Business Support Services

Our portfolio of business support services is designed to assist technology based business start-ups and small and medium sized businesses, maximise their potential for growth. Our services cover access to capital, technical marketing, support for solving technical and business process problems using students and mediated networking with other companies to solve problems and to create new business opportunities.

These services are branded and delivered as follows:



This fund will provide grants of upto 30k to SME's or potential SME'S across the West Midlands.

For more information please click here

Ignite is the new start-up and early stage business development programme of business support combining all our experience from supporting hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners. For more information on how to get established, boost profitability and build substantial long-term value in your company, click on the Ignite logo now.

Access to Finance - We help you secure the capital from Business Angels, Venture Capital funds, banks and other sources that you need to develop your business. £10 million secured to date locally with our partners: Click on the Minerva logo now.

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Techmark - Techmark is a small, flexible, multilingual team of highly experienced marketers who use their extensive marketing skills and assets to develop businesses.  As part of the Science Parks business support we have more than ten years experience with over 500 SMEs in all aspects of business development.

We work to provide practical answers to critical marketing questions and identify solutions covering all aspects of creating a growing business. This ranges from start up and how to exploit markets through to strategy and how to manage growth.

We’ve worked with companies who don’t know where or who their market is through to companies who just need to freshen up their approach. Our experience ranges from finding completely new product ideas to revitalising a companies marketing, primarily in business to business markets. Our detailed support includes customer contact, market research, finding new markets, market forecasts, access to funding, publicity and copy to find and engage your target customers and to fit into your overall plans. Please contact us to discuss your business development needs.

Please click here for further information

Step Classic and Step Graduate programmes have proved to be an effective business development tool.  Providing cost-effective solutions to business issues that have been identified by companies through the provision of students and graduates to carry out these projects.  

Step Classic and Step Graduate placement programmes enable companies to ‘take the pick of the student and graduate crop’ to help kick-start or manage business development ideas – those ideas that you don’t have the time or the money to take further.

Imagine the benefits of working with someone with a fresh, innovative approach and boundless energy and enthusiasm.  Using their skills and knowledge to carry out and complete a piece of work that will help your business in terms of growth, development or sustainability and could ease the pain of the economic downturn by getting your business ahead of the competition.  Most businesses have lists of projects that they would like to do, but never have the time or resource to undertake. Each year, students and graduates on the Step Classic and Step Graduate programmes take on these challenges for small and medium-sized organisations and achieve outstanding results for their host companies.  We provide you with a shortlist of carefully vetted candidates from which you make a final selection. The length of the placement is up to you, but generally they run for 8-12 weeks, and we are here to support you every step of the way.

To read more of the outstanding results achieved, please click here
(Both programmes are supported by the University of Warwick Science Park)

If you are a Graduate, click here for further information

If you are a Student, click here for further information

Clusters - Mediated groups of companies in specific sectors working together to use their skills collaboratively to create new business opportunities.


Other Service Providers are:

The Social Science Workplace Programme – SSWEP - is a relatively new scheme specifically designed to encourage social science students to participate in summer projects within SME’s across the UK, developing and contributing social science skills in the workplace and encouraging knowledge transfer and capacity building.