A new Accelerator run by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) is offering free support to help SMEs rapidly innovate during the COVID-19 crisis.
SMEs based in the Greater Cambridgeshire and Greater Peterborough area will be eligible for support to enable them to find new innovative ways to operate, rewire supply chains, and ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable are met.
Support will be delivered through a combination of one-to-one business support, capacity building and mentoring, as well as convening partnerships, and drawing on the collective knowledge of CISL’s global network to support small businesses via webinars tailored to local business needs.
Eithne George, Programme Director for the CISL Accelerator said:
“The challenges businesses are suddenly having to adapt to are varied and complex. Many small businesses have been forced to rethink their entire business model if they are to keep operating at all, whilst others, particularly in the food retail sector have been overwhelmed with a sudden surge in demand for services.
“Local businesses are recognising the need for greater interdependence if they are to survive and new opportunities will open up in the future for those most able to respond creatively. Our programmes are aimed at leveraging the knowledge and expertise of our global business network to support local businesses with this process.”
The effects of the present health emergency are creating major challenges for small businesses and disruption to supply chains. The business support programme will have two themes, the first aimed at established businesses and the second at new innovators and entrepreneurs:
Business resilience for existing businesses: how small businesses can adapt during the crisis and to recover rapidly in its wake. It will explore approaches that enable the business to be more robust, developing its ability to cope with future shocks from pandemics and other forms of business interruption, such as the floods experienced in other parts the UK, only weeks before this.
Innovation Call: A cross-sector call for new and innovative business ideas in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, which will address the multiple issues that have so far arisen from the crisis. CISL will offer an online Accelerator package over eight weeks to assist in the development of ideas, that could range from health tech, to ed-tech, supply chain and distribution innovations, as well as social innovations that enable businesses, communities and our public services respond better to future crises.
Dame Polly Courtice, Director of CISL said:
“The disruption we are currently experiencing highlights more than ever how volatile and fragile traditional business models, supply chains and economic systems are to sudden shocks. We hope that by mobilising CISL’s global network of leaders and sustainability practitioners we can offer the tools, knowledge and support to help small businesses come up with the rapid solutions needed”.
The CISL Accelerator, which is part funded by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund, launched in November 2019 to help SMEs, start ups and entrepreneurs accelerate innovative solutions to sustainability challenges, and build a new wave of adaptive, responsive and future-fit business.