NISP CONNECT Belfast

NISP CONNECT
The Innovation Centre
Queen's Road
Belfast
BT3 9DT
Tel: (0)28 9073 7800
Email: nispconnect@nisp.co.uk
Do you have an invention or research breakthrough that could change the world? Get your 2-pagers ready! The deadline for entries to this year’s £25k award is Friday 23rd April, find out more below.

Also, a heads-up for any company looking to raise more than £500K in venture capital in 2010: NISP CONNECT’s VC Forum will return on 23rd September, 2010 when many VC funds from outside of the region will visit Belfast to review the investment propositions of local companies. The call for applications will open this summer…..

Hot event listings and updates from halo and Normans blog all below…..

Upcoming Events

NISP CONNECT Frameworks workshops present:
“The Venture Capital Process”
Thurs 15th April, 2010 @ Northern Ireland Science Park
By Peter Stafford, ALGoodbody

Raising money in today's environment is no easy task -- but it can be done if you focus on the right priorities and avoid common deal-killers. In this workshop, Peter Stafford from A&L Goodbody will provide you with actionable advice that will prepare you for raising capital from venture capital funds.

Click here for further details


NISP CONNECT Frameworks workshops present:
“The War for Talent: Invest in the Best”
Thurs 20th May 2010, Northern Ireland Science Park

By Karen Davidson and Paul Gillen from law firm McGrigors.

People are the key to any business and incentivising and retaining key staff is critical for any employer who wishes to grow its business. This seminar will look at different approaches to reward individual talent, develop committed employees and maximise individual and team performance.

Click here for further details


Halo Investor Forum
28th April 2010, @ Northern Ireland Science Park

Registered angels, guests and pitching companies only


25k Award: Search for the Next Big Thing: Registration Open

The 2010 25k award: the Search for the Next Big Thing is underway. The purpose of the Awards is to identify, qualify, prepare and present the intellectual property from the publicly funded research base in Northern Ireland with the most commercial potential.

The competition is now open for registrations under the following categories: Hitech, Biotech, CleanTech and Digital Media & Software.

Click here for further details


halo News

HALO EIS FUND SUCCESSFUL

The Halo Business Angel EIS Fund has been successfully closed ie it has received over three quarters of a million pounds from halo angels. This fund, which is managed by Javelin Ventures, a London-based FSA regulated fund manager, will now provide for co-investment alongside the halo angels in NI start-up companies.

Halo is only the second business angel network in Britain to be associated with a fund of this type. Companies applying to halo in the normal manner will now automatically be considered for investment by the fund, normally alongside the direct angel investment. The result should be increased investment potential for the companies.

The fund operates under EIS rules which means it invests only over the next 12 months, after which is it likely that a new fund will be raised to invest in the following year and so on.


Norman's blog: “What a Difference IP Makes”
Norman Apsley, NISP Chief Executive

Being innovative is about always challenging the way things are done. My mother used to tut when I would spend an hour trying to work out a better way to do a five-minute job!

That realisation struck home at the recent seminar on mobile services for the public sector. In common sense terms, my Mum was right but at the rate things are changing it’s essential. We have become familiar with convergence, the coming together of computing, communications and content, but unfamiliar with the complex array of behind-the-scenes fixes that make it possible. It has been a technical tour-de-force to make mobile phones seem to deliver email and the internet just like fixed-line broadband services.

The problem is that fixed line systems have evolved to use the common standard of IP, Internet Protocol, to make things work together. Mobile phones were invented just that little bit too early and were not built on the common IP standard.

Click here to read further


Locate your Company at Northern Ireland Science Park

For further information on work space at Northern Ireland Science Park, click here

Events and notifications from our affiliates

BarCamp Belfast
Sat 17th April, Belfast Campus, University of Ulster, Belfast

BarCamp is a unconference with a focus on design, web application development, open source technologies and social protocols. Presentations & panels are volunteered — and it's free to attend.

Click here for further details

BizCamp Craigavon
Sat 8th May 2010, CIDO, 73 Carleston Road, Portadown

Bizcamp Craigavon is a free business user generated conference taking place in the Craigavon Industrial Development Organisation (CIDO) on Saturday the 8th of May 2010! There will be a wide range of talks from entrepreneurs and professionals ready to share their knowledge about business, technology and digital media

Click here for further details

Commercialise your Idea through Licensing

A new opportunity for IP owners to get help commercialising their ideas through licensing opportunities has just been created. Fund manager E-Synergy has established an IP exploitation team who provide free advice and assessment of IP from both a patent and commercial point of view. For more information on the opportunity contact Paul Smyth at E-Synergy (p.smyth@e-synergy.com)


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