This month at a glance...
Women in Innovation Awards 2021/22
Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, is offering at least 20 Women in Innovation Awards to female entrepreneurs across the UK. The winners will receive a ?50,000 grant and a bespoke package of mentoring, coaching and business support.
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The aim of this competition is to find women with exciting, innovative ideas and ambitious plans that will inspire others. The awards are for female founders, co-founders or senior decision makers working in businesses that have been operating for at least one year.
Applicants must be confident, with the support of an award, that they can make a significant contribution to a pressing societal, environmental or economic challenge through their innovative project.
The competition is split into two phases. In phase one the application will be assessed by independent experts. In phase two the shortlisted applicants will be interviewed by a panel of experts.
What's on in September?
Business Support Surgeries
 Sign up for a free, online business support surgery with D2N2 Growth Hub Account Manager, Tracey Hylton. You can pose questions about any challenges facing your business, grant funding or start-up loans, hiring, marketing, any business growing pain and much more. Tracey will set you on the right path by signposting you to the support you need to grow and improve. All sessions are free and confidential.
Dates coming up -?
Wednesday 1 September 10am to 12:30pm
Wednesday 15?September?10am to 12:30pm
Wednesday 29?September 10am to 12:30pm
Marketing Essentials Masterclass
Wednesday 22 September from 9:30am to 4:30pm
The?D2N2 Growth Hub team are pleased to announce the return of face to face training, starting with this session on understanding your target audience, getting your message across in the most cost-effective manner, raising your brand awareness and getting new leads and enquiries.
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Discover your brand story and how to tell it
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Develop customer personas - who are your target customers and how should you engage with them?
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Develop key messages for your businesses that attract the right customers
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What marketing channels are available, and which is right for you?
Gain a clearer understanding of the different marketing channels and techniques that you should use to engage your ideal clients and leave the session with a practical action plan to apply in your business straight away.
Thursday 23 September from 9:30 to 11am
Anthony from the D2N2 Growth Hub team and Nottingham Community & Voluntary Service invite you to access support to understand and navigate the processes of commissioning and procurement.
If you're one of the many organisations, which think that bidding for a public sector contract seems time consuming and complicated, we are here to support you.
Public sector contracts offer opportunities to expand your business, get noticed and provide support through your services to the local community, but despite the gains, applying may seem like too much hard work, especially if it's your first time.
To help your organisation understand and navigate the processes of commissioning and procurement,?we have invited colleagues from the public sector to talk about how the processes work, the difference between commissioning and procurement and how you might get involved.
Wednesday 29 September from 11am to 12pm
Join B-Global and TBAT Directors, Matt Symonds and Sam Stephens to find out how to access Grant Funding and R&D Tax Relief for your innovative projects.
Businesses all over the UK are benefiting from the generous government schemes available to fund research and development and TBAT?s job is to help businesses access these crucial funding opportunities.
Grant Funding is available through many funding bodies to accelerate innovation in the UK by de-risking highly innovative research and development projects.
R&D Tax Relief is a HMRC incentive, designed to inspire innovation within UK businesses, by rewarding them with a percentage of their expenditure as either Corporation Tax relief or a cash-repayment.
The webinar will cover:
- Current Grant Funding Opportunities
- How to access Grant Funding
- Benefits of R&D Tax Relief
- How to claim R&D Tax Relief
Funding to help your business reduce the amount of carbon you use
Nottingham City Council?s Accelerating Reduction in Carbon project (ARC) provides grants and advice to help small and medium sized businesses located in Greater Nottingham to decarbonise.
Part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the ARC project can support the implementation of a range of measures that support businesses to decarbonise.
These include:
- The installation of low energy LED lighting
- More efficient heating systems
- Cooling or air-conditioning systems
- Insulation
- Solar PV
- Ground source heat pumps
Plus you can benefit from expert advice from our professionally qualified Energy Advisor on other options available to you to reduce your carbon footprint
Grants covering up to 35% of the net costs of carbon reduction measures are available to a maximum of ?16,000.
Find out if your company is eligible here?or email David Kelly for more information.?
Manufacturing Growth Programme
The Manufacturing Growth Programme is the UK?s largest and leading business support programme for SME manufacturers.?
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Small to medium-sized manufacturers in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire have received a ?500,000 support boost to help them overcome challenges and make the most of new opportunities.
The programme provides many advantages for businesses, including:
- An independent business review to identify opportunities for business improvement and growth
- A diagnostic tool specifically designed to help benchmark your business against internal aspiration and goals
- A detailed action plan guiding you through the process of improving your business
- On-going business support with a trusted and experienced Manufacturing Growth Manager
- Access to grants to co-fund your improvement project
- Access to grants
Through the programme, businesses may be eligible for a grant to cover a percentage of the cost of implementing a business improvement project. Grant values are specific to each business application with a maximum project value of ?10,000.
Get in touch today with Mark, your local Growth Manager, to discuss how he can support you to achieve your growth plans. Email [email protected] or call 07542 861 158.
As the UK partner of the Scale Up project,?Nottingham City Council?will be using 2021 to continue to engage with their local stakeholders to implement the learnings they have taken from the project so far.
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Their focus will be on?finalising and implementing their Action Plan with the aim of influencing the future provision of scale up support in the region.
Since the launch of the Interreg Scale Up project in 2019, the council has seen an?evolution in the scale-up support services?that already exist in Nottingham and its wider region. The East Midlands Chamber hosts the region?s Scale Up Services team, which includes programmes that assist with business innovation, internationalisation, strategy development and technology adoption.
Helping Nottingham businesses with carbon action plans
Now?s the time for your business to develop a clear action plan to reach Nottingham?s ambitious goal to become carbon neutral by 2028.
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The British Chambers of Commerce are working with O2 in creating the Net Zero Hub, filled with useful tools and resources to help you on the road to net zero.
There?s still time to get involved in our Electric Van Experience
Local businesses, voluntary and public sector organisations can test drive an electric van for a month, to see how converting to a greener fleet could work for you. You can even apply to have a fully funded charge point fitted at your premises.
 Electric vans offer a more environmentally-friendly way to travel, and are cheaper to run and maintain too.
Ross Kemp, of Asap Water Crafts, tested a van earlier this year ? you can?watch a video?of how he got on. He said:
?It?s so nice to drive, it?s silent, it?s powerful on acceleration. To be able to borrow an electric van has been incredible for me.
?It?s about driving in a way to conserve energy, keep your costs down, and keep your environmental impact low. All of those things I absolutely loved.
?The cost of electric vehicles like this is just going to come down and down and the range get longer and longer so I?m really excited for the future and absolutely loved my first electric vehicle experience.?
See the range of vans available and more info on the EVE webpage.
Funded by Highways England, the vans are being maintained by Nottingham Electric Vehicle Services (NEVS), Nottingham City Council's exclusively-ULEV service centre.
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