Research and Innovation in Sussex Excellence (RISE) – Impact

Impact

In the summer of 2021, the University of Brighton (Lead Partner), the University of Sussex (Delivery Partner) West Sussex County Council (Strategic Partner) and the West Sussex District and Borough Councils (funding providers), joined forces to create the Research and Innovation in Sussex Excellence (RISE) project.

Responding directly to gaps identified in the West Sussex Growth Plan, RISE was designed to provide robust innovation and growth support for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) addressing economic challenges facing these businesses. By providing fully subsidised and direct access to the wealth of specialist academic expertise available at the universities of Brighton and Sussex, and access to a range of bespoke innovation programmes, the RISE project has been able to make a positive contribution to the local business community and economic wellbeing of our region.

The RISE team has supported over 200 SMEs and provided upwards of 2,300 hours of support through its five programme streams, contributing to the creation of at least 15 new jobs*, stimulating £400,000 of further investment in research and development and enabling the creation of at least 48 new to the company* or 40 new to the market products*. *As per summative assessment[s] results 2023

“Micro, small and medium-sized businesses are the engine of our local economy and SMEs very much drive growth in West Sussex. They drive innovation, they’re finding and developing future solutions for businesses in the county and are providing jobs.”

Kate Hampton, Economic Growth Team, West Sussex County Council and Strategic Partner

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RISE | Overview

University of Brighton – Lead Partner At the University of Brighton, we’re passionate about our research and knowledge exchange, which enriches our teaching, cultivates partnerships and is recognised for producing significant societal and economic impact. Fresh thinking, interdisciplinary research, and collaborative partnerships with industry, Higher Education institutions, and communities enable us to bring expertise from different fields to address society’s most pressing issues.

By aligning our research with local sector strengths and growth areas and leveraging inward investment to fix global challenges, we apply and put that knowledge to work.

RISE | Partners

We focus on real-world issues and make concrete changes in our communities to improve the quality of life regionally.

We play a leading role in developing the regional innovation ecosystem – working with economic and business leaders to support innovation and skills-led growth. Our regional programmes provide structured and targeted routes to apply our research-informed expertise collaboratively to address business challenges, contributing to specific local needs and supporting the social and economic health of the Greater Brighton area and beyond. www.brighton.ac.uk/business

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University of Sussex - Delivery Partner The University of Sussex champions challenging, creative and innovative knowledge exchange that contributes to bringing about a sustainable, socially just world.

Our collaborations with businesses, entrepreneurs and community organisations are creating new knowledge and innovative solutions to real-world problems. Our research, consultancy, technology and training mean we’re helping all kinds of people and organisations to achieve their goals.

We are committed to our role as an anchor institution that stimulates and engages with innovation across our region offering inspiring and

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creative ways to address local, national and global issues.

Our approach is for new knowledge to be co-created for mutual value with our partners supporting productive and creative collaborations that bring about meaningful, impactful and sustainable outcomes for society, the economy and the environment.

We work intensively with regional partners to ensure that our knowledge and research expertise benefits business growth, supports local need and builds a better world for us all. www.sussex.ac.uk/collaborate

RISE | Partners

West Sussex County Council – Strategic Partner The Council works with our partners and neighbours to help create the right conditions for business to thrive. We deliver an Economy Plan for West Sussex that sets out our priorities in driving and sustaining growth to support a prosperous county. Our involvement in RISE provided an opportunity to address strategic challenges for the county’s businesses and economy, including the need to drive up productivity and businessled research and development, and promote employment in higher value, knowledge intensive industries. During and following the pandemic there have been additional challenges facing our county’s businesses. RISE was able to address some of these challenges so keenly felt by many businesses, for example around recruitment, the emerging green economy and the rapid advancement in digital technology.

RISE | Partners

For the RISE project West Sussex County Council has been a Strategic Partner, helping to inform delivery, and representing the County Council and the District and Borough Councils of West Sussex, who each provided match funding to enable the project, and who have all supported the RISE project team with advice and proactive promotion to local businesses. The Council welcomes the benefits brought to hundreds of West Sussex businesses through increased awareness and understanding of innovation, and providing brokerage with expert support from the innovation specialists at the Universities. www.businesswestsussex.co.uk

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RISE Programmes The RISE team developed a suite of programmes that members were able to opt into when best suited them, and their business needs. Programmes began with introductory sessions on innovation, to sector or business specific masterclasses and workshops, and on to fully-funded R&D projects with input from subject specialists from the Universities of Brighton and Sussex. Members were able to access a minimum of 12 hours support, through 1-2-1’s, workshops or Access to Expertise projects.

“Doing things differently, being resilient for the future in a changing world, is about innovation.

It’s about new ideas that are valuable not just to the organisation, but to society.”

Dr Paul Levy, University of Brighton

“Maybe there’s someone at the university whose entire career has been devoted to understanding these problems. You can tap into it, get a solution, and get on with building your company.”

Dr David Eggleton, University of Sussex

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RISE | Programmes

Access to Expertise The Access to Expertise programme provides businesses with the opportunity to collaborate with academics from the universities of Brighton and Sussex, accessing up to around £7,500 market value of specialist research expertise to develop bespoke, specialist solutions for their business innovations.

Working closely with university experts, companies have been able to develop new or existing products or services tailored to the specific needs of their business, supporting them in their growth journey.

Springboard Media worked with Dr Paul Levy, from University of Brighton, on their innovation strategy.

“To have access to academics and their research has really matured us as a company, and given us a far better understanding of the market we operate in.”

EPM Consultancy worked with Dr David Eggleton, from the University of Sussex, on the development of an E-commerce platform for train training business on grant funding.

“We had an idea, a concept that we wanted to take to a new service – the academics have really helped us to turn the idea into a viable product. We are now selling online services through an ecommerce platform, which is amazing. It’s been an amazing journey. The team has been fantastic at helping us through that, from the initial idea, incremental innovation, through to the launch of the new service. We have a viable prototype platform now.”

Kathy Vuillaume, EPM Consultancy

David Powell, Springboard Media

JOIN RISE

INNOVATION ACTIVATED

SCOPE: EXPLORATION MEETING

RISE | Programmes

MATCH: UNIVERSITY EXPERTISE SOURCED

COLLABORATE: DELIVERED: IDEATION PROJECT MEETING COMPLETED

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Consort Frozen Foods worked with Dr Paul Levy, from the University of Brighton, and ran bespoke ideations sessions with the leadership and staff teams to develop new concepts to utilise resources, expand services and create efficiencies. This has led to a Knowledge Transfer Partnership application.

“Most of the time, we’re running like mad to just to deliver our normal business, so we don’t have time to look at innovation, to look at our efficiency, to look at best practices.

What these sorts of projects do is give you the collaboration, a bit like a mentor, and access to information, technologies and resources that you wouldn’t normally get.

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What we have done is use the RISE project to facilitate the opportunity for innovation. And we’re very excited about where we’re going!”

Simon Renton, Consort Frozen Foods Circular Inc worked with Dr Yan Wang and Dr Khuong Nyugen, from the University of Brighton, to investigate intelligent tools and systems to deliver scalable, realtime stock, logistics and sales solutions. This work has led onto a successful Innovate UK of £100,000 to continue work with the university School of Art and Media.

“We had an idea, a very woolly idea, about addressing the very analogue nature of clothing repair and how maybe tech could solve that. But because we’re not involved in software development, Machine Learning or anything like that, it was largely blue sky thinking. We had no idea if it was even possible. So having that link to RISE, and having links to the academics really helped, not only show what was possible, but opening doors to even more possibilities.

RISE | Programmes

It’s exciting because there’s way more potential than we thought there would be, even from what we thought was quite an ambitious project to start with!”

Oliver Pepper, Circular Inc Judges Choice Pet Food worked with Tim Laing, from the University of Brighton to Investigate the environmental impact of pet ownership and how this can be mitigated by pet food choice and manufacturing.

“I think when you’re in business you don’t really get the opportunity to stop and think about the depth of what you’re doing. It’s great to have an opportunity to sit down and thrash some of the challenges out with someone that’s unbiased and maybe can come up with some solutions.

This is all about being able to tap into expertise and expertise that we would absolutely never have had the opportunity to do so. We found out that we have amazing resources, just right on our doorstep. This is just the start.

RISE | Programmes

There are so many avenues that we can now take […] this has really helped us form a plan and opened new markets for us, not just in the UK but abroad, and I think it’s helped us really focus, laser focus, on where we want to be going in the future and how to get there.

It’s basically opened our minds. [This project has] given us confidence to talk openly about some of the environmental impacts that we face, and that we face as an industry, a pet industry. I’m not just talking about from ownership point of view but everybody that manufactures pet food or is part of the pet food industry has a responsibility to the environment.

It’s not just about what you receive from the university, it’s what you can give back too – and I think working with a local university really strengthens the sense of community.

And it really bridges the gap between business and education – and I think that’s really important, especially for the students.”

Chieko Chester, Judge’s Choice Petfood

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Vitality Hemp worked with Professor Alan Dalton and Keiran Clifford, from the University of Sussex, on development of a hemp-based acoustic panel for the building trade.

“As a small business, a micro business really, we’re fortunate that we’re so nimble, it’s a real strength, we have to play to our strengths but also kind of leveraging the expertise and experience of other individuals, institutions is really important.

The [Access to Expertise] project has certainly benefited Vitality Hemp because we’ve been able to quantify some of the research areas – some the figures that we were hoping to see have been validated – that in itself enables us to the next step forwards towards registration of Intellical Property, commercialising the product and adding further value to the specifications of the product.

It’s been a really good collaboration.”

Nathaniel Loxley, Vitality Hemp

artificial intelligence (AI) concepts advanced materials

production smart

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commercialisation

gamification

future tech market analysis prototype

environmental

investigation machine learning testing

systems

research

augmented reality (AR) impact

technology storytelling products insights carbon footprint interfaces

processes ideation strategy

RISE | Programmes

STEPS to Innovation What is innovation really all about?

Innovation has been a buzz word in the business world for decades yet in recent years, both academia and industry have researched and implemented new approaches to innovation that can contribute to sustainable and commercial success.

The STEPS to Innovation was a new programme developed by the RISE team and the University of Brighton’s School of Business and Law and provided an exciting, interactive and immersive series of Online workshops, which introduced the tools needed to become resilient and agile to develop innovation knowledge and skills to progress ideas to commercial value.

Over five stages, the participants climbed towards the realisation of the innovation idea in the commercial world, to firstly SCOPE the innovation idea (or ideas) then put those ideas to the TEST, EVALUATE before PILOT and SCALE up.

RISE | Programmes

“I cannot recommend the STEPS course highly enough as it is guaranteed to make you stop and think, not only about how you do what you do now, but what you will do in the future as your business continues to evolve you might not have otherwise considered – ten hours of your time that might just change the course of your business”.

Clive Wilson, Clive Wilson Marketing

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Horizons The Tourism, Hospitality, Adult Health and Social Care, Manufacturing and Supply chain sectors were among the hardest hit during the pandemic and and as a result of the challenges of Brexit.

+ Tourism and Hospitality programme - developed with Experience West Sussex and the Institute of Hospitality.

Guided by West Sussex County Council’s Economic Development Team, the RISE project developed three inspiring and sector thematic programmes of workshops and masterclasses targeted for these sectors, sharing the latest cuttingedge research and insights, and providing targeted support for organisations which reflected their specific challenges. The aim being to help them make the most from potential emerging opportunities.

+ Adult Health and Social Care programme - developed with the Kent, Sussex and Surrey Academic Health Science Network.

20 Academics from across both universities delivered a variety of engaging workshops, masterclasses and webinars in three targeted areas.

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+ Manufacturing and Supply Chain programme - developed with the local METALL forum.

Created to inspire confidence in new ideas and enabling businesses and social enterprises to take the next steps on their innovation journey, to develop agile and innovative approaches, enabling them to build resilience to challenges all this further supported through action learning sets.

RISE | Programmes

The Horizons programmes enabled RISE members to maximise the networking element of the programme, which led to many collaborations.

Donna Wignall, The Promotional People “The Horizons programme has got me to think outside of my own box and cross over with other businesses with ideas on collaborating. It’s been fantastic to network with others and stimulate ideas – see what others are doing in their businesses. It also helped to move into other ideas I had but didn’t know where to start – a fantastic business dating opportunity!”

Karen Baird, Cuckoo Camp

enhance business operations with new technologies future of manufacturing & supply chain equality diversity and inclusivity marketing strategy

co-creation

using instagram to reach new audiences

transformation chat GPT dataenhancing customer offer

enhancing customer experience

health inequalities

sustainability

artificial intelligence

Creating many in person events, including joint sessions for SMEs across tourism, health and wellbeing meant plenty of opportunities for networking creating fertile ground for new collaborations. In fact, the programme itself was agile, and true to the spirit of innovation as we also scoped, tested, piloted ideas with SMEs and academics to create relevant and engaging sessions that added value.

“I will continue to look at running my business with sustainability as its core.”

immersive technologies micro experience through collaboration understanding customer journey and utilising data

creative strategies for inclusive communication

RISE | Programmes

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RISE and Shine Club The RISE and Shine Club was created for the RISE community of active innovators – providing a space for a monthly infusion of idea sharing, problem solving, collaboration and best practice.

Each month, RISE members meet at venues across West Sussex for three hours to network and support each other with challenges and opportunities and take inspiration from our ‘Innovation in Action’ session which showcased businesses from across the region who have successfully innovated in these challenging times.

“Every session has introduced a new concept or idea for me and it’s impossible to underestimate the value of face-to-face sessions - where talking to others and understanding their challenges gives a new perspective of my own.

Overall, it is a sense of connectedness and joint endeavours that I found most helpful – I’m really grateful for everything RISE has offered.’’

Helen Cowper Own Your Own Self

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RISE RISE| Programmes | Programme

Impact Over 200

businesses supported

Over 2,300

500+

business reached through events

54

of hours of support received

academics taken part, from 13 schools

6

15

programmes developed

52

innovation audits provided

63

new jobs created*

40

new products or services supported*

3

workshops/ masterclasses delivered

business innovation workshops run for network partners

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innovation clinics ran in partnership with Business and IP Centres (BIPC), in Worthing, Horsham and Crawley, supporting 28 West Sussex-based businesses

R&D collaborative projects

*As per summative assessments results 2023

RISE | Impact

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Reflection I am proud of the RISE team and the remarkable platform we have built to foster innovation and collaboration amongst local businesses. Our tailored programmes, workshops, masterclasses and networking events have created a nurturing environment for businesses in the West Sussex region.

RISE has been a transformative endeavour, empowering individuals, catalysing innovation, and creating positive change.

As Head of Project, I am grateful for this opportunity and excited to continue our journey towards a future of limitless innovation.

Lorraine Bell, Head of Project

Partnerships and collaboration have been at the heart of RISE. Through pooling resources, sharing knowledge, and leveraging diverse expertise, we have supported over 200 businesses in tackling complex challenges more efficiently.

As you have seen, from the impactful testimonials, RISE has not only bridged the gap between academia and business, but it has also made a fundamental difference to economic wellbeing of our participating businesses. None of this could have been achieved without the support of our project team who deserve so much credit for delivering the project so successfully. On behalf of everyone, thank you for all your hard work.

Joanna Havers, University of Brighton

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RISE | Reflection

As Project Lead at the University of Sussex, I have valued the opportunity RISE has presented to meet a diverse range of local businesses and understand more about the innovation challenges they face. Putting companies in touch with knowledge and expertise to help address these has been really rewarding.

It can be difficult to know where to start when faced with working with a large University. RISE provided that first step to begin the conversation with business and deliver some exciting tangible results with RISE members. We look forward to collaborating further with these partners to help support their growth, reach new markets and customers harnessing innovation and shared knowledge to achieve this.

Working with RISE strategic partners West Sussex County Council helped us to understand more about the specific sector challenges across our region that will inform our ongoing service offer and collaboration approach.

It has been enjoyable to work more closely with neighbours University of Brighton. We have gained a greater understanding of individual areas of strength and capability that is well placed to meet the needs of the local business community we both serve.

RISE has been the start of something that I look forward to evolving.

Kate Thorpe, University of Sussex

RISE | Reflection

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RISE Members EPM Consultancy Digisimple Natrie Ltd Well R Group Secret Projects CL8 Water Services Connick Tree Care O3E Two Twenty 2 Colonnade House Overpass Studio Big Wave TV Our Hope Hive Your Sales Partners Nettl inc Face Media Group Network Xpress Limited Creative Stack Ltd - Inc Lambda Vision Tech FermionX Ltd Shared Aim Ltd Inspire-You Eco Product Technology Ltd Vitality Hemp Ltd Seaside Creative Ltd Circular Inc Ltd Europe Project Management Ltd (EPM) Saviour Skin Ltd Africa Power Ltd Preloved Designers Fairway Cost Ltd IMA International Ltd Aquapax Jackfruit Marketing Crowdfund-360 Medisort Gepaul Ltd Powered by Vision Genius Brighton Innovative Partners Simply Keys

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Hepworth Brewery Passiv Pod Eye Puppetry Media Getting Kids Social Again CIC Dr Tony Cash & Associates The Sensory Stylist R G Hewitt Sussex Writers Retreats Flourish Cakes and Treats Dr Claire Hepworth The Learning & Development Company Smarter Uniforms C. I. C. Go Plan B Judges Choice Pet Food Ltd Springboard Media Creative Reach Ltd Ugly Duck Design and Animation Ltd FreemanBreckon It’s Pzazz Hunterwood Interiors Ltd Unusual Technologies Ltd Brighton Energy Coop London Clare The Spotted Cow Spark Bubble Seagreens Limited SkinGenius Skincare Ltd Sirvez Limited Newboldology Ltd Chequers Bright Spark Tutors Inflatable Boat Fishing Ishango Catyscreations Swimble Stick La La Tigers Shoreham Osteopathy Centre The Big Lemon CIC Dab Hands Just Cuts Ltd Eco Earth Store Ltd RISE | Rise Members

Huluki Sussex Stays / Huluki Property Marketing Board & Beast Life Ladder Ltd Arke Agency Ltd Huskky Solar Ltd Art Styles Academy Nicholas Electrical Ltd Consort Frozen Foods Eluxevo At the Coach House School Medi Safe Global OHS WOOL SHrED Posture People Ltd Wobble Cycle Brighton Ltd Honey Lansdowne Therapy Aldingbourne Country Centre The Promantid EducatAr Fluid Composites C S Holiday Lets Ascender Design Ltd Beautiful Fung & Bedford Hardball Games Ltd Play Town Tangmere Military Aviation Museum South by West Arundel Historic Tours Oyster Diving Cuckoo Camp Attic Sound Ltd Lorama Foods Ltd Phoenix 4 Training LLP Unda Hot Water Bottles Ltd Prophecy Marketing Woodpecker Camping & Piglets Holiday Lets Feel Good Films

RISE | Rise Members

Tottington Manor Out of Bounds Ltd The Beach Company Fishbourne Roman Palace TAC Access Ltd The Bias Cut Ltd The Feminist Bookshop Ltd Device Doctors Huxleys Birds of Prey Centre & Gardens Pod Wellness Ltd The Float Spa Starfish People HR Chantry Farm Sussex MS Centre Avisford Park Hotel Thriiver Ltd Worthing Gin Ltd Spike Insight Fire, Salt and Sea Ltd Juniper Bloom Social Media Woodfire E Jeavans Associates Ltd Weald and Downland Museum Conduit Associates (Sheena Thompson Fluid Adventures Ltd CULTUR3D Ltd eMotion Micromobility Ltd Mulberry Marine Experiences Ltd enDesigns Aviatrix Fab my Life (Sensory Interior Design SplashRobe Clive Wilson Marketing Pende Aesthetics DevAssist Ltd The Ceramic Stove Company Lucy Ciaramella Coaching Mary How Trust Longwood Business Support Services Ltd

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Avtura Ltd Love to Date U Ltd SIPL Solutions Charlotte Anderson Blendavenda Smoothie Bikes Enterprise Exchange Horsham Applied Minds Research Unit Flixels Sailboat Project Blackbird Productions Cybility Consulting Ltd Espresso Solutions Opozo Ltd Kikka Digga UPCY Ltd Drewgard Ltd Acopia Group Ltd Mycarematters 2020 CIC Care For Them Care Ltd Andromeda Talent Edgcumbes Tea & Coffee Ltd Kuuceramics Spliced Studios Woodhouse Butchery South East Ltd Skillsmart Echo Orthopaedics Thumbs Up World Ltd Roaring Berry Tomia Swim Independent Lives The Promotional People Gemma North Consulting The Sam French Group EMC Ltd Cheese Tours Dementia Support Sage House Chichester Marine Training Airhost for You Responsible Travel Chichester Canal Trading Ltd 20

Portal Devices Ltd Hexagon Hive Urban Hazelnut NDA Fitness Ashes to Blooms OYOS (Own Your Own Self The Corner House Worthing Serendipity by the Sea Slake Spirits Marmalade MTB Cocoa Loco Ltd Rushall Partnership Made to Mend Ltd (Cultiva Kingdom) Brighton Regency Routemaster Bosham B&B Diversity and Ability Revision.ai Really Regenerative CIC Helen’s Real Food Duncan Lethbridge Green Campus Visit Arundel Ltd Little Birds Forest Nurseries Ltd Lesley Burdett Photography Bloom and Grow Massage Therapy R.Iron Tech Ltd Caremark Spark & Bell Ltd Blue Billboard Ltd Together Co East Beach Cafe The Nadarra Process Planterra Gardens NP Massage Therapies FayJay Holistic Healing Therapy Ltd Recycle to Trade Ltd Bubblelife Supra Design ABCOM IT Solutions RISE | Rise Members

Butters and Herbs Try Physiotherapy Hanatek Services Ltd Household Automation Ltd Custom Pharmaceuticals ALPIC22 The Letting Partnership The Flexitarian Fotoly Future Fashion Project The Little Play Village Lysandrou Ltd SI Protech Ltd Glazy Jacob’s Bagels Heal With Helen SmoothEdge Travel Counsellors The Sussex Mum Blossom Floral Couture Ltd Mono Motorcycles ReferAll Limited Creative Hearth H13 Digital Ltd Verri Media LLtd Sussex Data Solutions Ltd Little Jasmine Therapies Ltd Cooden Tax Consulting Ltd Tutor Room Ltd Grow-able Pendulum Training Ltd Grab it and Go Sophie Ward Photography Jennifer Spice tutoring The Scar Wand Watch This Sp_ce Bold and Break Mac PA Services Rose Bungener Advisory Workplace Legal Solutions RISE | Rise Members

Seascape Blue The Oneness Coach Stella Rose Pig’s Ear Love Art Studios Tea and Grazing Ltd EcoMata Ltd Interplanetary Enterprises Ltd Test Chemistry South Coast Orthopaedics Ltd Jane Lee Interiors Graded Films Ltd My Networking Club Tilney Energy Ltd Sustainabuild Sussex Vetflourish Sling Studio Ltd Rewilding Us Nature Power Trading Ltd Wild Heart Hill Vezza Ltd Heads Up Navigation Glyn Davies Consulting Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre Cave Active Adventures Healing Tree Hypnotherapy Luxury Lawns Ltd Status Education CIC New Age Medical Hatch Ideas World Wide Ltd Berkeley Associates

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Thanks We want to thank all those involved RISE, the SMEs and researchers who participated in the programmes, and the network and economic partners that supported the project. A final thanks goes to the European Regional Development Fund and the West Sussex County Council District and Borough Councils for their funding, without which the RISE project would not have been possible.

Funders European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC, previously the Ministry of Housing of Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)) West Sussex County Council Adur and Worthing Councils Arun District Council Chichester District Council Crawley Borough Council Horsham District Council Mid Sussex District Council University of Brighton University of Sussex Horizon programme partners Experience West Sussex Partnership Institute of Hospitality Kent Surrey Sussex Academic Health Science Network (KSSAHSN) METALL Fourm Event partners Burgess Hill Business Park Association Gatwick Diamond Business Association Haywards Heath Business Association Worthing and Adur Chamber of Commerce

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West Sussex County Council Kathryn Hampson, Economic Development Officer University of Brighton Joanna Havers, Associate Director, Knowledge Exchange Lorraine Bell, Head of Project Mark Hadley, Innovation Advisor Zoe Webb, Innovation Advisor Gavin Gunter, Head of Award Services Laurie Johncox, RISE Project Manager Ciara Gray, Senior Marketing and Communications Officer Ronit Rose, Associate Director, Contracts and IP Susannah Davidson, Knowledge Exchange Manager Andrew Sirs-Davis, Knowledge Exchange Manager Stuart Hedley, Knowledge Exchange Manager Jennifer Wells, Knowledge Exchange Manager Dr Marco Picco, Innovation Lead Dougal Fleming, Innovation Advisor Christopher Matthews School of Applied Sciences Dr Dipak Sarker Dr Kevin Wyche Professor Matteo Santin Dr Nicolas Stewart Professor Rameen Shakur Wendy Macfarlane Alex Slater Dr Ryan Woodard Balbina Acar (student

RISE | Thanks

School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering Dr Yan Wang Dr Khuong An Nguyen Dr Simon Walters Dr Karina Rodriguez Echavarria School of Art and Media Dr Jules Findley Anna Edmonds Dr Jayne Lloyd Joanna Offer Josh Newman Emma Collins School of Business and Law Dr Catherine Kelly Dr Adam Jones Dr Paul Levy Asher Rospigliosi Timothy Laing Steve Reeve Dr Kamila Walters Liz Hawkins Rageshree Sinha Professor Marina Novelli School of Humanities and Social Sciences Dr Shanu Sadhwani Dr David Harley

University of Sussex Kate Thorpe, Head of Business Partnerships Dr Sue Baxter, Director Innovation and Business Partnerships Nile Amos, Business Partnerships Manager Nick Bull, Business Partnerships Manager Anne-Fay Townsend, Business Partnerships Manager Elisa Fortunato, Knowledge Exchange Manager Marcus Atkinson, External Engagement Manager Jo McKinney-Green, Consultancy Services Manager Lorna Hards, Senior Research Culture Consultant Carrie Prew, Editor Kevin Brady, Senior Technical Specialist Business School Associate Professor Maria Holgado Granados Professor Debbie Keeling Dr Makafui Kwame Kumodzie-Dussey Josh Newman - Science Policy Research Unit Dr Aniekan Essien - Science Policy Research Unit Dr Ralitsa Hetiva - Science Policy Research Unit Dr David Eggleton - Science Policy Research Unit School of Engineering and Informatics Dr Giovanni Contreras Garcia Dr Alexandre Rodrigues Dr Julie Weeks Dr Hsi-Ming Ho Luca Giacomoni Ahmed Younes

School of Sport and Health Sciences Professor Kathleen Galvin Lisa Hodgson Catherine Aicken Dr Theo Fotis Catherine Aicken

School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences Professor Alan Dalton Keiran Clifford (student

Brighton and Sussex Medical School Dr Tom Grice-Jackson

School of Psychology Professor Nicola Yuill Dr Samantha Holt

RISE | Thanks

School of Media, Arts and Humanities Dr Danny Bright

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The RISE programme received up to £603,514 of funding from the European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 in England. Grant Reference: 04R21P04430 The European Regional Development Fund aims to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the European Union by correcting imbalances between its regions and focuses on a number of thematic priority areas. Two of these areas are: + Innovation and research + Support for small and medium-sized enterprises ERDF funding will cease in the UK by the end of 2023. ERDF is supported by and managed in the UK by the Ministry of Housing of Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) The West Sussex Councils also provided partnership funding to support the delivery of RISE, and through this, to provide help and support to SMEs in West Sussex.

The University of Brighton and the University of Sussex also provided match funding for the RISE project.