EEDA - East of England Development Agency

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Science, Innovation and High-level Skills

Innovation is at the heart of successful business development and growth in the East of England.

EEDA's Science, Innovation and High-level Skills programme builds on the region's global reputation for innovation and research and development (R&D). This programme helps to build successful innovation-based businesses.

The programme is needed to:

• increase R&D activity around the region's major commercial clusters
• facilitate commercial networking and supply chain activity
• support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in commercialising innovation more successfully
• encourage greater exchange of people and knowledge between businesses, universities and research institutions
• maximise economic value from the region's higher education facilities.

EEDA's objective

To build on the East of England's science base and increase the commercial expansion of ideas.

How will this be achieved?

To support and develop innovative businesses in the region, EEDA will draw on the region's expanding universities to successfully commercialise R&D and innovation.
EEDA will foster these developments by creating the right kind of infrastructure, including regional enterprise hubs and new science parks.

Desired outcomes for the region

The desired outcomes are to:

• further develop the region's world-class science and innovation base
• become a leading international region for converting research into commercial value
• encourage and support more businesses to innovate.
  

Latest news

• Mapping the route to business success 1 September 2008 A ground-breaking interactive map will, for the first time, offer businesses in the East of England a simple view of publicly-funded business support that can help them on their journey to success.
• Colworth world-class Knowledge Hub and Innovation Centre gets the go-ahead 5 August 2008 Planning permission has been granted for developing a new Knowledge Hub and world-class Innovation Centre at Colworth Science Park in Bedfordshire.
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• World's first conference exploring the future 31 July 2008 FutureFest, the first major conference and festival celebrating the future, will be taking the scene by storm in June 2009. The conference is the world's first attempt to explore the future, in the same way as Davos explores economics.
• Minister of State hammers home importance of innovation 24 June 2008 Minister of State Ian Pearson was given a smashing experience today (Tuesday 25 June) while visiting a pioneering local business as part of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills' (DIUS) Innovation Nation road-show.

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