CfBI New Year Briefing 2014 - now live

Visit http://www.cfbi.com/NYBriefing2014.pdf for the latest briefing from the Centre for Business Innovation (CfBI) with new initiatives coming up during January and February  in Social Media for Business as well as Inclusive Design .. and global expansion plans for Microfluidics and Nano Carbon Enhanced Materials.

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MF5 Microfluidics Consortium to visit San Diego Feb 6 & 7

The second meeting of the MF5 Microfluidics Consortium will take place in San Diego on Feb 6 & 7.

The MF5 consortium is a group of 20 companies including: Philips, Janssen, Sony, Dolomite, Micronit, JSR Micro and IMT  from across Europe and USA with a shared mission to grow the market for microfluidics enabled products and services.

In San Diego the consortium will be hosted by UCSD and by Illumina. There will be a special "meet MF5" session on Feb 7 for organisations which are interested in joining the consortium

For further information please contact Peter Hewkin on cel@cfbi.com

Social Media for Business Consortium launches January 23rd

CfBI's much awaited 'Social Media for Business' consortium launches on January 23rd in Cambridge. With members from three countries covering retail, aerospace, big pharma, finance, media, chemicals, charities, government and transportation sectors this is an ambitious venture intended to allow organisations who are applying social media beyond 'just selling' to compare notes in a trusting confidential environment about what work and what not when trying to influence corporate Key Performance Indicators.

Rob Morland who leads the consortium, says "Members of the SMfB-1 consortium are working on areas as diverse as: 'innovation management' 'recruitment' 'improving service outcomes' 'reputation management' and 'shareholder engagement' - we are excited by the prospect of helping them learn from and with each other about best practise .. also beyond B2C".

The consortium runs for a 12 month period and will subsequently meet in Germany, Holland, Scotland and London. Its agenda is set by the needs of its members. For details visit: http://www.cfbi.com/SMfB.htm 

Open Innovation meets Big Data consortium to visit European Commission

Members of the OI4 "Open Innovation Consortium" have recently decided to focus on the space where 'Open Innovation meets Big Data' .. looking at opportunities to trade data rich assets across national and company boundaries in the same spirit that Henry Chesbrough envisages for IP.

While we have found new classes of business opportunity in areas as diverse as Smart Cities, Smart Devices and Smart Supply Chains we also see challenges associated with Regulation (or lack thereof) and the perception that 'Open Data' might be interpreted as 'Free Data'.

With this in mind we are pleased to have been invited to present our thinking to The European Commission (DG CONNECT) on November 18th in Brussels.

This is most timely with a new round of Horizon 2020 projects including a special interest in Big Data coming though early in 2014

MF5 Microfluidics Consortium Launches in Holland on December 13th

The fifth annual cycle of the Microfluidics Consortium MF5 will start on December 13th in Ede in the Netherlands.

Our mission is to 'grow the market for Microfluidics enabled products and services'

We are delighted to have won Andreas Manz (grandfather of the industry!) to address the group which will also be working on 'business models' 'new materials' as well as our new industry directory (visit www.microfluidicsdirectory.com/home.html for a sneak preview).

In the coming year the consortium will visit San Diego (February), Switzerland, Cambridge (with Open Day), Boston (with Open Day) and make a study tour to China.

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Inclusive Design Consortium ID2 launches Feb 6th

We are delighted to have won blue chip players from across FMCG, Packaging, Built Environment and  Electrical Goods into the 2nd cycle of the Inclusive Design for Business Advantage Consortium.

Working closely with the Engineering Design Centre at the University of Cambridge this group will work together over a 12 month period to identify how to make their products and services accessible to the ever increasing portion of the market place who have 'multiple minor disabilities' (i.e. the elderly).

Members of the consortium will also seek out opportunities to bid in the upcoming Horizon 2020 round which has a special strand dedicated to accessibility.

The consortium launches in Cambridge on February 6th with members dining together in Trinity Hall the night before to get to know each other.