Solent Synergy
WP staff worked with Solent Synergy and project partners to prepare a major bid opportunity to SEEDA to help innovative and growing businesses.
The Board of Solent Synergy, with the support of the 3 main universities, viewed SEEDA’s proposal for the Solent Innovation Growth Team (IGT) as a genuine opportunity to work with existing innovation support organisations, namely the Enterprise Hubs and the Innovation Advisory Service, to lead on a compelling consortium bid for a Solent pilot.
After undertaking a series of local partner consultations, Solent Synergy formed a consortium of Solent partners to prepare a high quality response to SEEDA in the form of a first stage Expression of Interest followed by a full Business Plan.
WP’s work included providing a Bid Development Service to support the Solent IGT to develop ideas which could enhance SEEDA’s preferred model sub-regionally/locally. WP also provided a Bid Writing Service to lead on the process of drafting the bid documents, in particular the supporting Business Plan.
The outcome was a successful £3+m application to SEEDA resulting in a new entity ‘Solent IGT’ to drive forward enterprise and innovation in South Hampshire and the Isle of Wight from July 2009.
‘We were attracted to working with Wessex Partnerships based on their reputation and track record. They were excellent on this complex project, exceeding our expectations.
The WPL team worked in a very professional manner and allowed us to focus on the areas of work that we were best at. Moreover, they took responsibility for leading on key sections and helped project manage the whole bid writing process.’
Dr Mark Baker, Regional Development Manager, University of Portsmouth
