Business Innovation & Funding
Business innovation should be an accessible goal for organisations of all sizes and does not always have to revolve around technology.
There are many ways in which businesses can think creatively about how they adapt to the rapidly evolving needs and tastes of their audience.
However, businesses are often restricted by a lack of finance, resources, time or know-how to get ideas off the ground. Plus, unpredictable world events can make it difficult for businesses to think about business innovation.
Our growth managers can work with you to refine your plans and, with strong links to partner organisations and educational establishments, help you find a route through any barriers that you may be facing.
In addition, we can provide innovation advice to organisations that are looking to relocate to York and North Yorkshire. Whether you are a foreign-owned or UK business looking to expand, relocate or invest, Invest in York & North Yorkshire can help.
We can help with:
- Cultural barriers
Challenges with cross-cultural communication, especially for businesses looking to expand into international markets.
- Structural barriers
Tackling natural or tactical barriers that arise preventing new entry into your market.
- Financial Barriers
Wanting to make change but lacking the funds to accomplish these goals
- Business communication
Improving internal and external practices and reducing errors by sharing information in the right way.
Fund your business innovation with Made Smarter
If you’re a manufacturing business that is looking to increase the use of technology and expand your business capabilities, the Made Smarter programme could help you access advice, support and even grant funding.
Whether you are completely brand new to digital technology, or you have already started your digitalisation journey, you will be able to receive bespoke advice on anything from skills and leadership to innovation strategies.
Adopting new technology can be daunting, but the Made Smarter scheme will enable you to get the best advice and support from the pioneers and experts in national and local industry bodies.
Made Smarter is encouraging the UK’s next industrial revolution by giving you the competitive edge in a rapidly-growing industry. The programme aims to bring the best out of the UK manufacturing industry by upskilling and encouraging collaboration and innovation – keeping us ahead of the competition in the global manufacturing stage.
Find out more about Innovation
To find out more about how we can help with Business Innovation, get in touch.
Articles
New one stop shop Business Growth Service roadshow kicks off to support firms in the North East
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Fully Funded Automation & Efficiency Webinar Series
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Events
25th November 202510:00 am - 4:00 pmFREE
[FULL] Smartphone Video Masterclass: York
Join our one-day hands-on video workshop designed to help businesses of all types and sizes take their first confident steps into video marketing. Whether you're B2B or B2C, a sole trader or a growing team, this workshop will equip you with the essential skills to produce professional, social-media-ready video content in-house. The Growth Hub are happy to be offering these workshops, following exceptional demand last year under North Yorkshire Council’s UKSPF programme.
26th November 202510:00 am - 4:00 pmFREE
Smartphone Video Masterclass: Northallerton
Join our one-day hands-on video workshop designed to help businesses of all types and sizes take their first confident steps into video marketing. Whether you're B2B or B2C, a sole trader or a growing team, this workshop will equip you with the essential skills to produce professional, social-media-ready video content in-house. The Growth Hub are happy to be offering these workshops, following exceptional demand last year under North Yorkshire Council’s UKSPF programme.
28th November 202510:00 am - 11:30 amFREE
🟣 Steps into Digital: AI Agents, Chatbots & LLMs in Business
ChatGPT and AI agents are transforming how businesses interact with data and customers. This session focuses on natural language processing (NLP), chatbots and large language models (LLMs), showing how they can streamline customer service, automate reporting and make company data more accessible to non-technical staff.
Resources
Webinar Series: How to Run a Pop-Up
From pop-up department stores to kitchen takeovers, cool things are popping up and popping off everywhere. In this exciting project, you’ll get to meet some of the teams behind these pop-ups and get their top tips for running a great pop-up.
Webinar Recording: 🟢 Data Protection Essentials
In this engaging and practical webinar series, Privacy Protect Group Ltd will guide you through everything you need to know to build a confident, compliant, and resilient approach to data protection in your business. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your practices, each session is designed to build your understanding step-by-step.
Webinar Series: Data Analytics for Smarter Decisions
Data Analytics for Smarter Decisions, is a nine part online workshop series designed to help businesses at every stage of their data journey, from those just starting out to those ready to explore artificial intelligence and compliance. Each session is practical, jargon free and grounded in real business use cases, ensuring participants leave with tools and knowledge they can apply immediately.