Entrepreneur in Residence Services for Alta Innovations and BKEBIP

Alta Innovations (the commercialisation company of the University of Birmingham) is looking for one or more enthusiastic 'Entrepreneurs in Residence' (EIRs) to provide advice and guidance to the businesses that we work with. We don't want individuals who can simply assess companies on their achievements to date, but rather those who can also open doors, encourage, inspire, and facilitate growth.

The EIRs will supplement the support provided to clients of the Birmingham Knowledge Exchange Business Incubation Partnership (BKEBIP*) at the BizzInn and The BioHub Birmingham®, both located at Birmingham Research Park.

One or more EIRs are sought to supplement the support to clients provided by the BizzInn Incubation Manager and other University / Alta Innovations team members (within the Enterprise Acceleration Team). We are looking for inspiring seasoned entrepreneurs, with experience in coaching and mentoring people to develop high growth hi-tech businesses. We want people considered to be expert hi-tech entrepreneurs, who understand what it takes to grow a business from scratch. They need to have a passion for entrepreneurship and the ability to open doors, encourage, inspire, and facilitate growth.

The Entrepreneur in Residence will help the team to fulfil the following objectives:

• Provide advice, guidance, coaching and mentoring to the innovators and entrepreneurs within the incubator;
• Increase the visibility of entrepreneurial activity taking place at the Birmingham Research Park, and indeed, within Birmingham itself;
• More sustainable businesses started up, with an increased likelihood of success;
• Help establish BizzInn as a centre of excellence for entrepreneurship so that it can continue to act as a hub for a growing entrepreneurial community in Birmingham (and the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP region);
• Work with the entrepreneurs presented to them by the Incubation Manager;
• Act as a sounding board for academic innovators and other Alta Innovations staff members

£1.03m of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Department for Communities and Local Government is the Managing Authority for ERDF. Established by the European Union ERDF funds help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding

Additional information: Based on the expected activity and budget, an indicative daily rate is expected to be £400 - £600 (plus reasonable expenses). When evaluating cost, the quality of the overall bid and its constituent parts will be taken into consideration alongside the financial values.

The above contract value is indicative and bids above and below the range are acceptable but bidders should ensure that where above the range, the additional quality offered is well substantiated and that where below the range that you ensure that you detail how you meet the minimum quality standards required.

Expenses will only be paid based on the University's Financial rules. A summary can be found here https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/finance/payroll/Expenses.aspx . No payment will be made for travel to and/or from an individual's ordinary place of work or residence to/from the BizzInn (or for the time for such travel).

Payments will be made against invoices and are subject to agreed milestones demonstrated as being met to a satisfactory standard as determined by the University.

It is anticipated that the requirement for EIR expertise will vary from time to time between January 2017 until 31st December 2018, but is likely to average out at 4 - 8 days per month. Appropriate review/termination provisions will be included in the arising service agreements to enable use of the EIRs to be varied from time to time if necessary as the composition of BEKBIP beneficiaries change.

£1.03m of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Department for Communities and Local Government is the Managing Authority for ERDF. Established by the European Union ERDF funds help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding