business growth through strategic and technical support for SMEs developing advanced manufacturing capabilities and creating high value jobs
- enabling business improvement with manufacturers operating in global supply chains; and
- linking SMEs with the apprenticeship programme delivering a minimum of 1,250 engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships annually.
(more…)
Tags: Manufacturing Advisory Service, Mark Prisk, MAS, UK Economy Growth
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Monday, July 4th, 2011
New plans to cut bureaucracy in Brussels and keep the UK on the front foot in Europe
Proactive and early engagement will be the key to cutting European bureaucracy under plans announced today by Business Minister Mark Prisk.
The three new ‘Operating Principles’ set out how the UK can exert early influence over legislation coming from the European Union. They aim to:
- Strengthen early engagement in Brussels, especially before the European Commission formally brings forward proposals for legislation when the scope for influencing final outcomes is greatest
- Put evidence at the heart of the Government’s approach to negotiating EU proposals
- Hold the European Commission, Council and Parliament to account on the commitments they have already made on regulating only when absolutely necessary and assessing the costs and benefits of new legislation before proposing or agreeing to it.
Minister for Business & Enterprise Mark Prisk said:
“British businesses, civil society organisations and citizens are all affected by EU legislation. This Government is serious about getting to grips with the quantity and quality of rules coming out of Europe.
“Only by engaging early with developing policy and, where necessary, trying to stop it before it is set in stone can we make sure that we can get the best outcome for our businesses.”
These Operating Principles complete the Government’s ‘Guiding Principles for EU Legislation’ published last December, which set out how the Government will end the so-called gold-plating of EU law when implementing it in the UK.
The consolidated ‘Guiding Principles for EU legislation’ are available at: http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/better-regulation/policy/european-legislation/guiding-principles-eu-legislation.
Tags: European Commision, European Union, Operating Principles
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Monday, July 4th, 2011
A single European patent looks ever more likely as ministers reached important agreements on the detail of a unitary patent at the Competitiveness Council in Luxembourg today.
For the first time in 60 years, ministers have agreed on the languages regime for the patent – the number of translations which applicants need to file to get their patent. This is a significant achievement for the UK, the Hungarian Presidency and the Commission. They also agreed on the technical details of the patent itself.
As a result it will be easier and cheaper to register patents, with far fewer translations required than at present. The availability of a single patent for the European market will be an incentive for innovation and will enhance the competitiveness of European businesses.
(more…)
Tags: Competitveness Council, European Business, Patent System, UK Intellectual Property
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Thursday, June 9th, 2011
The rural economy and medium sized businesses will be at the centre of the next stage of the Growth Review, the Government announced today, as it continues its focus on restoring the economy’s health.
Building on the radical programme of reforms set out in the first Plan for Growth, published at the Budget, the next stage of the review will focus on:
Infrastructure – considering how to eliminate barriers and encourage greater investment in UK infrastructure
- Education and skills – looking across the whole of the education system from schools, FE colleges, universities and other training providers to consider how to maximise economic growth
- Logistics – covering rail, road, shipping and air freight interests and cutting across the wholesale industry, looking at opportunities and barriers to growth as the logistics sector evolves in response to the increasing complexity and globalisation of supply chains
- Mid-sized businesses – examining businesses that have expanded beyond the definition of SMEs, considering how to increase the number of firms that show significant growth at this level
- Rural economy – scrutinizing the constraints, opportunities and risks impacting on economic growth in rural areas, and considering specific issues including labour market characteristics, to support the Government’s commitment to rebalancing the economy
- Open data – investigating the potential growth benefits and risks of opening up access to public sector data assets (more…)
Tags: Department for Business, Government, Government Measures, Innovation & Skills, Vince Cable
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Monday, May 23rd, 2011
Funding for EU research and innovation from 2014: a UK perspective’ published today looks at the future role and shape of EU funding for research and innovation and sets out the following recommendations from the Government
- Research and innovation must play an increasingly vital role in promoting green growth in Europe and should continue to receive a high – and ideally increased – proportion of a future EU budget which is reprioritised to focus on sustainable growth and is smaller overall
- The UK considers that future EU funding should be focussed on funding research programmes that demonstrate excellence and added-value
- EU funding should address global challenges as well as developing new technologies.
(more…)
Tags: Future EU funding, Position Paper, Research & Development
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Thursday, May 12th, 2011
Lord Heseltine kicks off a series of road shows to promote the second round of the Regional Growth Fund and encourage bidders to compete for a share of £950m.
The first road show takes place in Margate, Kent, where Lord Heseltine will speak about the importance of economic growth and the role of the Regional Growth Fund. He will then take questions about the process of submitting high-quality bids that offer the potential to create new jobs.
More than 150 businesses and organisations are expected to attend the event at Margate’s Winter Garden and more than 1,000 are expected to attend the series of road shows over the next few weeks.
The Regional Growth Fund has been designed to:
- provide support for projects that can drive sustainable economic growth and create new private sector jobs; and
- particularly help communities that are currently dependent on the public sector make the transition to private sector-led growth and prosperity.
Lord Heseltine is Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel, which will consider all bids for funding and make recommendations to Ministers, led by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, about which should be supported. He is supported by Deputy Chair, Sir Ian Wrigglesworth and a team of academics, business and civic leaders.
Lord Heseltine said:
“The Regional Growth Fund was exceptionally popular in the first round, and we received many bids that demonstrated strategic thinking on how to create jobs and contribute to local economies.
“I hope businesses and public-private partnerships are inspired to think about innovative and creative ways of making a difference to growth and shaping their economic future, and that we will see results of this thinking when we are assessing bids
“The road shows are an excellent opportunity for potential bidders to find out more information about ensuring bids meet the objectives and criteria. I urge all those interested to ask questions, and get as much out of these events as possible.
The second round of the Regional Growth Fund opened to bids on April 12 and will close at midday on July 1. The second round will aim to allocate around £950m – the bulk of the £1.4bn fund
Ministers announced in April that there were 50 successful bidders from the first round of the Regional Growth Fund. These bidders will share £450m if they pass a process of due diligence.
Tags: Growth, Jobs, Lord Heseltine, Regional Growth Fund
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Thursday, May 12th, 2011
The drive to stimulate local economic growth was stepped up when Business Minister Mark Prisk announced a package with three measures to help local enterprise partnerships get up and running.
Firstly the partnerships are being invited to submit bids for a share of a £5 million Start-Up Fund. The fund is a one-off pot of money to fund such things as office equipment and training which they believe will help get themselves established. Partnerships will be expected to demonstrate as part of their bid how they will become self-sustaining in the future.
Secondly, from today partnerships will also have access to an online Toolbox which provides comprehensive information on economic development activity across government departments, and ideas for strong partnership/government working. Thirdly, they will also be able to access information through the new BIS Local network which will be the first point of contact on any issues.
Funding allocations from the first round of the local enterprise partnership Capacity Fund were also issued to partnerships today. Each will receive a share of £1 million to help increase their understanding of the barriers to growth facing local businesses.
Mark Prisk said:
“Today we are moving up a gear in promoting local growth. Over the last ten months, business and civic leaders have risen to the challenge and we now have 33 partnerships in place covering 92 per cent of all businesses in England.
“The package of support opportunities I’ve announced today will help partnerships to translate their ideas and ambition into real action to help businesses in their areas and to unlock growth.”
Tags: Business Minister, Enterprise Partnerships, local Economic Growth, Mark Prisk, Start-Up Fund
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