Business Innovation Centres (BICs)

Abstract

Amidst the gloom of recession, the European Community’s network of Business and Innovation Centres (BICs), established by the European Commission, have been steadily maintaining a positive attitude to industrial revitalisation in some of the economically worst hit regions of Britain. An attractive package of finance provision, hands-on incubation for innovative new companies, and an in-built European outlook for training in marketing and management skills places the BICs high on the list of existing support schemes for budding entrepreneurs. The European Business Network (EBN) of BIC’s is a Brussels co-ordinated initiative. Despite its blandly worded aim of “promoting economic development through the introduction of decentralised tools” and the “establishment of new industrial activities based on innovation”, the scheme has healthy potential as long as the mix of Community, public and private funding needed to support each BIC can be found.