Sustainable Innovation

About Sustainable Innovation

Sustainable Innovation (SI) is an ambitious initiative to connect small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with LSBU academics and develop new clean tech products and services. SI is made up of two projects, Access to Innovation (A2i), and Low Carbon London (LCLDN), which combine offer over £4million of funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), to tackle barriers to innovation by providing bespoke research and development support.

The challenge

Many start-ups and small businesses lack the funding or access to facilities and resources necessary to develop their innovative ideas to MVP. LSBU academics have the expertise and experience to support the design, development, and testing of these new products and services. Here, we also have the access to the equipment, software, and facilities necessary to do so. What the academics often do not have is access to is a group of SMEs with low carbon innovations in development.

Sustainable Innovation provides businesses with the opportunity to access the expertise and resources required to test and validate their innovation, whilst giving academics a real life application for their research.

The project

To date, Sustainable Innovation has supported over 100 businesses in London.

Business skills support: Businesses can attend our workshops and boot camps to help develop their business skills. These workshops include topics such as Market Research, Financial Modelling, and Business Model Canvas. Funding & Investment boot camps often provide the opportunity to pitch to potential investors.

Research collaborations: This is where a business is connected with an academic, to support the design, build, and testing of products, processes, and services. This can be anything from a design review and desk research, to prototyping and product launch.

R&D subsidies: For advanced SMEs, we offer 40% subsidies for a new hire in a research and development role, allowing them to expand their in house capacity and expertise, to accelerate their product development journey.

Project Aims

• Develop sustainable solutions to reduce climate change
• Create jobs in the low carbon sector in London and beyond
• Deliver innovative low carbon research
• Encourage low carbon innovation and entrepreneurship
• Create a network of thriving businesses
• Provide businesses with introductions to additional funding and opportunities