Intec, Parc Menai Pencoed Technology Centre Bangor, Bridgend, South LL57 4FG CF35 5HZ

T: 01248 671101 T: 01656 861536 F: 01248 671102 W: www.bic -innovation.com

INNOVATION NETWORK PARTNERSHIP WALES PARTNERIAETH RHWYDWAITH ARLOESEDD CYMRU

North Wales - Gogledd Cymru

Date: 19 May 2009 Location: Watersports, Felinheli

Delegates:

Name Organization Email 1 Huw Watkins BIC Innovation [email protected] 2 Wendy Boddington Welsh Assembly Government DE&T [email protected] 3 Robert Walford [email protected] 4 John Pinnington Cyngor Ynys Mon Council [email protected] 5 Dr John Parkes Welsh Assembly Government DE&T [email protected] 6 Dr Ann Sudder Welsh Assembly Government DE&T [email protected] Business Innovation – Design 7 Chris Gardiner Support (BI-DS) 8 Dafydd Davies BI-DS Business Innovation – Manufacturing 9 Stephen Bibby Support (BI-MS) 10 Howard Tothill BI-MS 11 Hedd Roberts BI-MS 12 Delyth Lloyd OpTIC Technium [email protected] 13 Chris Walker Venture Wales [email protected] 14 Linda Ford Conwy CBC [email protected] 15 Eirian Harrison Flintshire County Council [email protected] 16 Lesley Thomas [email protected] 17 Selwyn Williams Gwynedd County Council [email protected] 18 Mike Gibson BIC Innovation [email protected] 19 Ken Toop SEMTA [email protected] 20 Mike Williams Wales Cooperative Centre [email protected]

Chair Huw Watkins Marketing Director BIC Innovation

Huw opened the meeting officially by extending a warm welcome to everybody.

Apologies were received from the following individuals:

Dr Gwion Williams Welsh Assembly Government Nia Roberts Welsh Assembly Government Gareth Hughes Welsh Assembly Government Keith Robertson Welsh Assembly Government Cheryl Whitaker Welsh Assembly Government Sam Williams Welsh Assembly Government Dave Johnson Welsh Assembly Government Joyce Sneddon Tim Knight National Skills Academy Nuclear Heather Abrahams Finance Wales Carl Longland Flintshire Council Patricia Carlin Flintshire Council Caroline Thompson CAST Suzanne Creasey North Wales Watersports Kirsty-Ann Hutton Davies Denbighshire council Mike Sparks Coleg Annie Williams Stewart Milne Glyndwr University Jane Davies Menter Môn Dafydd Gruffydd Menter Môn Gwenfron Roberts Manag Consultancy

Presentations by Business Innovation – Innovation Manager, Design Manager and Manufacturing Manager

Dr Ann Sudder

Stephen Bibby

Chris Gardiner

The Business Innovation presentation can be downloaded from BIC Innovation’s website. (www.bic-innovation.com)

Ann provided an overview of the programme and its links with the centralised system of contact centres.

Key points: Access to all programmes is through contact centres, who will conduct an initial diagnostic (by telephone or web based system). Companies will be allocated to sectors, prioritised and Relationship Managers (RMs) will then provide appropriate, diagnostic driven, support. The RMs will bring in specialists in various programmes. The Innovation specialist services (Innovation, Commercialisation, Intellectual Property, Manufacturing & Design) are described in the presentation.

There is simplified access to funding, through Single Investment Fund (SIF). For the Business Innovation projects, SIF support is up to 50%, to a grant limit of £10 000 at any one time for consultancy. There is support for Intellectual property (IP) (£5 000) and Research & Development SIFs are also available. There is also access to UK wide funding such as Carbon Trust.

Stephen Bibby explained the Manufacturing Service, emphasising its difference from, and advantages over, the ‘Manufacturing Advisory Service’ that is delivered in the rest of the UK. The Wales programme is highly linked to innovation.

Chris Gardner explained the Design programme, demonstrating the key part that product development will play.

Round the table discussion:

Comments made by INPART North members at the round table discussion

John Pinnington – Anglesey County Council

John is Business Development Manager at Anglesey County Council. John explained the North West Wales Local Investment Fund (LIF). The total project value is £8million, over 6 years, including the private sector contribution. This provides 40% funding of between £1000 & £5000 for qualifying capital projects. This is designed to complement the Welsh Assembly programmes and applications are assessed against their contribution to the local economy. The scheme is administered on a 4 county basis :

Angelsey – 01248 752496 [email protected] Conwy – 01492 574525 – [email protected] Denbighshire - 01824 708063 [email protected] Gwynedd – 01286 679231 – [email protected]

Robert Walford – Deeside College

Robert reported that there are structural changes planned with mergers anticipated with the Welsh college of Horticulture in 2009 and possibly Llysfasi in 2010. There is a growing commercial agenda, with the 16-19 entrepreneurship delivery extending into the 14-16 age group.

The college is active with KTPs, supporting Optopreneurs’s Photonics awareness and clients in OpTIC Technium.

Ken Toop – Sector Skills Council for Science Engineering & Manufacturing Technologies (SEMTA).

Ken is a new member of the partnership and briefed the attendees on SEMTA. SEMTA drive skills development for a range of sectors that includes electronic, automotive, bioscience, marine & metals. SEMTA’s aim is to assist with skills development to enable companies to be continuous, viable and profitable businesses. As part of the skills development agenda, SEMTA are the architects of National Occupational Standards (NOS), which in turn result in a recognised qualification including NVQ. They work with the Welsh Assembly Government and the Engineering Technology Board on various projects, including career progression for women, career progression for management, six sigma and New product / process Development leadership.

SEMTA are working with industry to undertake skill gap analysis and developing apprenticeship framework. At present, they are piloting 3 innovate schemes focused on shared apprentices.

Linda Ford – Conwy County Council

Linda represented Conwy Council and also the link to Flexible Solutions for Business (FS4B). Conwy Council are managing the FS4B contract for Regional Service Centres (at Bangor, Bersham & Llandudno Junction), along with 9 outreach centres. The normal contact for this service is Caroline Jones, who was not able to attend this meeting.

Aside from LIF, Conwy are also offering a small ‘start up’ grant for new entrepreneurs starting new businesses.

The Council is reviewing its grant / support structure to fill gaps in programmes.

The Llandudno Junction Business Centre offers training facilities.

Dr John Parkes – Welsh Assembly Government DE&T

John has been running North Wales Region of the Wales Innovators Network (WIN) for a number of years. This results in a large and diverse client base of small innovators and technology businesses. IP is crucial for these businesses.

With a new structure in place, John’s role has grown to include Innovation Management.

WIN and a service for slightly larger ‘small’ businesses, WIN+, forms part of the Business Innovation Programme described by Dr Ann Sudder.

John has been involved with the Healthcare sector for many years and has recently had involvement with Geeble Round Cymru in north Wales. Given the significant re-organisation of the north Wales NHS Trust, covering parts of mid Wales, there will be an excellent opportunity to drive innovation within the new Trust.

Delyth Lloyd – OpTIC Technium, St Asaph

OpTIC continues to support early stage technology companies. OpTIC management was taken over by Glyndwr University. ‘OpTIC Glyndwr’ is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Glyndwr Innovations.

Although there have been changes in ownership, Delyth stressed that it’s ‘business as usual’.

Chris Walker – Venture Wales

Chris was attending his first meeting, as Maldwyn Jones was unavailable. Chris highlighted the Growth programme, with support for new businesses, business planning and grant applications. There is also particular support for Graduates. Venture Wales provide the lower tier ‘relationship management’ activity for FS4B, and can provide FS4B subsidised consultancy. There are workshops and seminars on a variety of general business skills.

Selwyn Williams – Gwynedd Council

Selwyn reminded the members that we were in the middle of the Gwynedd Business week. Several events had been organised through out the county, many of them free of charge with all details available on www.gwyneddbusinessweek.co.uk .

On Monday evening, there had been a very successful ‘Llwyddo’n Lleol’ event held at Barcud, celebrating the entrepreneurial achievements on young people.

Selwyn also confirmed that he was the Gwynedd contact for the LIF Cymru grant support.

Eirian Harrison – Flintshire Council

Eirian is part of a network of 250 European offices and provides access to support on European legislation. As businesses faces an increasing burden of new European directives, with Health and Safety, Environmental or Human Resource issues.

Recently, Eirian has been involved with the European Business week, which featured contributions in particular from young people interested in business.

Mike Williams – Wales Co-Operative Centre

Mike was also attending the partnership meeting for the first time. The Welsh Co-op Centre have recently won 2-3 new contracts under convergence focusing on social enterprise.

Social Enterprises offer an alternative model to the more conventional business structure and are currently increasing in popularity. The Welsh Co-op Centre can provide assistance on legal issues and advice on the most suitable entity for a new business start.

Mike can be contacted on 07771 903910.

Dafydd Davies – BI-DS

Dafydd chairs the South West innovation partnership and briefed the group on the activities within the region. There have been a number of themes over the past few months ranging from energy, Swansea Bay futures, Manufacturing & Access to Finance.

Lesley Thomas – Coleg Menai

Lesley is the Business faculty Director at Coleg Menai. She explained there were 2 departments dedicated to Research & Development at Coleg Menai. The Partnership had held a meeting at the Food Technology Centre, which is celebrating its 10 th anniversary this year. The other facility is the Menai Innovation Centre, Canolfan Arloesi Menai (CAM). Lesley briefed the meeting on the commercial use of CAM facilities and the 2 dedicated design engineers, showing results provided to clients ranging over: - Concept development - Product development - Prototyping - CAD

CAM is teamed with the Institute of Technology Tallaght in the ‘VISION’ Interreg Programme. The programme provides 100% funding to take products from concept to market. The college is aiming to provide this service to at least 15 companies in North Wales. There is an open invitation to the partnership to visit CAM.

They already support local businesses such as CK Tools and Marco Cables and have a well equipped facility capable of undertaking 3D scanning to build prototypes and Design for Manufacture (DfM).

The College also hosts the SolidWorks. This Group brings together individuals using SolidWorks and is an ideal platform to share best practise.

CONCLUDING REMARKS - Wendy Boddington .

The partnership is a great opportunity to move the innovation agenda forward, so we can all work with business to ‘move up a gear’, making our business environment the first choice for innovative companies.

The Business Innovation Services provides an opportunity for us to demonstrate a really integrated, high performing, service on the ground in North Wales. Businesses need to see this excellence.

The Techniums at OpTIC and CAST provide key links with academic support to grow our knowledge and innovation base. It is noteworthy that 30% of the Uks optical industry activity is based around St Asaph.

Advanced materials work creates a potential hub for an advanced material economy centred on North Wales and the North west of England. There are discussions with the North West Regional Development Agency; these include developing R&D, supply chains, infrastructure and support

To make best use of the partnership, we need to know what the members want to see, learn about and discuss This.

NEXT MEETINGS

Mike Gibson – BIC Innovation

Details of the June meetings will be circulated to members.

Diary dates:

Date (09) Event Location 17 June Special Workshop – Continuous Improvement & OpTIC Technium, St Asaph Innovation 24 June Special ‘All Wales’ Meeting - IP Stimulation and North Wales, Wrexham TBC Exploitation Planning 15 July Meeting topic TBC TBC (Possibly Llandudno Junction) 3 September Provisional - Centre for Defence Enterprise - developing Anglesey new defence related applications for non-defence suppliers 7 October Provisional - Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Flintshire 4 November TBC TBC 9 December TBC TBC

Members of the partnership will be able to download the minutes of the INPART meetings from BIC Innovation’s website: www.bic-innovation.com

M GIBSON BIC Innovation 07900 585991 [email protected]