Hethel Engineering Centre is the award-winning innovation hub serving the high-performance engineering and manufacturing sector in the East of England. Hethel provides first-class accommodation, conferencing capabilities and tailored business support for their residents. At any one-time Hethel has around 60–70 tenants across 80,000 sq. ft of lettable space. Hethel has the vision to takes its site from a centre to a technology park and develop this thriving engineering community into a knowledge economy leader. The steps already taken by Hethel has helped create over 180 start-ups, 1000 jobs and 85 new products processes and services.
Hethel runs a growth track seminar programme to support its tenants and the wider community. These run monthly and provide tenants and non-resident companies with access to expert information on topics such as Intellectual Property and Trading Abroad. Support provided by Hethel encourages the tenant community to innovate, be more productive, and start-up in a lean way. Hethel recognises the importance of wider community engagement and runs a number of programs that support local communities to access opportunities. Examples include Enterprise in Libraries, an initiative which supports job seekers to start their own business and Trailblazers, a programme delivered in local schools to increase aspirations and encourage students to pursue STEM.
Over the past few year Hethel has created three sector networks. These networks provide the platform for businesses to collaborate, problem-solve and build their supply chains. Their network conferences have also seen a number of collaborations as a number of businesses who attended have received VC investment.
