Last week Future Space won the Community Award at techSPARK annual awards, the SPARKies. Future Space is an innovation centre and community hub for start-ups and fast-growth high tech businesses in the heart of our University Enterprise Zone.
Located at UWE Bristol, Future Space currently comprises 50+ trailblazing science and tech businesses, and with the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, the Centre for Print Research, the Health Tech Hub and the Launch Space accelerator form the UWE Bristol University Enterprise Zone.
Since its inception, Future Space has generated:
- £100+ million in investment brought to Bristol
- 500+ jobs across the sector
- £27.5 million GVA for the local economy
- 140 tech projects supported by the university
- 305 new and improved products and services
- 500+ hours of one-to-one business support
- 56 internship opportunities for students
Future Space has recently opened another 10,000 square feet of office and lab space. Seven new labs and 12 new offices will offer space for up to 130 new people – increasing the centre’s capacity to support up to 70 businesses and bringing new jobs and opportunities to Bristol.
Members of the innovation hub put its success down to community collaboration. Ali Rohafza, Founder of Altered Carbon recalls how they once needed to run trials to find out if their product worked, but they couldn’t afford expensive trials at the start. It’s a catch-22: without the trials, says Ali, ‘no one would give you investment without that proof. So, we [ran the] tests at UWE to find out if it worked. And if it did, amazing, then we got the investment.’
Ali is just one of the many businesses that benefits from the established business support at Future Space led by owners Oxford Innovation, as well as the support from the community’s partners across the city.
Professor Matt Freeman, Centre Director of Future Space, commented on the win:
‘It’s an honour to be recognised by techSPARK, particularly this year after everything we’ve done: expanding both in size and in the scope of our ambitions, we’re on a mission to create the best university-partnered home for tech start-ups in the South West, providing the space, support and spark needed to push a growing a business towards the forefront of its sector.’
The win comes as Future Space celebrates their 8th birthday.