Businesses invited to bioenergy breakfast event

Event to showcase opportunities in the bioenergy sector Businesses interested in bioenergy development in the Marches are being invited to attend a Marches LEP event that will provide insight in to available funding…
Event to showcase opportunities in the bioenergy sector
Businesses interested in bioenergy development in the Marches are being invited to attend a Marches LEP event that will provide insight in to available funding streams, potential sites for development, and free support available in the region.
Run in collaboration with the European Bioenergy Research Institute (EBRI) at Aston University, the event will take place at Grange Court in Leominster between 0800 and 1030 on October 9 and is free to attend.
Attendees will hear about the work of the LEP in supporting business investment and development in the Marches. Aston University partners, meanwhile, will detail how EBRI’s bioenergy expertise is able to support businesses in using innovative technologies to develop products and services and to maximise energy efficiency in their plans for business expansion.
Speaking ahead of the event, Graham Wynn, Chairman of the Marches LEP, said: “The Marches offers a wealth of experience across the environmental technology and bioenergy services and the fact that 50 per cent of all environmental technology businesses here are less than 10 years old serves to highlight just how vibrant and forward thinking the sector is.
“Events such as this one being held by the LEP are intended to provide the support that businesses need in order to uncover available funding streams both from the LEP as well as from European programmes such as Horizon 2020. Attendees will also hear about potential sites for further development and have the opportunity to engage with the EBRI team to learn more about their programme of workshops and bioenergy support opportunities.”
Tom Anderson, Business Development Manager at EBRI, added: “The development and application of bioenergy technology has been identified as a priority for the West Midlands because geographical constraints limit the region’s potential to generate renewable energy from alternative technologies such as wind, marine and tidal power – addressing this issue head on is fast becoming ‘a must’ for businesses and entrepreneurs in the region.”
“We want to transfer our specialist knowledge around bioenergy to businesses in the West Midlands, assisting and collaborating with them, and making sure that the organisations are, firstly, aware of the vast potential of the bioenergy market regardless of their own sector; and, secondly, that they are taking advantage of the commercial opportunities. Ultimately our goal is to support the commercialisation of emerging bioenergy technologies to stimulate growth in the region’s manufacturing, power technologies and engineering sectors leading to the development of an internationally-competitive bioenergy supply chain in the West Midlands.”
This event is one of six which will see the EBRI partner with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) across the whole West Midlands. EBRI currently has funding from a €8m INTERREG IVB funded project – BioenNW – to promote and support the adoption of bioenergy. BioenNW sees EBRI working with 11 European partners to increase the rate of implementation of bioenergy provision within North West Europe by facilitating the development of local, small scale biomass energy schemes.
To book, visit http://bioenergy-midlands.org/events/bioenergy-development-in-the-marches-region/#
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