Service offering
Innovation angels
The innovative potential of a region’s companies is vital to regional economic growth. Though many companies have the will to create new and better products as a route to increased sales and competitive advantage, many lack the confidence and skills to bring innovation to their businesses.
We stimulate regional growth and prosperity by offering companies access to world-class skills and training. In one scheme alone, our work has helped safeguard thousands of jobs and led to £ millions of additional sales among participating companies
Delivered through a consortium of regional organisations, Sagentia’s Innovation Angels service offers SMEs and other companies access to world-class skills and training that would ordinarily be beyond their reach – technical skills to improve products and commercial skills to improve business processes, capabilities and technology management.
As well as providing rapid returns to the participating companies, the service consciously aims to build up innovation skills, and share these across the cluster, making the economic impact of the service more lasting and widespread.
In a typical scheme, we target companies that are most likely to benefit and offer a free initial study to identify key technical or commercial challenges for their business. We then offer a subsidised but intensive intervention, ranging from onsite technical help (often leading to an outline design specification), to commercial research (an assessment of a new market or a new product concept), depending on individual requirements.
While our consultants are individually skilled, they also have the resources of Sagentia’s broader consulting organisation at their disposal, allowing them to use our extensive bank of commercial and industrial experience, science and engineering knowledge and our capabilities in identifying, developing and commercialising new opportunities.
In one such scheme, undertaken for the engineering sector in the north of England, we developed a comprehensive package of services including practical technical support, advice and diagnostic services. Provided in partnership with local specialists, over 110 companies have taken part in the interventions scheme so far. In three years the programme has created or safeguarded 1,200 jobs and led to £15 million of additional sales. The companies involved have contributed over £1 million of investment.
We have also undertaken a number of intervention projects for development agencies based in the Republic of Ireland and mainland Europe.