Accelerators and Incubators in the Sheffield City Region

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Jane Lambert

Following on from my article on accelerators and incubators in the Leeds City Region, I am taking a look at the accelerators, incubators and co-working spaces in the Sheffield City Region that appear in Nesta's directory for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (see Business Incubators and Accelerators Directory 20 April 2017 NIPC News). As I said in my previous article, accelerators and incubators help to launch fledgeling businesses but while accelerators offer structured development and training with opportunities to attract funding for the most attractive businesses, incubators are more like serviced offices with mentoring and other forms of business and technical support included in the package. I found two accelerators from South Yorkshire in the directory, five incubators and one co-working space.

The accelerators from the City Region that are listed in the directory are as follows:

Name	Website	City
Dotforge	http://dotforge.com/	Sheffield
Y-Accelerator	http://yaccelerator.com	Rotherham

I mentioned Dotforge in my article on Leeds. Its premises in Sheffield are at the Electric Works close to the bus and rail stations and the city campus of Sheffield Hallam University. As I said in my previous article, Dotforge measures a business's social impact as well as its commercial viability. The accelerator offers mentoring and workshops as well as investment.

According to the "About us" page of its website, the "Y" in Y-Accelerator stands for "Yorkshire". It claims to be "the UK’s first Global Manufacturing accelerator programme, built around Sheffield City Region’s worldwide reputation for excellence in advanced manufacturing." The Y-Accelerator programme has been developed by the Rotherham Investment Development Office (RiDO) and TRoom, a South Korean manufacturing and distribution company which was formed for the purpose of developing trade links between East Asia and Europe. Y-Accelerator offers a range of programmes for pre-startups, startups and established companies of varying duration. It cooperates with a number of partners including Sheffield and Rotherham metropolitan district councils, Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam Universities, the local enterprise partnership and a firm of solicitors.

Another firm of solicitors has promoted one of the City Regions's five incubators and Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam also have their own hatcheries as do RiDO and Barnsley Business & Innovation Centres ("BBIC").

Name	Website	City
Barnsley BIC	http://www.bbic.co.uk/	Barnsley
RIDO Launchpad	http://www.rido.org.uk/business-advice/start-up-a-business-rotherham	Rotherham
Sheffield Hallam University Hatchery	https://students.shu.ac.uk/shuspacecontent/enterprise/hatchery	Sheffield
University of Sheffield Innovation	http://www.innovation.group.shef.ac.uk/	Sheffield
Wosskow Brown Foundation	http://www.wosskowbrownfoundation.org.uk	Sheffield

I have already discussed BBIC at Wilthorpe in my article on accelerators and incubators in Leeds. The reason I mention it again is that Barnsley finds itself in both Leeds and Sheffield City Regions. As I said in my previous article, I work closely with BBIC and am about to expand my activities with regular lunchtime workshops the first of which will be "How can I protect my business idea?" on 9 May 2017 (see Lunchtime Talk - "How can I protect my Business Idea?" Barnsley BIC 9 May 2017 12-15-13-15 21 April 2017).

RiDO offers a bespoke package of support for pre-start and early stage businesses through the Sheffield City Region Launchpad programme which includes regular workshop and one-to-one sessions with a business advisor. Sheffield's two universities provide office, lab space and technical and business support for new businesses.  Sheffield University's is known as USI (University of Sheffield Innovation). Sheffield Hallam's is known as The Hatchery. The Wosskow Brown Foundation was established by the Wossskow Brown law firm to support local business, charities and sports clubs. Its first initiative is the WB 100 which aims to assist 100 businesses, 100 charities or social enterprises and 100 individuals in grassroots sports through a formal programme and ad hoc support as they need it between 2015 and 2019. Its beneficiaries appear on the beneficiaries page of the foundation's website.

Nesta's researchers identified one co-working space, namely the Showroom and Workstation for businesses in the creative and digital sectors at Paternoster Square in Sheffield. The Showroom and Workstation offer a range of business support services and office space for businesses under 18 months old known as Studio 505. Hot desking, virtual office services and office rental services are also available.

Anyone who wants to discuss this article or startup support in general can call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form, Readers may also be interested in my accelerators and incubators resources page on my Inventors Club blog.

Accelerators and Incubators in the Leeds City Region

Jane Lambert

The Government has recently published the first comprehensive directory of accelerators and incubators in the UK compiled by Nesta researchers (see Business Incubators and Accelerators Directory 20 April 2017 NIPC News). The Directory has identified 4 accelerators in the Leeds City Region and 5 incubators. The difference between accelerators and incubators was summarized neatly byTina Nielsen in Business accelerators: a financial shot in the arm for startups 24 Oct 2013:

"The terms business accelerator and incubator are used interchangeably and the distinction is vague, but broadly speaking accelerators offer funding and incubators mainly mentoring."

Both accelerators and incubators help to launch fledgling businesses. Accelerators offer structured development and training with opportunities to attract funding for the most attractive businesses. Incubators are more like serviced offices with mentoring and other forms of business and technical support thrown in.

The four accelerators are all in Leeds. Each of them is part of an enterprise that also operates in other parts of the country:

Name	Website	City
Dotforge	http://dotforge.com/	Leeds
Entrepreneurial Spark	http://www.entrepreneurial-spark.com	Leeds
ODI Leeds	https://odileeds.org/	Leeds
The Young Foundation	http://www.growingsocialventures.org/en	Leeds

.
Dotforge operates in Sheffield and Manchester as well as Leeds. It measures a business's social impact as well as its commercial viability. It offers mentoring and workshops as well as investment. According to its website, it has worked with 31 startups in the three cities. Dotforge claims to be different in that it is "focused on doing good" (see the About page of its website).

The Entrepreneurial Spark claims to be "the world’s largest free business accelerator for early stage and growing ventures." It has 12 hubs around the country in all four nations of the United Kingdom with a 13th about to open in London. The Leeds operation is at 2 Park Cross Street. The Entrepreneurial Spark offers "mentors, ambassadors and supporters, workshops, pitch practice and a full time ‘entrepreneurial enabler'",

ODI Leeds opened in May 2014 shortly after Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt set up the Open Data Institute. The ODI Startup Accelerator is "a year-long, bespoke programme for data-oriented startups". It offers businesses office space at Munro House (which is close to the BBC, Dance Yorkshire, Leeds College of Music, Northern Ballet, Phoenix Dance Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse) and various mentoring and other support services for 10% of the issued share capital of the company.

The Young Foundation supports organizations currently under-served by traditional private and public sector funding routes. The Accelerator is a "competitive entry programme for social ventures that are ready to scale, incorporating four months intensive business model development followed by twelve months investment readiness support." The Leeds Accelerator operates in conjunction with the City Council and the Joseph Rowntree Trust. Details of the programme can be downloaded here.

The five incubators in the Leeds City Region are in Barnsley, Bradford, Huddersfield and Leeds. All but one is connected with a university:

Name	Website	City
3M Buckley Innovation Centre	http://www.dhez.org	Huddersfield
Barnsley Business and Innovation  Centre	http://www.bbic.co.uk/	Barnsley
DHEZ	http://www.dhez.org	Bradford
Leeds Innovation Centre	http://www.leedsinnovationcentre.co.uk	Leeds
University of Bradford Business Bioscience Incubation Suite	http://www.bradford.ac.uk/research/faculties/life-sciences/areas-centres/cancer-therapeutics/bioscience-incubation/	Bradford
University of Huddersfield Enterprise Scheme	https://www.hud.ac.uk/enterprise/	Huddersfield

The University of Huddersfield operates the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre and the University of Huddersfield Enterprise Scheme.  The 3M Buckley Innovation Centre is named after Sir George Buckley, a graduate of Huddersfield University, who became CEO of 3MUnited Kingdom Plc. The Centre "facilitates business growth, encourages business to academia collaboration and actively promotes innovation". It caters for all businesses from startups and other small businesses to multinationals and offers "traditional and alternative funding support, national and international markets, skills partners, and access to technology, through a range of commercial, technical and support services." Facilities include hot desks, office space, flexible workshops, laboratories meeting and conference rooms. The University also provides office space, mentoring and other services to undergraduates and recent graduates who wish to set up their own busines.

The University of Bradford supports businesses in bioscience through the Institute of Cancer Therapeutics and digital health through the DHEZ (the Digital Health Enterprise Zone). The University has created a bioscience business incubation suite with offices and laboratories in its ICT building which has so far attracted three companies. Businesses and scientists outside the University are encouraged to join the incubator. The DHEZ offers business support, product design, testing and marketing services and funding.

The Leeds Innovation Centre already provides office space on the University of Leeds campus for businesses that are connected with or work closely with the University. It plans to move to new premises in September 2018 which will offer laboratory space as well as meeting rooms, a lecture theatre, café and other facilities.

The Barnsley Business and Innovation Centre ("BBIC") is the only incubator in the list that is not connected with a university. It offers office accommodation and a range of business support services including a monthly pro bono IP clinic between 10:00 and 12:00 on the second Tuesday of every month from me. Those services have recently been extended to businesses outside the Centre with the BarnsleyBiz Surgeries initiative which will include regular talks by me (see Lunchtime Talk - "How can I protect my Business Idea?" Barnsley BIC 9 May 2017 12-15-13-15 21 April 2017).

Should anyone wish to discuss this article or startup support in general, they should not hesitate to call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form, Readers may also be interested in my accelerators and incubators resources page on my Inventors Club blog.