The High Growth Innovation Sprint Programme supports early-stage and scaling businesses in overcoming scaleup barriers. As the flagship programme of Edge Hill University’s SME Productivity & Innovation Centre (PIC), this fully funded three-month initiative is tailored to scaling businesses in priority sectors across Lancashire and the Liverpool City Region.

The programme serves as a strategic gateway to the University, providing strategy development, intensive online workshops, one-to-one mentoring, and rapid innovation tools. It helps businesses develop a scaleup strategy for domestic or international expansion, supporting market penetration, market development, or product and service innovation. By leveraging market research and data insights, it enables informed decision-making to accelerate growth.

Beyond the programme, scaling businesses access collaboration opportunities with the University, students, and the PIC SME network, alongside referrals to finance and funding providers such as Rose Bud Finance, MSIF, Lloyds, and Barclays. Additional support is available through PIC’s Skills for Growth (connecting businesses with students and graduates), Leadership for Growth (offering leadership and management training), and the Innovation Adoption Accelerator (for businesses seeking technology investment).

Since 2017, the Innovation Sprint Programme has supported 304 scaling businesses, leading to the creation of 585 new jobs and the development of 144 new products, services, or technologies. On average, participants achieve 29% growth in turnover, with 88% reporting improvements in resource allocation, 83% investing in process enhancements, and 88% strengthening their innovation and growth management. Additionally, 93% have seen noticeable improvements in market penetration strategies. The programme’s latest independent evaluation, published in March 2023, found that businesses typically achieve profitability improvements of 25% to 48%, delivering a return on public investment of £1 : £13.90.

The programme also collaborates with local business growth hubs (BOOST and Growth Platform), integrating participant data into a shared CRM system to provide tailored growth support and brokerage services.

Over the past year, the Innovation Sprint has been embedded in UK Shared Prosperity Fund initiatives, working with regional universities to support scaleups, including the Liverpool City Region Horizons Programme (with the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University), the Lancashire Universities Innovation Programme (with the University of Central Lancashire and Lancaster University), and the West Lancashire Collaborative Innovation Programme (with the University of Central Lancashire). Its data-driven methodology was also used in a Liverpool City Region report assessing the economic contribution and scaleup potential of the Professional Business Services sector.

Looking ahead, Spring 2025 will see the launch of a dedicated AI Innovation Sprint, providing businesses with a structured approach to AI adoption and integration. This initiative will support companies in leveraging AI-driven insights, automating processes, and developing AI-enabled products and services, ensuring they remain competitive in an increasingly technology-driven marketplace.

“The programme was the best I have ever been on. With the support of the SME growth experts, I now have a clear plan of action for sales and feel confident in the direction I need to take the business to grow sustainable. As a direct result of the programme, we have increased our market share and adopted a new technology which has contributed to us securing our largest ever contract.” – Paalan Sood, CEO, Sood Marketing

“The adoption of new business models has supported the foundation of needed change within the business, allowing the business to minimise disruption whilst growing and remaining agile. This has directly impacted turnover, resulting in a 33% increase and has helped define the company’s strategy for the next 2 years.” – Rasheed Pakwashi, Technical Director

EDGE HILL UNIVERSITY: HIGH GROWTH INNOVATION SPRINT PROGRAMME website