Business Support Services at St John's

St John’s Innovation Centre’s role as an incubator is in assisting the formation and growth of early stage knowledge based businesses by providing space (easy in and easy out leases) and in-house management support and advice for  companies. The Centre also works in partnership with EEDA and the Greater Cambridge Partnership in assisting high-growth potential businesses not resident on site.

• Inspiration for Growth Programme (Cambridgeshire companies). For Further details see  http://www.stjohns.co.uk/services/cambridge-high-growth-companies/ 
• Understanding Finance for Business (Eastern region companies looking to raise over £10k in funds) For further details see http://www.stjohns.co.uk/events/2010/2/understanding-finance-business-workshop-wyboston-l/ 

Hot Desking facilities are provided for clients who may wish to use a desk and office space for a short period of time, but don't  need to rent office space on a long term basis.

Chaplaincy to People at Work

Chaplaincy to People at Work Cambridgeshire(CPW) is an independent registered charity with a christian basis.It seeks to work in any multi-faith workplace setting offering impartial support and counselling and always respecting an organisation's diversity policy.

 Travel for Work Partnership

Employees based at St John's Innovation Park, are automatic members of the Travel for Work Partnership.

Not only does this mean access to services such as assistance for employers in creating a Travel Plan, but also all commuters get special discount on bicycles, bicycle accessories and train tickets. For further details see http://www.stjohns.co.uk/services/travel-work-partnership/  

Background

As an Innovation Centre specifically we aim to help develop, retain and attract world class businesses where we have a comparative advantage. Our focus is, therefore, on scientific and knowledge based businesses particularly software, ICT, instrumentation and technical consultancy.  We also assist biotechnology and medical instrumentation businesses.

Cambridge is one of the top four regions in Europe in terms of total institutional investment into innovative start-ups, and is number one in Europe in terms of investment per capita. Spin-outs from the University of Cambridge have received more venture capital investment than any other UK university. Numerous significant scientific discoveries and inventions have been made at the University of Cambridge. This is reflected in the fact that the University is ranked as one of the top four universities world-wide. The Cambridge Technopole is one of a handful of regions in Europe to be consistently ranked by the European Commission as ‘excellent for its support of innovative start-ups’. University of Cambridge people and technology have been at the heart of over 300 new high-tech ventures in the past 10 years, many of which now lead their industry sectors.

Currently we house 60 businesses in the Centre and have a further 270 virtual tenants who use our Star Service ‘rent an address’ facilities. We advise a further 600 earlier stage or embryonic businesses per annum.

The Cambridge support infrastructure is sophisticated in UK and European terms with the existence of networking organisations such as (Cambridge Network and ERBI) business angel groups and professional firms (Accountants, Solicitors and Patent Agents) all of whom have specialist expertise in assisting embryonic and early stage knowledge based businesses, We can provide an entre to this infrastructure as appropriate.