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As part of UKSPA’s response to Covid-19, briefing papers on the impact of Covid-19 and the additional support required by the sector is being sent to Government. UKSPA members are asked to distribute to their networks and stakeholders.
Covid19 and the Science Park, Innovation and Technology Sector
UKSPA is the UK’s national association for science parks, incubators and innovation districts. Our membership covers 130 locations and over 6,000 businesses working at the cutting edge of science and technology.
These companies represent the future growth and prosperity of the UK economy. Our members have a very close relationship with these businesses and are intimately aware of the challenges they face. At the moment, it is quite possible that a great many of these will fail over the next 3-4 months due to the impact of the Covid19 pandemic.
At no time in recent history has there ever been a greater need to support the locations that deliver facilities for scientific discovery and to sustain the, sometimes fragile, early stage, knowledge intensive businesses that are crucial to our economy. In total around 45 million square feet of office, Lab and R&D space is managed by our members. These locations also support around 4,000 staff working in 1300 “virtual” companies that also deliver significant economic activity – and benefit.
The full briefing can be downloaded here.
UKSPA Briefing – Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) and innovative businesses
Under the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) eligible businesses in England are eligible for a payment of £10,000. However businesses which are not direct ratepayers in the business rates system are not included in the scheme.
This briefing is on the serious implications of this for innovation locations in the UK and for many of the small knowledge intensive companies that are based in our member technology Incubators or innovation centres who are excluded from applying for Business Support Grant Fund.
The full briefing can be downloaded here.
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