UNIVERSITIES ESTABLISH MIDLANDS MINDFORGE TO INVEST IN REGION’S SPIN-OUTS AND START-UPS

The University of Warwick has joined forces with seven other research-intensive Midlands universities to form an investment company for early-stage technology businesses.

Midlands Mindforge plans to raise up to £250 million from institutional investors, strategic corporate partners and other qualifying individuals.

The Midlands Innovation partnership also involves the Universities of Birmingham, Cranfield, Keele Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Aston.

Together, they will aim to support fledgling businesses in sectors such as clean technology, AI and computational science, life sciences and health tech.

Professor Trevor McMillan OBE, Chair of the Midlands Innovation Board and Vice-Chancellor of Keele University, said:

“We have one of the largest research communities in the UK, with more than 14,500 academics who have a strong track record collaborating on innovative research ideas that turn spin-outs into successful businesses.

“This new company creates an ecosystem to better support our research entrepreneurs and encourage innovation. By cultivating an environment where post-graduate students and researchers with commercial ideas can benefit from early access to investment, we can create opportunities for our people, place, and partnership to flourish.

“Midlands Mindforge will allow our universities to scale up their research and enterprise activity. It is a catalyst for building ground-breaking businesses that help to boost economic growth, create highly skilled jobs, and support the UK’s bid to be a global science and technology superpower.”

Compared with other UK university groupings, Midlands Innovation shares the most post-graduate students, the highest levels of annual income, and the most research disclosures and patents generated per unit of research spend in the last three years.

City Council signs landmark deal to bring Hotel Indigo to Gloucester

HSBC finance set to drive sustainable growth at Toddle Born Wild

Toddle Born Wild, a baby skincare brand which last year secured £60,000 from two of the BBC’s Dragons, Deborah Meaden and Steven Bartlett on Dragon’s Den, has landed a finance package of £26,000 from HSBC.

The funding from HSBC UK’s Green SME fund has been used to develop more sustainable packaging with assistance from sustainable plastic research from the University of Wrexham.

Toddle Born Wild was founded by former

Hemp know-how arrives at Hartpury Tech Box Park

Ecoversity UK, a Community Interest Company developing the industrial hemp sector, has joined the Hartpury Tech Box Park to support local farmers in exploring the many uses of hemp.

Lydney-based Ecoversity UK Chairman Marcus Morley-Jones, said: “Hemp is a multifunctional premium cash crop, so versatility is a word you’ll hear a lot about growing this plant. What this means for the farmer is that ample amounts of food, fuel and fibre can be harvested in a single rotation – which also functions as a powerful carbon sink and natural soil conditioner.

“We’re seeing the plant reappear increasingly more in our diets, clothing and even in our construction materials. However, most businesses have no option but to import such products as UK farmers struggle to source a viable and scalable processing solution to meet demand. Here is where putting resources into education can help de-risk the supply and value chain, to enable local farmers and businesses to successfully test the crop as part of a local circular economic system.”

RAF o cer Hannah Saunders after she struggled to find suitable products to protect her child's skin from outdoor weather.

Thanks to the expertise of Deborah and Steven, the business expanded into the USA, where it sold out in six weeks. The HSBC funding will also help the business expand through new job creation, sourcing materials from UK suppliers and moving into new headquarters in Staunton, Gloucestershire.

Gloucester City Council has signed a deal with IHG Hotels & Resorts for a 131-bedroom Hotel Indigo at The Forum development in the city centre.

The deal sees the city welcome its first international upscale hotel brand as an anchor occupier in the £107 million project, which is being developed by the council in partnership with Reef Group.

The Forum is part of an ambitious programme of regeneration under way in the city centre and a central part of the council’s King’s Quarter regeneration, which will deliver two acres of pedestrianised public space.

This includes the £5 million transformation of King’s Square, which was o cially launched in April 2022.

The Hotel Indigo brand, part of IHG Hotels & Resorts, has hotels in cities all over the world including London, Berlin, New York, Hong Kong and now Gloucester.