New training to nurture Game Changers innovators

Game Changers innovators are now benefitting from a new training and mentoring programme to help broaden commercial horizons and support business growth and sustainability.

Building on last year’s successful pilot Fellowship Programme, the Incubator will support six organisations receiving Game Changers Proof of Concept funding to help solve some of Sellafield’s decommissioning challenges. The organisations are Createc, Resolute Energy Solutions, Hybrid Instruments, FIRMA Engineering, Barrnon and Clifton Photonics.

The Incubator will run for six months, starting and finishing with face-to-face events, with regular virtual workshops and one to one mentoring in between.

A three-day residential launch in Whitehaven provided networking opportunities with key people from the nuclear sector and the local community. Sellafield speakers at the launch included Rebecca Weston, Sellafield’s Chief Operating Officer. Jo Lappin from Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership also provided an overview of innovation and opportunities in the region, and the event included a visit to Sellafield’s newly opened Engineering Centre of Excellence.

Incubator participants will receive industry-leading training and business mentoring to help develop commercialisation strategies for their individual technologies and to provide unique insight into the nuclear sector.

The virtual workshops will cover a wide range of topics including protecting your Intellectual Property Assets, business planning, equity funding and grant funding applications, growth and sustainability.

Business mentoring will include monthly calls with highly experienced mentors who have collectively mentored more than 100 start-ups and spin outs. The networking element of Incubator is designed to build key contacts within the nuclear and entrepreneurial ecosystem in West Cumbria and beyond.

The residential finale of the programme will be held in May.

Elizabeth Adams, who is managing the Game Changers Incubator, said: “One of the things last year’s Fellowship group told me they really appreciated was getting to work with people from other backgrounds or other types of organisations. This year’s cohort brings together a really diverse set of skills, insight and experience and I hope they will help each other though sharing tips and advice on everything from working with large organisations to doing a great product demo.”