By Carolyn Sloan
Spectator
NovaNewsNow.com
Geared toward the growth of successful companies in rural Nova Scotia as well as attracting outside investment in the community, the Business Incubation Centre, located at the Nova Scotia Community College’s Middleton site, will see the arrival of its first tenant as early as March 1.
The BIC project is an initiative of NSCC’s Applied Geomatics Research Group and is an extension of a proposal funded over the past three years through the federal College and Community Innovation Pilot Program.
Having recently fulfilled its research objectives for the pilot project, and obtained support from NSCC as well as the four municipalities within the county, the AGRG is now in the process of writing a proposal to the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Nova Scotia Office of Economic Development to request funding for the business incubator over the next three years.
According to business incubation coordinator Randy Cochrane, the BIC project is an opportunity for the college to leverage its capital and human assets in an effort to advance both research and community economic development objectives. He explains that the college has the physical space to accommodate the incubator, as well as the necessary expertise of academics and staff to create a supportive environment for start up companies.
“This project is about creating a business incubator to grow small start up companies,” says Cochrane. “The opportunity before us, and is clearly one of the directives of this project, [to]...diversify and enhance the rural community…[and to] develop successful companies in rural Nova Scotia.”
The BIC will provide small start-up technology businesses in Geomatics, related information technology and applied communications, with resources and services targeted to accelerate their successful development. Incubated business will have access to mentoring and professional business services, including financial advice, technical services, technology support, rental space on site, and business planning.
Other community organizations, such as Nova Scotia Business Inc. and the Acadia Centre for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, have already climbed on board to share their expertise and services to the fledgling companies within the incubator.
The research group is in the process of incubating two small companies, and is looking at the possibility of incubating a third.
Cochrane notes that one of the aims of the BIC project is to repatriate graduates of NSCC’s Centre of Geographic Sciences by giving the young professionals the opportunity to start their own business within the local community. The BIC is also part of an initiative to attract outside investment in the community and create a geomatics industry cluster within the region.
COGS graduate and AGRG intern Kevin Garroway will be joining two of his colleagues in becoming the first entrepreneurs to move into the business incubator. While there is no shortage of jobs for graduates of the advanced GIS program, the three partners wanted to create work that would best utilize and cater to their individual skills and interests. The graduates are already going the business incubation process and have developed an initial product, though there are still opportunities for the three to develop additional products as their operation grows.
“It definitely minimizes the risk of being a start up business,” says Garroway.
By Carolyn Sloan
Spectator
NovaNewsNow.com
Geared toward the growth of successful companies in rural Nova Scotia as well as attracting outside investment in the community, the Business Incubation Centre, located at the Nova Scotia Community College’s Middleton site, will see the arrival of its first tenant as early as March 1.
The BIC project is an initiative of NSCC’s Applied Geomatics Research Group and is an extension of a proposal funded over the past three years through the federal College and Community Innovation Pilot Program.
Having recently fulfilled its research objectives for the pilot project, and obtained support from NSCC as well as the four municipalities within the county, the AGRG is now in the process of writing a proposal to the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Nova Scotia Office of Economic Development to request funding for the business incubator over the next three years.
According to business incubation coordinator Randy Cochrane, the BIC project is an opportunity for the college to leverage its capital and human assets in an effort to advance both research and community economic development objectives. He explains that the college has the physical space to accommodate the incubator, as well as the necessary expertise of academics and staff to create a supportive environment for start up companies.
“This project is about creating a business incubator to grow small start up companies,” says Cochrane. “The opportunity before us, and is clearly one of the directives of this project, [to]...diversify and enhance the rural community…[and to] develop successful companies in rural Nova Scotia.”
The BIC will provide small start-up technology businesses in Geomatics, related information technology and applied communications, with resources and services targeted to accelerate their successful development. Incubated business will have access to mentoring and professional business services, including financial advice, technical services, technology support, rental space on site, and business planning.
Other community organizations, such as Nova Scotia Business Inc. and the Acadia Centre for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, have already climbed on board to share their expertise and services to the fledgling companies within the incubator.
The research group is in the process of incubating two small companies, and is looking at the possibility of incubating a third.
Cochrane notes that one of the aims of the BIC project is to repatriate graduates of NSCC’s Centre of Geographic Sciences by giving the young professionals the opportunity to start their own business within the local community. The BIC is also part of an initiative to attract outside investment in the community and create a geomatics industry cluster within the region.
COGS graduate and AGRG intern Kevin Garroway will be joining two of his colleagues in becoming the first entrepreneurs to move into the business incubator. While there is no shortage of jobs for graduates of the advanced GIS program, the three partners wanted to create work that would best utilize and cater to their individual skills and interests. The graduates are already going the business incubation process and have developed an initial product, though there are still opportunities for the three to develop additional products as their operation grows.
“It definitely minimizes the risk of being a start up business,” says Garroway.
