LOCAL businesses should ‘make use of the support while they can’, said the mayor of Launceston at the official opening of a pop-up ‘Innovation Centre’, which will be based on Church Street in Launceston for the next three months.

Mayor Margaret Young cut the ribbon on Thursday morning, January 11, to officially open the ‘Acceleration Through Innovation’ (ATI) pop-up innovation centre, which will seek to support local businesses and provide a dedicated space for people to use to develop their businesses and grow their potential.

These centres will be popping up across Cornwall until March 2020. The first centre was opened in Bodmin and the team has now set up shop in the former adult learning centre on Church Street. The £3-million project is being led by Plymouth University on behalf of the Cornwall Innovation Centre and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Following the official ribbon cutting a presentation was given, which explained in more detail what ATI can offer local businesses and individuals.

Jo Hancock, ATI project manager, gave a brief overview of the pop-up centre project. She said: “These centres are part of a three year, three-million pound ERDF funded project, led by the Plymouth University on behalf of the Cornwall Innovation Centre.

“The project aims to support business innovation in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and works with the SME [small or medium-sized enterprise] community, which can be a business with anything from one employee up to 249 employees.

“There is a misconception that innovation is about invention. That isn’t what these centres are about. Our advisor will help businesses with a wide array of things, whether you’re just starting out, giving things a fresh new look or you want to remodel an existing concept — we can help guide that process along with support when it comes to filling out EU funding forms, which can often be tricky.”

She said the pop-up centres will be in situ for three months at a time and Launceston is only the second stop on their nine-area tour of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The centre will provide a hub for local businesses; whether they need an event space, a meeting area or a one-to-one meeting with one of the centre’s dedicated business advisors.

Jo said: “Our business advisors, who have all been innovation and knowledge exchange (IKE) trained in London, will be on-site throughout the three months we are here and we will also be providing workshops for businesses either here or over at Jericho’s. There will be an opportunity for businesses to use this space for networking, there will be hotdesks available with internet access and we can provide private rooms for meetings as well.”

The centre will not only offer a versatile space for businesses to use but a wide range of events will be held by the team, including innovations clubs and workshops. The ‘Innovation Clubs’ give people an opportunity to share knowledge and network. A local speaker will attend these clubs to share their innovation journey.

The ‘Innovation Workshops’ are two to three hour high-value sessions, which are designed to identify the needs of local businesses.

On the day Cllr Young told the Post she was delighted to open the site. She said it was ‘great’ to see the former shop full of people once again. She said she remembered a time when her father had worked as a van driver for Messrs Harold and Roy Barriball, who ran the store as a grocery shop. She said: “For a start it is great to see a large empty shop full. The team is full of really sound ideas that I think will help the community and local businesses but people must make use of the support while they can.

“We must advertise this resource the right way because I think this centre can be nothing but useful. It has the potential to be used as a conference space, meeting area and they will even offer hotdesks and advice.”

Also keen to see the pop-up innovation centre thrive was leader of Cornwall Council Adam Paynter, Liberal Democrat Ward member for Launceston North and North Petherwin. He said the project was ‘potentially very exciting for Launceston and the area’ as he hoped one day a permanent innovation centre could be sited near the town. He said: “About 12 months ago I got Cornwall Council to look at the potential for a full time innovation centre being sited somewhere on the Newport Industrial Estate; like the three in Cornwall we already have — Truro, Pool and Penryn.

“I felt like the east of the county was really missing out on having access to a project which gives businesses space for growth.”

Although his initial plan to provide Launceston with an innovation centre didn’t work out, Cllr Paynter said he is still optimistic that one could come to the town, providing the support for this pop-up centre is proven.

He said: “We had looked at Newport as an area but unfortunately that didn’t happen. But it is great to get a pop-up here to gauge the popularity of the service and to see if there are businesses in the town that would benefit from a space like this.

“It is really about supply and demand. This is a pop-up that we can use to look at the demand for these services and to see what we can be doing to help local business.

“If it’s proven that the people of Launceston need this resource and we collect enough data to support this then we can start looking again at doing something bigger and better.”

The Launceston centre will be at the public’s disposal until the end of March.

The next pop-up venue will be in Bude.

The next networking opportunity will be the ATI’s ‘Innovation Breakfast Club’, which is being held in partnership with the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce at Jericho’s on Tuesday, January 30. The guest speaker will be Phil Ugalde, chairman of Proper Cornish.

For more information about ATI and all upcoming events being held at the Launceston centre visit ATI’s new website aticornwallinnovation.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @ATI_Cornwall