Entry Process and Criteria
The iD Centre considers applications for business incubation from businesses which:
- Have been trading for less than a year
- Operate in the rail, engineering, aerospace or technology sectors
- Have a potential for high growth (assessed at interview)
Applicant businesses which fulfil the foregoing criteria are then selected on the basis of:
- Their need and willingness to accept business support
- The commercial awareness of the business owner(s) (as evidenced by the existence of a business plan)
- Their eligibility for funding (which is related to projected turnover, business ownership and SME status)
- The receipt by the Centre of satisfactory personal, trade and financial references.
Applicants will be asked to complete an application form (supplied in Adobe Acrobat format), and submit this with an up-to-date copy of the company's business plan.
A template is provided for companies that have not yet produced a business plan.
Upon receipt of your application form and business plan, you will be invited into the Centre for an entrance interview. This enables us to make sure you fit our entrance criteria, and also allows us to assess your business support needs.
Successful applicants will be informed by letter, and will be required to sign a lease to occupy premises at the Centre, and an agreement letter to signify your willingness to accept the obligations of the project. We can then set a date for you to join the iD Centre and begin your incubateeship.
Occupation of Units at the iD Centre
The maximum period of occupancy is three years, but some incubatees choose to remain for a shorter period of time. The Centre can support a large number of enterprises and provides help and assistance to businesses planning for the post-incubation phase of their development.
Incubatees may in certain circumstances require more than one unit at a time.
They may, subject to availability, move between units in the Centre, provided that:
- The required number of units are available
- The total period of tenure at the iD Centre does not exceed three years.
Incubatees may not use their unit(s) for any purposes other than office accommodation for the incubated businesses.
