BSEEN – we lead the Birmingham Skills for Enterprise and Employability Network (BSEEN) with three local universities, which offers students and graduates a package of intensive start-up support.

Since its launch in 2012, over 1,200 students and recent graduates have attended boot camps, where over 700 businesses have been created. Since 2016, 577 new student and graduate businesses have been supported to start up by Aston's BSEEN programme; 69% of the founders are from an ethnic minority background, and 53% of founders are female.

Companies we work with include NatWest, HSBC and Santander and professional services from the city, including Pinsent Masons, Higgs and Ad Valorem. Notable alumni include the following companies: Petalite, Narce Media, Clean Kilo, Rugged Nature, Beatfreeks, G Décor,
Virtalent, Faraway Fruits and Voilo. Aston University also partnered with HSBC in 2022 on a new pilot student incubator programme to support black and ethnic minority students to start new businesses.

At national, regional and local levels, Aston University leads entrepreneurial actions across multiple strands connecting business with research, learning, teaching and innovation – examples include:

Aston Centre for Growth developed the curriculum for the 2020 national Small Business Leadership Programme, funded by the government and delivered by 20 Small Business Charter-accredited business schools to over 2,800 business leaders in England over 12 months. This led to the development of the £400m government Help to Grow: Management programme, delivered by 50 business schools in the UK and launched at Aston Business School by the Rt Hon Rishi Sunak in August 2021 with 6,000 businesses in its first 18 months.

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses UK - since 2011, the Aston Business School (ABS) has been a lead partner in this programme, giving it a vital role in the local economy. ABS's experts use co-created courses consisting of workshops, 1-2-1 coaching & networking to help businesses experiment and grow; over 2,000 business leaders have participated.

Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME) – uses unique data on ethnicity and immigration from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) to address the challenges for ethnic minority-led businesses. Its outcomes include generating awareness of business support to over 200 firms that had not previously engaged with enterprise support providers; building the organisational capability of project partners and scaling up the initiative in other cities (notably Bristol and London). CREME is twice the winner of the ESRC's Impact prize for business.

As part of the 2030 strategy development plans, Aston has recently acquired a new head office building in the centre of Birmingham's professional business district. This will house our business, community and alumni teams with outward-facing engagement to businesses being a core focus.

Colleagues from across the enterprise, entrepreneur and engagement areas of the university will be co-located in this building to provide a very public commitment to business and enterprise. Combining specialists in leadership development, research, commercialisation, intellectual property, incubator start-ups and access to funding advice, this will set new standards for entrepreneurial engagement.

The university has also formalised a memorandum of understanding with Bruntwood SciTech linked to the Birmingham Knowledge Quarter – this is gaining national and international significance, as we seek to create an axis of industry, research, innovation and enterprise and establish a leading role in driving socio-economic transformation through digital innovation.

These are just two examples of our future strategic direction and commitment to continuing our several decades of work in being an entrepreneurial university, leading by example, actions and investment.