Source: Sheffield Star 11/10/06
A South Yorkshire-based business incubator, set up to help embryonic green energy businesses to develop their products, has signed a pioneering agreement with Britain's biggest business incubation services specialist.
The LIFE incubator, based at South Yorkshire's Advanced Manufacturing Park, is teaming up with Oxford Innovation, which runs a dozen innovation centres around the UK and has unrivalled access to funds for new businesses.
The two organisations say they will use their joint expertise to support the next generation of companies to serve worldwide energy markets.
LIFE chief executive, Philip Johnson, said: "This collaboration ideally suits the next stage of development for LIFE. We already enjoy substantial support from the energy industry, and from organisations such as The Carbon Trust and Objective One in South Yorkshire, and are looking to expand our business and to work with a wider range and larger number of start-up businesses in the low carbon energy efficiency area.
"By working with Oxford Innovation we will better serve the companies with which we already work, as well as serving other companies on a much wider scale.
"LIFE will benefit from Oxford Innovation's scale of activity in business incubation and fundraising and Oxford Innovation will tap into LIFE's great depth of expertise in an area of business of rapidly increasing importance.
"The business opportunities for new energy technologies have never been better in the face of global warning and increased energy costs."
Oxford Innovation's head of operations, Dr David Kingham, said: "The collaboration agreement we have now signed with LIFE if the start of a partnership which will combine LIFE's specialist and highly respected abilities within the energy sector with Oxford Innovation's broader range of business incubation expertise.
"Members of our investment networks are sure to be interested in some of the emerging technologies that LIFE is backing."