Business Development Support

Empowering your business

Whether you want to start or grow a business, future proof your social enterprise, develop an innovative new product or ensure you have the strategies and skills to make your business investment ready, we are here to encourage and support your ambitions. The Evolve Futures team brings a wide range of skills and real-world business experience to our programmes, designed to support you from idea, to launch, to long-term sustainable growth built on best practice.

Who's it for?

While we warmly welcome all eligible enterprises, our support offer is especially beneficial for early-stage, high-growth, knowledge-based enterprises and SME leaders who are interested in building their networks, exploring innovative opportunities for growth and seeking to be investment-ready. Evolve Futures is also valuable for social enterprises and small businesses wishing to ensure solid business practices and understanding in order to explore new markets and services. 

What's on offer?

Supporting business growth and innovation, the Evolve Futures project connects you to valuable sector experts and specialists, a network of peers and other businesses. Through its events, interactive workshops and 1:1 guidance sessions it gives you access to:

• Start-up fundamentals - What you need to get right including legals, finance and accounting, IP, R&D tax credits, market validation.
• Inclusion and Wellbeing - Providing you with the skills and knowledge to create resilient and productive teams and happy customers through inclusive growth best practices.
• Upskilling your green skills by delivering training covering circular economy, designing circular products, carbon accounting and effective use of resource (e.g., energy).
• Enabling you to get outside and do things differently to spark new ideas in your enterprise via inspiring, educational sessions, based on business innovation and explore discussion away from traditional learning environments.
• Supporting you to develop your early-idea innovations such as help with developing idea, how to properly validate idea, evidencing there is a gap in the market and demand for innovation and that it is good product/service.
• Providing you with the skills and knowledge to evaluate your impact and calculate your social value so you can demonstrate the benefit your activities are bringing to society.
• Visualise and analyse your data - Leveraging cutting-edge technologies and facilities including access to a state-of-the art 3D and 4D modelling and visualisation suite to visualise your data in real-time and with immersive technologies.
• Operating in the Clean Energy and Marine Sector – We can support you with your strategic review, marketing and new business generation review, new product development and launches, research, grant funding and bid development.

The University of Exeter has been commissioned to deliver the EVOLVE FUTURES project on behalf of the Growth Hub by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund as part of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth Programme.

Interested in finding out more

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