Do you know your accelerators from your incubators? Even heard of a (business) catapult? Attended a hackathon? The world of intensive business support can be a little tricky to navigate, and to make it more difficult, some organisations mean one term when then mean something else. Here is our quick guide to some of the types of support out there. This week we are looking at Catapults

 

Catapults are a relatively new programme, developed by Innovate UK (the artist formerly known as the Technology Strategy Board). They have been developed specifically to support ideas developed in an academic context to spin off and create successful small businesses. At the moment there are 7 Catapult Programmes:

• The Cell Therapy Catapult (https://ct.catapult.org.uk/) in London
• High Value Manufacturing Catapults (https://hvm.catapult.org.uk/) across multiple sites
• The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (https://ore.catapult.org.uk/) in Glasgow and Blyth
• The Satellite Applications Catapult (https://sa.catapult.org.uk/) in Harwell
• The Connected Digital Economy Catapult (https://cde.catapult.org.uk/) in London
• The Transport Systems Catapult (https://ts.catapult.org.uk/) in Milton Keynes
• The Future Cities Catapult (https://futurecities.catapult.org.uk/) in London

 

And there’ll be 2 more Catapults coming soon – The Precision Medicine Catapult and the Energy Systems catapult.

Because these programmes have a very specific remit the types of intervention they can do is based on what the perceived barriers are for academically-originated businesses. For example, the Catapult programme is going to open a manufacturing plant to allow businesses which produce medicines to manufacture on a small scale- something which has not previously been easy to do.

If you think this might be the programme for you, the good news is that these are all run and funded by the same organisation, so all the information is stored in one place. Check out www.catapult.org.uk.

 

Blog by Isla…