North West ISBP Action Plan - About Us

Measures of the Action Plan

The North West Innovation and Specialist Business Support Action Plan addresses four of the five measures within Priority One of the North West Objective Two Programme. Measure 1.3 (Access to Finance for Growth SMEs) will be delivered wholly through this Action Plan. Measure 1.5 (Investment in Premises for new and Expanding SMEs) will be delivered largely through subregional or local action plans. The North West Innovation and Specialist Business Support Action Plan is committed to mainstreaming the innovation agenda, and innovation as a key driver needs to be recognised as such throughout the delivery of activity supported under Measures 1.1, 1.2 and 1.4.

The Action Plan resources are allocated under the following four measures:

• 1.1 Creation and Establishment of Entrepreneurial business starts
• 1.2 Increasing the competitiveness of Established SMEs
• 1.3 Access to Finance for Growth SMEs
• 1.4 Developing the Regional Knowledge Economy: Supporting Business Innovation and Networking

Themes of the Action Plan

The NW Innovation and Specialist Business Support Action Plan draws upon key regional strategic frameworks including The Regional Economic Strategy, the Regional Innovation Strategy and the Regional Business Development Framework in order to add value to the local delivery of innovation and specialist business support services. The Action Plan will ensure regional coherence in the development and delivery of thematic innovation and specialist business support across the boundaries of the local SBS areas.

A thematic approach defines this Action Plan, the six main themes being:

1. Support for sector, network and cluster development
2. Action in support of the Regional Innovation Strategy
3. Specialist measures to support knowledge transfer to SMEs
4. Initiatives to support the development of the e-region through advanced ICT applications
5. Regional initiatives aimed at stimulating the growth of the social economy, ethnic minority businesses and women's business networking
6. Access to finance for growth SMEs - Regional Venture Capital Fund