Dr Nicholas Lancaster, Director of Innovation and Enterprise Service, highlighted opportunities for growth, creativity and innovation available to businesses, through the University. University Campus Milton Keynes (UCMK) also attended the event, represented by Dr Paul Sant, Associate Dean at UCMK.

Businesses learnt how best to connect with the University and UCMK, as well as how to find out about funding opportunities and collaborative projects. The event showed how businesses can make the most of the expertise, research and facilities available throughout the Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire areas.

The University can help businesses benefit from the MK Data Hub, part of the £16m MK Smart project led by the Open University, which aims to support innovation, economic growth and sustainability throughout Milton Keynes.

UCMK provides a course to make sense of ‘Big Data’, in addition to encouraging collaboration and knowledge exchange between businesses, researchers and students at the University.

Dr Sant, speaking at the event, said: “Data can potentially make you money and let you do things in a more efficient way; we would love to work with businesses and would welcome them into our innovation space.”

The half-day conference, held at the Transport Systems Catapult Centre in Milton Keynes, included five other universities from the South East Midlands Universities group.

Each university attending the event was given ten minutes to explain how local businesses could benefit if they were to team up with the universities on future projects.

Greg Clark MP, Minister for Universities, Science and Cities, said: “The collaboration between these seven universities in the South East Midlands and local businesses is an excellent example of how to get the most from the UK’s education, innovation and research potential.”