Merseyside Digital Development

Technology companies in the North West are being offered a unique opportunity to take part in an ambitious European-wide scheme to find the perfect development partner, thanks to AIMES.

The i-techpartner project involves twelve European regions, each of which will identify the most promising technologies from their local universities and research institutes within the ICT, Converging Technologies and Life Sciences sectors and will help to match their needs with the perfect partners – entrepreneurs, business experts, intermediaries and investors – to take the technology forward to commercial success.

In addition to being a founding member of the project and spearheading participation from the UK, the AIMES Centre’s own computing expertise will also underpin the whole project through the development of an online portal, which will be crucial to the network’s success.

The portal (http://www.i-techpartner.eu/) will act on a regional level to enable companies and entrepreneurs to register their interest, book to attend events, access discussion groups, view profiles and arrange meetings with likely partners in their locality. It also offers the chance to cast their net wider to the international community of researchers and experts who have registered their interest in partnership opportunities.

Funded for an initial two year period through a European Framework 6 grant and part of the PRO-INNO European innovation programme, i-techpartner is open to the small business community and academic researchers with technology products or services within the broad sectors of biotechnology, information and communications technology and converging technologies (more sectors will be added as the new regions join the project). Each region will set up an i-techpartner Academy and hold at least one sector-based Forum, at which selected companies will present their partnering opportunity. This will be followed by discussion, input and ideas from the participating entrepreneurs, experts and other research leaders as to the best way forward. The project will culminate in year two with an international investor summit where the participants can meet directly with venture capital investors.

Director of AIMES, Professor Dennis Kehoe says: “The marketplace for science and technology is vast and complex. For success in this market, what really counts is what you know and who you know but information and contacts are hard to get. This initiative helps entrepreneurs find their next business opportunity and research leaders their collaborative partner. It fills the gap.”

The North West’s Academy will be held on 12th June 2007 at Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus, which is also one of the key partners in the region, alongside Greater Merseyside Digital Development Agency, Merseyside ICT and RTC North.

Daresbury’s Business Development Manager, Dr Paul Treloar, has overseen a rapid increase in technology companies based at the Science and Innovation Campus and has high expectations for the project, particularly for the small business community. He anticipates considerable uptake of places at the first Academy:

“We’ve seen from the rapid success of the Daresbury campus that strong networks of appropriate expertise are crucial to the success of small businesses. i-techpartner provides another layer of knowledge and expertise to access, which is a great opportunity for all those involved.”

He adds: “We also know the benefits of empowering SMEs and entrepreneurs and making sure that their needs are met. Key to this agenda is the efficiency and accuracy of the matching process, and if i-techpartner can support this, it will be a very powerful catalyst for developing SMEs to their full potential.”

For further details please call Marie Mitchell at AIMES on 0151 795 0116, marie.mitchell@liverpool.ac.uk or visit http://www.i-techpartner.eu/