Green Award links academia and business in East of England

Created by i10, the region’s business to university support service, the Low Carbon Collaboration Award aims to improve the links between academic expertise and regional businesses wishing to develop commercially important low carbon technologies, products and services – and reduce their carbon footprint at the same time.

As well as an award, the winning business will receive a £5,000 voucher to carry out further university collaboration work. The voucher can be used for a variety of different knowledge transfer projects, including consultancy, research and development, facility hire or low carbon courses and training.

i10 said low carbon issues affect all types of businesses and many companies in the East of England have already begun to work on improving their environmental impact, by taking measures such as improving their waste management process, developing energy efficient building, using recycled products and working towards ISO accreditation.

Award entries will be measured on two aspects:  the success of the project already carried out by the company and the outline plan for the future low carbon collaboration work, which the company would use the £5,000 voucher to fund – either following on from the initial project or as a separate initiative.

The award has been part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and is open to businesses in the East of England that have collaborated with a university on a low carbon project. The entry closing date is June 30 2009.