Design Hub

The Design Hub was created in 2003 by intellectual property specialists ip21. Its purpose is to raise the profile of the design process and to broaden awareness of the use of design in all areas of business.

The hub assists companies, both existing and start-up, to understand and use design more effectively and to see how the design process and the benefits that stem from that can make them more competitive and more profitable.

The counsellors, on hand to advise and guide inventors through the design process, are all accredited members of the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (SFEDI).

Norfolk County Council helps to finance the Design Hub. In 2004 it allocated £10,000 to this service. The hub is an effective complement to services provided by Business Link for Norfolk and other organisations in the county that are aimed at assisting innovation.

Prototypical

During the course of the next year the Design Hub will extend its programme to include a new inventors club, Prototypical, which will be part of Norfolk County Council’s Engineering Enterprise Hub.

At Prototypical model makers will be able to translate their ideas into three dimensions/ physical forms using the prototyping/model making facilities. There will be counselling provision for design advice, patent and other IPR guidance, legal assistance and grant application. ip21 will also offer expert IPR advice on a surgery basis at the Innovation Centre to be built on the Lotus site at Hethel.

Contact ip21

Telephone: +44 (0) 1603 457008
Facsimile: +44 (0) 1603 251125

Website: www.ip21.co.uk
Email: info@ip21.co.uk