To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the British Library's Business & IP Centre national network.
Answered on
9 July 2014
The Intellectual Property Office worked with the British Library Business and IP Centre (BIPC) to develop a national blueprint that other libraries can use to develop a business and IP service in key UK cities. A programme to initially embed the blueprint into Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield was launched in July 2013. It is too early to provide impact data for the whole network, but data for the BIPC London and BIPC Newcastle, based on user feedback, shows that:
- Almost 50% of users increased their awareness of the importance of intellectual property
- Over 40% were helped to develop their ideas
- Over 40% were able to understand their customers and markets better
- Almost a third acquired new skills through workshops
- Close to a quarter were helped to write their business plan
- Over 20% were helped to protect and exploit their novel ideas/designs
In total the two centres helped to create approximately 2800 businesses and have further created approximately 3500 additional jobs in new and existing businesses.