The Manchester Metropolitan University Centre for Enterprise uses its four core knowledge areas: business growth, entrepreneurial leadership, enterprise and sustainability to impact upon North West regional economic growth, UK and European policy development and international academic advancement of knowledge. The Centre for Enterprise is a self-financing organisation, funded entirely through private commercial sponsorship, commercial programme fees and secured competitive public funding. An externally appointed Advisory Board, comprising of leading business figures in professional disciplines, brings specialist knowledge and a shared passion for enabling university knowledge to benefit business communities. The Centre for Enterprise is: ◾Well known for making research useful in practice for small firms, focussing on owner-manager leadership and company growth. We are also very experienced in effective knowledge exchange to support entrepreneurial behaviour across different types and sizes of organisations ◾A practical business engagement team, supporting innovation and strategic business development, including social enterprise ◾A dedicated research team informing enterprise policy, regionally and nationally. Since its launch in March 2001, The Centre for Enterprise has attracted over £12m of revenue to support practical and research activities to develop entrepreneurs and their businesses. This has included contracts to encourage growth in groups of SME owners and others to develop leadership skills in small business owners. Research Council awards include ESRC Business Engagement funding, plus two ESRC Knowledge Exchange Fellowships to build capabilities in third sector enterprises plus EPSRC awards to investigate business models emerging from suitable entrepreneurship in the UK and India.
