Free places are being offered to SMEs at a virtual North West event that will outline the details of a £14m programme supporting low carbon innovation
Businesses in Liverpool are invited to attend a free virtual summit about a new £14m programme supporting low carbon innovation.
Eco-I North West is a research and development initiative that offers hundreds of businesses the opportunity to access the knowledge base, research facilities, and skills of six of the region’s leading universities – Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores, Manchester Metropolitan, Lancaster, Central Lancashire, and Cumbria.
The programme, which is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), will work with more than 300 SMEs across the region and in all sectors over the next two years, supporting the development of 135 new innovations which will save 3,850 tonnes of CO2.
More than 80 businesses from across the region and across sectors have already signed up to the programme which offers funding opportunities and innovation support to enable them to pilot, prototype and demonstrate new technologies, as well as opportunities for leadership development, workshops, and networking.
Some of them will share their inspirational stories at a free-to-access webinar, Disruption, Innovation, Transformation. Climate Change: It’s Now or Never, on Wednesday, October 20.
The two-hour summit, running from 10am-12pm, is aimed at North West-based SMEs, researchers, and academics, interested in the net zero carbon agenda, and will be hosted using an interactive online platform.
Kicking off the event will be keynote speaker Duncan Pollard, former VP for sustainability at Nestle and director of conservation practice and policy at WWF, who will share his expertise on how to integrate, engage, and operationalise sustainable practice in business.
Delegates will then be invited to participate in three themed breakout sessions to discuss shared challenges, opportunities and to hear about some of the businesses working with Eco-I NW:
Mr Pollard said: “The business community has the power to influence the effects of climate change, through its operations, supply chains, and offering more sustainable choices to customers. But for positive change we must disrupt and challenge the ‘business as usual’ mind set.”
The event will be chaired by Prof Jess Davies, Director of the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation at Lancaster University. She said: “Eco-I NW is the first project of its kind to open up such a huge academic regional resource to businesses.”