Groundbreaking collaboration brings West Midlands universities together to build a region of innovation
14/11/2007

In a major move to accelerate the region’s technology sector, the West Midlands ICT Cluster is
bringing together all ICT related West Midlands universities by launching a series of university
based ICT Innovation Clubs. From Warwick to Keele, 75% of the region’s universities are joining
together to establish eight ICT Innovation Clubs. These Clubs will link up technology businesses,
end users and academics to reach the common goal of encouraging technology innovation in the
West Midlands.

Technology-based small to medium sized companies (SMEs) have traditionally achieved good
results through collaboration with universities. With over 693 ICT academics who can potentially
benefit 3000+ technology SMEs in the West Midlands, the ICT Innovation Clubs will give
companies unprecedented access to the region’s universities for innovation support, specialist
facilities and expertise.

The ICT Innovation Clubs are part of a larger initiative to create successful technology companies
which can operate on a national and global scale. Initially, the ICT Innovation Clubs will focus on
developing products or services that will help to grow the regional technology sector with individual
universities playing to their strengths.

Each club will cover a specific sector of expertise ranging from e-business to open source and hold
two initial networking meetings from June 2007 – January 2008. Universities involved are Aston,
Birmingham, Coventry, Keele, Stafford, University of Central England (UCE), Warwick,
Wolverhampton and Worcester.

ICT Cluster Manager, Mike Musson said of the initiative: ‘The ICT Innovation Clubs will unlock the
assistance available to SMEs from their local universities and for the first time bring academics and
business people from technology companies together on a region-wide scale.

‘The ICT Cluster believes that stronger university-business links are essential to creating a thriving
technology sector in the West Midlands. Technology and innovation are at the heart of our
strategy and this initiative complements existing projects run by the ICT Cluster,’ he added.
Bob Boyd, CEO of WMita, said: ‘The ICT Innovation Clubs will exploit their close ties with the ICT
Technology supplier network of the West Midlands IT Association (WMita). WMita branches are
keen to participate in all the Innovation Clubs, and involve not only our SME membership, but also
our extensive partner and affiliate members.’

Pat Costello, West Midlands ICT Cluster Innovation Manager said: ‘Collaboration is already a
natural and integral part of higher education and by extending our knowledge and resources to the
region’s budding enterprises, we are in a win-win situation: West Midlands businesses grow our
regional economy by using the expertise of world class academics and our academics can put
their knowledge to commercial use.

The eight ICT Innovation Clubs comprise:
The e-Business for Business (eB4B) Innovation Club facilitated by the National B2B Centre, based
at The University of Warwick and the University of Worcester Business School. The Club’s focus is
on the business issues of marketing, knowledge management and business strategy, together with
e-business disciplines of e-marketing, e-commerce, collaborative working and e-marketplaces.
Stafford University will host the Connectivity for Business ICT Innovation Club and focus on
computer networks and interconnectivity.

The Medical Technologies ICT Innovation Club will focus on medical research and clinical
applications. Aston University will promote technologies including medical imaging, bioinformatics,
and clinical decision support systems. The club will complement, and link with, the West Midlands
i-Health Network led by MedilinkWM.

The Creativity, Media and Technology (CMT) ICT Innovation Club, which is facilitated by the
University of Wolverhampton, will cover interests as diverse as advertising, film and
video, interactive software, games and learning, electronic publishing, design and broadcast,
television and radio design and production.

Club Wireless will work to create products or services which use wireless technology. Led by
Coventry University, the club brings together both users and suppliers of wireless technologies.
The key area of focus will be: Wireless Networks, Innovative Use of Mobile Technology, RFID,
New Wireless Technology, WIMAX and Locations based systems.

UCE is hosting the Open Source Technologies Innovation Club, which highlights the
university’s expertise in one of the most widely used technology in the SME sector.
The Intelligent ICT Solutions Innovation Club is based at the University of Birmingham and will
explore the use of ICT solutions for some of the West Midlands key industrial sectors including:
transport and logistics, the creative industry and games, manufacturing and engineering, and
forensics and security.

The Information Brokerage Software Innovation Club will be based at Keele University and its
focus is the software engineering need of West Midlands companies.
For further information on the ICT Innovation Clubs, please visit the ICT Cluster website,
www.wmictcluster.org or contact Pat Costello, WM ICT Cluster Innovation Manager, 01902 321829
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Notes to Editors:

About ICT Cluster

The ICT Cluster is one of ten clusters established by Advantage West Midlands as part of its
economic development strategy. These clusters have been chosen on the basis of their current
strength in the region and their potential to create jobs and economic growth.
The ICT Cluster will be hosting the Annual West Midlands ICT Conference and ICT Excellence
Awards on 22 November 2007.

Advantage West Midlands is one of nine Regional Development Agencies in England whose role is
to provide leadership and action to create more, better jobs and in improve the quality of life for all
in the West Midlands.

For more media information please contact Ranbir Sahota, Vitis PR on 0870 8965448 or 07815
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