Pictured above: The new Enterprise Hub tenants
(l-r) Tina Bilan (PlayChimp), Abdulkarim Mayere (Sundeve),
Greg Simpson (Press For Attention PR), Nick Barker (Aware
Monitoring) Paul Bilan (PlayChimp)
The University of Nottingham Innovation Park (UNIP) continues to
attract tenants of all sizes as it opens the doors of its new
Enterprise Hub in the Sir Colin Campbell Building.
The first businesses in the Enterprise Hub are tour operator
Magnetic North Travel, public relations agency Press For Attention
PR, website monitoring firm Aware Monitoring, musicians' website
PlayChimp and Sundeve, an innovation in the renewable energy
market.
Whilst the other tenants are all established businesses, Sundeve
is the idea of Abdulkarim Mayere, a PhD student in the Department
of Architecture and The Built Environment at the University of
Nottingham.
Abdulkarim recently won the coveted Student Venture Challenge
2010, an annual business plan competition run by the Nottingham
University Business School's Institute for Enterprise and
Innovation (UNIEI) with support from the University's Centre for
Career Development. He impressed the judges with his business plan
and pitch for a unique solar collector for use as a heater in
industrial processes. It has a much higher efficiency than current
alternatives.
Marketed under the name Sundeve, the innovation would have the
potential to make this renewable source of energy far more cost
effective than before which could potentially save money and reduce
carbon dioxide emissions from industrial processes overall.
Abdulkarim won £1,500, three hours of legal advice courtesy
of Browne Jacobson and 12 months of rent-free accommodation in the
Enterprise Hub.
Pictured above: Jo Derbyshire
Speaking about the new Enterprise Hub, Jo Derbyshire, Operations
Manager at UNIP said;
"UNIP is for businesses of all shapes and sizes, with
multinationals and start ups already represented here and many more
scheduled to join us in the coming months. The Enterprise Hub is
designed to give smaller businesses a great start in life and
offers an affordable and flexible working environment to grow in.
We are creating a vibrant community here within the Enterprise Hub
and already seeing cross-selling and partnerships flourishing
within the building and the wider site in general."
Having recently acquired the 2.9 acre Dairy Crest sites, the
award winning University of Nottingham Innovation Park now stands
at 15 acres of key development land, and represents a major
strategic development for The University of Nottingham. The
Innovation Park, which opened its doors in 2008, provides first
rate business accommodation for businesses that are determined to
innovate and would like to work closely with university
researchers.