Lancaster University wins prestigious Small Business Charter Award

Lancaster University is celebrating after attaining the Small Business Charter Gold Award – one of only three - in recognition of the role it has played in helping to kick-start British enterprise.

Lancaster, through its highly ranked Management School, is a trailblazer member of The Small Business Charter Award scheme which has already helped 4,700 students to find work placements in Britain’s exciting micro-business and start-up sector.

Small Business Charter business schools have directly helped more than 8,000 small businesses – working with them through workshops, mentoring and other business support. More than 800 new businesses have already been started as a result of Small Business Charter schools.

By receiving the award, the ugoniversity has demonstrated exceptional dedication to helping improve links with and support the small business community in the local area.

The publication of Sir Andrew Witty’s report in 2013 ‘Encouraging a British Invention Revolution’ identified Lancaster as a top university in terms of the number of interactions with SMEs. An external review of Lancaster’s ERDF projects revealed Lancaster boosted the economy by £15.8 for each pound received – almost double the national average of £8.7.

Lancaster’s ten-month leadership and management development intervention for SME owner-managers, LEAD, has supported more than 3,000 small-and-medium sized enterprise (SME) owners, creating over 10,000 jobs. In an independent evaluation, participants reported post- LEAD (per annum) turnover growth rates of 13.8 per cent, and employment growth of 16.8 per cent.

London Creative and Digital Fusion is a tailored programme of interactive and in-depth support for London-based SMEs in the digital and creative sectors. More than 1,050 companies have engaged with London Fusion project so far, securing 7270 hours of business support to help innovate and grow.

Lancaster is working hard to exploit its global reach and international contacts for the benefit of UK SMEs through projects like the Lancaster China Catalyst project. This initiative aims to develop collaborative research projects between UK and Chinese companies fostering innovation in small businesses to develop new products and services for export. This project is forecast to create 240 jobs within UK SMEs and boost the UK economy by £40 million.

Lancaster has also led the launch of a network of regional growth hubs as part of a £32m government programme designed to promote economic prosperity in city areas across England.

The award brings significant benefits – it means that Lancaster University will have the ability to play an active role in schemes such as Growth Vouchers, Growth Accelerators and Start-Up Loans provided by the government – meaning they can directly invest in new start-ups and entrepreneurs. The Small Business Charter Award ceremony took place at 10 Downing Street. The awards were presented by Lord Young, an adviser to the Prime Minister on small business and enterprise and Sir Peter Bonfield, chair of The Small Business Charter Management Board and former chairman of BT.