e-Innovation Centre tenants – Buildfifty5 Anticipate Major Growth

BuildFifty5 Living, part of the well-established project management and construction development company BuildFifty5 Ltd, launched in early 2019 to focus on the redevelopment and improvement of the affordable homes, older persons, and assisted living markets.

“Over the last 17 years we have amassed a wealth of experience working with private and institutional developers and funds. During lockdown, we spent time refining our approach and preparing the ground for what we anticipate being major growth during the next few years,” said Kieran Danby, co-owner of Buildfifty5 Living.

With its team operating from the E-Innovation Centre, BuildFifty5 Living works closely with affordable older persons accommodation, housing and assisted living registered providers to deliver bespoke and affordable homes, which in turn will help to regenerate high streets and communities.

Up to and during lockdown BuildFifty5 Living facilitated a £2.7 million scheme for Citizen Housing (a housing association group that owns and manages 30,000 homes across the West Midlands) for the construction of 24-homes on the site of a former pub in Smethwick. Kieran Danby, co-owner of Buildfifty5 Living, said: “The redevelopment of the Thimblemill Pub site demonstrated how we identify opportunities that benefit from the fresh approach to design, procurement and collaboration we bring. Many companies had overlooked the brownfield site, however, we recognised the opportunity to galvanise a team that successfully overcame the challenges involved and delivered a fully affordable scheme.”

Mr Danby added: “Set against the background of ever-increasing house prices, living costs and pressure on appropriate public services, demand for affordable, supported and specialist housing has never been greater, particularly in the West Midlands and Shropshire.

He adds: “Our approach dares to be different. Our site acquisition strategy is enabling us to be one step ahead of the game. So much so, that we are now helping to re-develop sites within Telford Borough, our own county of Shropshire and much further afield across the UK.

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Academic partnerships could help with business recovery

The University of Wolverhampton is all set to share its management expertise via the Government’s Management Knowledge Transfer Partnership (mKTP) programme which could help businesses with their post-Covid recovery.

Like the highly successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme, a Management KTP will create a unique three-way partnership between a company, a team of experienced academics and a qualified graduate. The projects can last between 12 months to three years.

Emma Pearson, Knowledge Transfer Manager, at the University said: “During these uncertain times many businesses are concerned about their company’s future. Post-Covid recovery means many companies will need to explore new innovative ways of working, from establishing remote offices to completely adopting new business models.”

“Effective management can make the difference between a thriving and failing company, and a part funded Management KTP could be the solution.”

“Our academic experts from the Wolverhampton Business School at the University of Wolverhampton are welcoming the introduction of Management KTPS, which allow them to work in partnership with companies to identify new approaches and deliver transformative change.”

Management KTPs are part-funded up to 67 per cent of the total project cost. Management KTPs are co-funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, a department of the UK Government and Innovate UK.

For more information, see the full article.

Bronze Labs shortlisted for ‘AI Innovation of the Year’

Bronze Labs has been shortlisted for ‘AI Innovation of the Year’ within the UK Digital Leaders 100 awards for their work on “The Tribe Project”. Tribe is an Artificial Intelligence centred initiative to directly tackle national care inequality. The finalists come down to  a public vote – to support the project and your fellow Entrepreneur please take a few seconds to vote for Tribe here: https://digileaders100.com/ai-innovation

Earlier this year CEO Richard Howells won ‘Best British Tech Pioneer’ (West Midlands) for his work in to address social economic inequality and is now focused on scaling the Tribe ‘Tech for Good’ projects nationally.