Green Gown Awards 2018 - University of Brighton - Highly Commended

The University of Brighton’s Green Growth Platform is a thriving network of 1,000 green businesses located across South East England. It supports low carbon business growth, innovation and job creation via business support, university-business R&D collaborations, skills services such as student placements and internships, and an events programme consisting of networking and professional development opportunities.

Over its first 4 years the Platform has intensively supported 300+ companies, created 250+ jobs, delivered 100+ university-business R&D projects valued at over £1.7m and placed 100+ graduate interns and student placements.

The success of the regional network has led to a new award from the highly competitive Research England Connecting Capability Fund for the delivery of Clean Growth UK, a £3.5m national business-innovation network, which links the Green Growth Platform to two other vibrant green business networks based at the universities of Portsmouth and Liverpool John Moores.

Top 3 learnings:

1. In order to engage businesses with the university, it is important to understand their needs and shape services that meet them.

2. The membership network model creates an enduring, trust-based relationship between businesses and the university, via excellent network services and connections, leading to ongoing opportunities.

3. There can be real benefits in terms of student experience and graduate employability of universities working with their local SME community.