Tech accelerator launches at innovation Birmingham to support local entrepreneurs and SMEs

Bruntwood SciTech has partnered with Birmingham City Council and Birmingham City University to deliver a new tech accelerator designed to boost local procurement opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs and SMEs from the city’s burgeoning tech cluster.

The programme is funded by the West Midlands Combined Authority. Potential applicants to the new programme ‘Digital Innovation in Public Services’ (DIPS) are now being sought to develop tech-enabled solutions to address one of five key city challenges set out by Birmingham City Council.

The challenges cover planning and consultation processes, demand and transportation of food, transformation of the city’s mobility hubs, and two adult social care challenges.

Successful applicants will work on the challenges identified by the partnership while gaining six months’ free access to Bruntwood SciTech’s Innovation Birmingham campus that offers hotdesks, collaboration and meeting space, funding advice, workshops and events, as well as “one of the most established tech and digital communities in the UK”.

Bruntwood SciTech has also recently expanded its team of seasoned tech industry experts to mentor those who join the programme, alongside additional accelerator and business support programmes currently offered at the campus.

These include Serendip, offered in partnership with HS2, BNP Paribas and Supertech WM, and the Global Growth Programme being run in conjunction with West Midlands Growth Company. The experienced team now includes Dr Karthik Thangaraj, an experienced research engineer and former senior research fellow at the University of Birmingham.

The programme will also be supported by external mentor Debbie Assinder, West Midlands enterprise champion at Enterprise Nation, who has more than 20 years’ experience supporting early stage startups.

Bruntwood SciTech, a 50:50 joint venture between Bruntwood and Legal & General, anticipates a range of applicants, from early stage start-ups and university R&D spin offs to individuals working in app development.

Katharine Fuller, head of innovation services at Innovation Birmingham, commented: “DIPS provides a new mechanism to drive innovation and new technologies in public sector procurement through early engagement with innovative SMEs developing products that deliver on specific public sector challenges.

“This new accelerator will harness demand for innovation, facilitate a better process for the public and private sectors to come together to develop new solutions, and stimulate growth in the local economy.”

By Matthew Neville – Correspondent, Bdaily

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