Innovation Sprint Programme

The Productivity & Innovation Centre (PIC) offers a fully-funded Innovation Sprint Programme designed to support the profitable growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through innovation. The centre's core focus is on driving product and service innovation, which is complemented by efforts to strip out inefficiencies within the business model and introduce modern business development processes. This support is funded by the UK Government via the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The programme has a proven track record, having supported over 300 SMEs, resulting in 186 new products and services being launched, and the creation of 664 new jobs. On average, SMEs who successfully complete the Innovation Sprint growth programme and fully implement their action plan report a profitability increase ranging from 28% to 45%. The Innovation Sprint Programme itself is delivered through 60 hours of intensive scale-up strategy development. This support includes four intensive online workshops delivered over four weeks, coupled with 1-to-1 facilitation by both academics and business experts. The programme incorporates market research, rich data collection for decision-making, and the application of world-class rapid innovation tools and frameworks. Businesses are required to have 1–4 of their key decision-makers participate. Upon completion, participants also gain access to follow-on opportunities to collaborate with Edge Hill University, its students, and the wider SME network.