Work completed on state of the art business innovation centre at Tremough

The construction of the new state-of-the-art business innovation centre on land adjacent to the Tremough Campus in Penryn which will help create more than 140 jobs in the local area has now been completed. The £13m Tremough Innovation Centre (TIC) will provide excellent facilities and resources to help both existing and start up companies to accelerate and grow. The low carbon building, which will house up to 70 businesses with four shared meeting rooms, break out rooms and a conference facility, has been built by the Leadbitter Group.

Sited adjacent to the Tremough Campus, the pioneering TIC project has been led by Cornwall Council, supported by Cornwall Development Company (CDC) and is operated by the University of Plymouth. Investment has been provided by the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) Convergence Programme and the South West RDA (Regional Development Agency).

The aim of the innovation centres is to provide businesses with access to a supportive and exciting communal environment in which they can develop their ideas, accelerating the growth of these businesses to create more and higher value jobs.

This is the second innovation centre to be completed in Cornwall over the past two years, with the highly successful Pool Innovation Centre (PIC), which opened in July 2010, already exceeding all targets. In the first year PIC assisted client businesses to achieve average growth of over 40% and saw 44 new jobs created. Work on a third innovation centre specialising in the Health and Wellbeing sector on the site of the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust in Truro began in August and is expected to be completed in late October 2012.

The first clients of the new Tremough Innovation Centre are expected to be working in the Centre within the next few weeks.

Chris Ridgers, the Council's Cabinet member for economy and regeneration, said "I am delighted to see the completion of this exciting project which will make a significant and permanent contribution to the economy of Falmouth and Penryn. Young companies, with appreciable growth potential, need access to the right kind of space and facilities if they are to prosper and provide much needed high quality jobs. This amazing building, which is located alongside world class research and education facilities at Tremough, will help provide this."

Carleen Kelemen, Director of the Convergence Partnership Office for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said, "This particular innovation centre is one of a suite of three in Cornwall and part of the Convergence investments at the Tremough Campus in Cornwall - all designed to strengthen links between businesses and the universities and turn research, innovation and fresh ideas into commercial success."

Bernard Curren, Director of the Tremough Innovation Centre, said "We are very excited to have the opportunity to open the second Innovation Centre for Cornwall and feel sure that TIC will follow the success already achieved in PIC. The team have enjoyed working with the business community in the Falmouth and Penryn area and are confident that this centre will add value and support the development of stronger more sustainable businesses."

Professor Anne Carlisle, Rector and Chief Executive of University College Falmouth said "For University College Falmouth the opening of the TIC enables the establishment of a sustainable innovation supply chain: Stage one is the generation of new knowledge achieved through our courses; stage two is pre-incubation achieved through our Academy for Innovation and Research; stage three is incubation and spin-out into the TIC."

University of Exeter Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark Overton said
"The Tremough Innovation Centre is a very exciting project that will help both universities to build on our links with businesses. Through our Environment and Sustainability Institute, we are already working with businesses and industry to develop innovative new ways of tackling the effects of environmental change. Having the TIC on the campus will strengthen these links, bringing huge benefits to the local and regional economy."

Rob Bradley, Regional Director of Leadbitter's Western Construction division, said: "The Tremough Innovation Centre has been an exciting project, enabling us to use our extensive knowledge of the Tremough Campus and the local area, as well as our expertise in constructing sustainable commercial offices, to deliver an outstanding facility on time and on budget. We look forward to seeing new businesses take up residence in the TIC."

Total project investment £13,122,168
ERDF Convergence investment £9,841,626
South West RDA investment £3,380,542

Convergence :
In Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly the Convergence programmes are made up of European Development Fund (£374 million) and European Social Fund (153 million) and will run until 2013

For further information see: www.convergencecornwall.com
Convergence helpline telephone 0800 0280120

Cornwall Development Company
Cornwall Development Company Ltd is Local Authority owned company and the economic development service for Cornwall Council. Its mission is to achieve sustainable prosperity for all in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 

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