1 January 2017

Digital Innovation Hub

Business Plan 2017

2 January 2017

Contents

Project Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 3

Aim of the project .................................................................................................................................... 4

Objectives of the project ......................................................................................................................... 4

The current spaces ................................................................................................................................... 5

Factors supporting the creation of the facility ......................................................................................... 6

Objective 1 – Provide support for new and fledgling businesses. ............................................................. 8

Objectives 2 & 3 – Grow apprenticeship provision in Bucks and retain Bucks talent. ..............................13

Objective 4 – Support technical incubation and inspire young people to consider technical careers. .....14

Objective 5 – Support businesses with their cyber and organisational security. .....................................17

Project costs & BEST’s contribution ........................................................................................................19

Supplementary information....................................................................................................................20

Appendix A – ground floor plan ..............................................................................................................21

Appendix B – financial headlines for the incubation space .....................................................................22

Appendix B – profit & loss for the incubation space ...............................................................................23

3 January 2017

Project Summary

The project will create an exciting Digital Innovation Hub in Bucks where business and education

interact to meet BTVLEP and regional skills priorities in design and technology at the new University

Campus Aylesbury Vale (UCAV). UCAV is a campus operated by Buckinghamshire Education, Training

& Skills (BEST), a partnership between Bucks New University and Aylesbury College. At this new

facility, small and early-stage, high-growth businesses will be able to access advice, support and

incubation spaces as well as the wider facilities and opportunities provided by the campus’s core

activities on the upper floors. The development will incorporate a business service to meet graduate

level skills gaps through brokering the supply of suitably qualified graduates into regional businesses,

and a technical design facility to support the incubation of technical businesses and inspire the region’s

young people to consider careers in STEM subjects. A mobile facility will use simulation to take the

BEST partnership’s work and opportunities to wider audiences, particularly where the college and

university seek to widen participation in FE and HE among traditionally under-represented groups.

UCAV is already a centre for higher level business and professional learning, distinct from the

traditional activities of its parent institutions. Aylesbury College is merging with Amersham &

Wycombe College and the new, larger college as part of BEST means that BEST will represent the large

majority of Buckinghamshire’s FE and HE provision. The vision for UCAV is to meet the higher level

workforce development needs of Bucks’ businesses and to provide a hub for innovation, business

creation, networking and incubation. It will inspire people with facilities and support to meet their

skills needs, create knowledge-based businesses and allow them to learn from employees in other

businesses through the learning and teaching approaches adopted for professional learners. UCAV

will be the centre for the higher and degree level apprenticeships, through to level seven, provided by

the College and the University, responding to the business demand that the apprenticeship levy is

stimulating. Consistent with the needs of professional learners, the facility offers flexible provision

including evenings and weekends.

With the assisted living lab on the second floor of the campus, we have the opportunity for

entrepreneurs to test prototypes in a simulated domestic setting. UCAV also has a cyber security

classroom. It does not yet have the quarantined 'dirty lab' facility which could host an image of a

company's own server and subject it to attack, training a business's IT engineers in how to resist such

an attack. Our research suggests it is this facility that is needed by businesses working in the digital

economy and by start-up businesses in general, cyber security and organisational resilience being a

foundation of a strong business. The proposal installs this capacity, realising the potential to provide

this service to businesses and to launch a new degree apprenticeship programme in cybersecurity,

accredited by the Tech Partnership of leading businesses with digital technologies skills needs.

In summary, UCAV is an ideal location at which to base a new business facility. It will be a genuinely

integrated business and higher education facility, from arrival in a joint reception atrium to the mix of

development and education routes offered by the campus. UCAV’s students and businesspeople will

work alongside each other in a professional environment with facilities to enhance business and study.

It will be a university campus where the students and businesses graduate together, moving on to

higher levels of education, employment and profitability. A strong aspect of this partnership is the

commitment we will seek from prospective businesses to engage with the educational campus and its

students. This will not be simply a tenant-landlord financial relationship. Tenants will be selected

upon their commitment to work with the campus and our students for mutual benefit.

4 January 2017

Aim of the project

University Campus Aylesbury Vale’s (UCAV) Digital Innovation Hub will be the area’s leading

destination and ideal environment for businesses and entrepreneurs in design and digital technology

sectors seeking support for start-up, innovation and growth. When delivered well, incubators create

a virtuous cycle of employment, employer-education collaboration and increased revenues for local

service businesses. The new facility will be a hub for business-to-business interaction, knowledge

exchange and access to apprenticeship and higher skills development, all of which will help to retain

talent in Bucks and attract talent from other areas. The Digital Innovation Hub will also have a design

capability, enabling businesses to undertake research, develop prototypes and proofs of concept. The

facility will also be used to inspire the region’s schoolchildren and those in further education to

consider digital careers, through activities which make use of the facility and the mobile outreach

facility. UCAV’s early investment in cyber education will be built upon to provide a fully isolated

networking laboratory to simulate cyber-attacks and network resilience. Cyber security is one of the

fastest growing markets in the ICT sector, with the potential to yield huge business opportunities,

particularly for small digital freelancers looking to develop innovative new products and services.

Objectives of the project

There are five objectives for the Digital Innovation Hub:

1. Provide support for new and fledgling digital businesses.

Create a hub for Bucks’ businesses and start-ups with an incubation facility for hatching new digital

businesses and an environment for business-to-business interaction. The Digital Innovation Hub will

establish an innovation and incubation facility for digital businesses, particularly those invested in

UCAV’s existing specialisms of integrated care, engineering design and cyber security. There is a clear

link between businesses in those sectors and the BEST partnership’s work, which would make locating

the facility in the campus an attractive proposition. Tenants would benefit from the supply of talented

apprentices and students to internships or part-time roles, and the campus’s graduating students

would provide a pipeline of new employees for growing businesses. There is the prospect of student-

sharing, where two or more start-ups could employ a student or graduate on a part-time basis, giving

the business the support it needs on a pattern that suits their needs, but with the student getting the

benefit of employment with multiple businesses. Incubators would support our own graduating

students to develop entrepreneurial skills and provide them with support in the early stage of their

businesses’ development. With approximately 24 Bucks New University students establishing their

own businesses each year, we have an early pipeline of prospective tenants which is likely to grow

when future students are aware of the facility. We would look to retain the services of an experienced

hub operator to provide the ancillary support typically required by start-ups and growing small

businesses.

2. Grow apprenticeship provision in Bucks.

Create a linked facility for working with businesses to articulate their skills needs and provide advice,

guidance and support on the range of programmes and funding available. This would include practical

support for administration of the apprenticeship levy and digital voucher scheme, employer

contributions and the development of suitable apprenticeship standards at all levels up to Master’s

level, transforming latent business demand generated by the levy into actual demand for higher level

apprenticeships and the upskilling of the workforce in priority business sectors. An Apprenticeship

5 January 2017

Training Agency will provide particular value to smaller businesses without the capacity to employ a

full-time apprentice, but for whom sharing an apprentice with similar businesses would be attractive.

This is an important part of our unique offer to prospective incubated businesses.

3. Retain Bucks talent.

Create a service that will connect businesses to opportunities for student placements, internships, live

briefs and employment for apprentices and graduates. The service will provide advertisement, initial

selection, response handling and reference checks. This interaction will enable businesses to benefit

from the skills and knowledge of our diverse student population, and employ graduates who will make

a valued contribution to their organisation. Crucially, this service will help Bucks retain its graduates

so that those educated in the county can use their local knowledge and the business contacts built

over the period of their study, to good effect for their employers. The aforementioned opportunities

for Bucks graduates to establish their new start-ups in the campus will also retain talent that might

otherwise have left the county to set up elsewhere.

4. Support technical incubation and inspire young people to consider technical careers.

Create a design facility as a professional space for technical design and virtual testing, enabling design

entrepreneurs to innovate and network whilst also providing a resource for schools and community

groups to stimulate interest in design and technology careers. A second, mobile facility will take some

of the laboratory’s capability and other aspects of the partners’ provision on the road, giving us the

capability to visit schools and colleges to inspire young people. The university and college, as part of

their wider participation programmes, will use this facility to engage with young people in parts of the

area where participation in HE is low.

5. Support businesses with their cyber and organisational security.

Expand upon the initial investment in the IT and cyber infrastructure at UCAV to complete the

development of specialist 'dirty lab' and secure server environments, enabling more advanced delivery

of cyber programmes and innovation to include digital forensics and penetration testing. This facility

would be an on-site resource available for the incubation businesses to design and test resilient

websites, databases and payment processes. We will work closely with The Tech Partnership to

develop standards and with two large and Aylesbury-based cyber companies so they have a local

centre for development, interaction and recruitment. The Tech Partnership is the network of

employers working to create skills for the UK's digital economy and for a million tech jobs by 2025.

The current spaces

Construction of the campus was completed in October 2015 with fit-out for teaching and technical lab

space on floors one and two and a reception area on the ground floor. The current configuration of

UCAV's ground floor (1,285m2 in total) includes 720m2 of shell space in addition to the operating

atrium and reception areas. These shell spaces were identified in the original plans developed with

AVDC as restaurant and café spaces, but with town centre development in the locality also

encompassing restaurant space, this is no longer either required or in demand. This proposal will use

the two areas previously identified for restaurant spaces and currently shell with capped services, to

accommodate the facilities identified in objectives 1-4. A small cafe space (56m2) will also be created

within the proposed fit-out of 720m2. A floor plan can be found at Appendix A.

6 January 2017

To meet the purposes outlined in this bid, the 720m2 of shell space needs fitting out for the specific

business support and innovation purposes outlined in this proposal. The fit-out would include

flooring, suspended ceilings, mechanical and electrical services from the capped utilities in place as

well as the creation of a mix of open plan and office spaces, appropriately equipped with technical

and IT infrastructure and furniture. Both spaces will be accessed through the campus’s atrium. It is

planned that the spacious UCAV atrium and Reception will provide reception service for the two

developed spaces.

Factors supporting the creation of the facility

Location

The campus is located close to Aylesbury’s town centre, is close to several large public car parks and

is 10 minutes’ walk away from the railway station, from which London is only one hour away.

Aylesbury itself is the centre of Aylesbury Vale, so reference to Aylesbury Vale District Council’s (AVDC)

economic development plan is appropriate. With a recently successful application to be a Garden

Town, there are elements of that proposal which are directly relevant to this proposal.

Connectivity

UCAV as an educational site does not currently have an open-access wifi system. Wifi access must be

pre-booked or arranged on site. We recognise that to meet the needs of a new audience, we must

improve the wifi arrangements. As part of the IT work required to connect the ground floor spaces

we will install a separate guest wifi network that can be managed locally and used by tenant

businesses and visitors. We already have high-speed broadband coming into the campus so additional

circuits will have good levels of bandwidth and data speeds.

Since the first iteration of the bid, we commissioned O2 to assess mobile phone reception in the

campus and in the Waterside area. O2 measured 4G coverage and 3G data rates as poor to average

outside the campus, which somewhat limits our current ability to improve reception inside but we are

getting quotes for signal booster or repeater equipment to ensure that the reception and data rates

within the building are acceptable. A new mast is planned just 180m from the campus in 2018 which

will improve reception and data rates in and around the campus.

Business landscape

AVDC identified emerging and new markets, including:

Assisted Living and tele-health technologies

Aerospace and defence

Creative industries (ref: “The Geography of Creativity in the UK”, NESTA 2016)

ICT, electronics and software, which support other sectors such as: healthcare, the digital

economy and professional and business services

Food and drink manufacture

Research, science and technology

AVDC’s research showed that companies across Buckinghamshire reported hard to fill vacancies in

skilled trades, associate professional roles, manufacturing and technical occupations. AVDC,

Government and skills bodies put apprenticeships at the heart of what they describe as the ‘new

system’, with employers investing in their own success, supporting higher level skills apprenticeships

to support the future economy, with routes to level seven now available.

7 January 2017

Local consultation with companies in Aylesbury Vale in the manufacturing, processing, food, health,

ICT, engineering and automotive sectors has demonstrated a range of preferences and demand for

education:

Work placements and shadowing, internships and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

Apprenticeships and in-work learning

Contributing to curriculum design

Recruitment and graduate schemes

Professional qualifications

Buckinghamshire and Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (BTVLEP) identified in its business

plan (2012-31) the following sectors as those of the highest potential growth in Buckinghamshire,

providing demand for skills and education:

Food

ICT, film & digital media

Advanced engineering

Healthcare

Visitor economy

BTVLEP believe that stimulating interaction between the strong ICT and Healthcare sectors in the local

economy will stimulate the tele-health/tele-care sector, an industry forecast to grow exponentially as

the demographic profile of our residents increases, and one where UCAV has already been able to

provide leadership and take advantage of emerging demand for higher education and research.

The Garden Town project identifies that Aylesbury faces a number of employment challenges,

including:

providing a diverse and flexible range of employment sites and premises for new and

existing businesses;

improving high value employment sites by making the best use of existing stock and

encouraging its refurbishment and renovation;

retaining highly qualified graduates and reduce the current levels of outward commuting;

ensuring there is support and nurturing activities for new enterprises to encourage the

growth of the economy.

Secondary education

Aylesbury Vale has a mix of grammar and upper schools, academies and a UTC. Overall educational

performance is relatively high compared to a national average but there is an attainment gap and

there are areas of lower performance and significant scope for local progression and improvement.

In Aylesbury Vale, 37% of people have level 4 qualifications. Aylesbury Vale has a higher population

of level 3 qualified people (63%), indicating a greater higher education-ready population.

The university is part of the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP). Aylesbury contains

Quarrendon ward, one of the target wards for the outreach programme. Only 18.9% of young people

in the ward access higher education. With the BEST partnership’s Access to HE programmes running

from the campus, we have an opportunity to provide a route to qualification and employment for the

8 January 2017

many young people in the ward. The mobile facility will take outreach activity to schools and

community groups in target wards.

Population and the economy

With the successful Garden Town proposal, the population of Aylesbury Vale is projected to grow from

around 180,000 today to 213,000 by 2026. With the new Garden Town project, Aylesbury itself will

see a growth in population of 50% in the next twenty years, an additional 15,000 homes.

Summary

UCAV is already responding to identified priorities and demand, such as with its growth in Access to

Higher Education programmes, making HE accessible to more people, and its successful start in

integrated healthcare, but we want to establish and present a viable and distinct portfolio of higher

education progression pathways to businesses and their current and future workforce. Locating

business support services and incubation facilities at the campus will provide a convenient and directly

relevant link between Bucks businesses and the programmes offered at UCAV through the BEST

partnership. Adding a technical design facility would directly support the many businesses in the Vale

who could use such equipment, as well as inspiring and teaching the next generation’s workforce to

use and enjoy the technologies and techniques their future Vale employers want them to have

experience with.

Aylesbury Vale’s residents are most commonly employed in jobs requiring high skill levels, with more

than half of all roles being in managerial, professional or technical occupations. Services on site to

help employers’ existing staff develop as well as helping growing businesses search for, recruit and

train their next employees would be a welcome addition to the centre of the Vale.

Objective 1 – Provide support for new and fledgling bus inesses.

The ground floor of the university campus will be transformed into a site where business and

education interact. Hosting this facility on both sides of the main atrium is a deliberate decision

designed to ensure that the entrance and reception for users of the facility and students and delegates

of the campus is identical. Whilst both developed spaces can operate with their own entrances, we

do not want to create a distinction between educational and professional spaces, rather that they are

both seen as part of the campus and that the mutual benefits of co-existence are obvious. It is

important to new and emerging businesses in incubation spaces that those spaces are available 24

hours a day, seven days a week, to accommodate any international business across time zones or

simply in recognition of the unusual hours demanded by a new business. We will configure the ground

floor of the campus so that 24/7 access to the atrium and the incubation spaces is possible whilst the

upper floors remain secure outside the educational hours. The atrium space itself is already well

configured for incubation space use. With a large reception desk, toilets, vending machines, wifi and

semi-private meeting spaces, it is ideal as a place to meet clients or for informal meetings and

networking. Being part of the university campus’s life is another benefit, the atrium being a place

where students and tutors can mix with the business tenants.

This facility will be located in both locations A and B, shown on the floor plan in Appendix A. The

overall space is 720m2. The approximate cost of developing the shell space into suitable space is

9 January 2017

£620k. Further approximate expenditure of £132k for furniture and IT infrastructure and equipment

brings the total anticipated development cost to c.£752k.

As part of its new approach to innovation and knowledge exchange, Bucks New University is

committed to growing the innovation pipeline from its core research and innovation centres in health

and creative industry-facing programmes. The proposed hub and incubation space forms part of this

wider plan. The UCAV site will be especially relevant to digital and IT based innovators given the

planned investment in enabling resources, whilst the Wycombe site will be of value for innovators

needing access to our maker spaces and workshops. The university plans that the management of the

proposed UCAV innovation hub will form part of the activity coordinated by an external agency which

will be procured to run both this and the Health and Care Hub, giving a commercially viable area of

space to attract new businesses and ensure competitive fit out costs and enhanced marketing. If

successful, we will run a tender exercise to invite applications from experienced hub operators to run

the facility.

A number of the university’s programmes encourage entrepreneurialism and have a track record of

spawning new businesses and this new facility would be an option for some of those new businesses.

Our first tenants will potentially be some of the university’s own graduates. In the last three years of

graduating students, 320 Bucks students have become self-employed or created their own business.

An incubation director serving the centre will meet prospective tenants and therefore have a good

understanding of tenants’ businesses and where links can be exploited. The director is a fundamental

part of the service offered, being on hand to help the tenant businesses develop and grow. There will

be a budget to call in external support where required to ensure the growth and success of our

tenants.

A fundamental part of our approach is to ensure that businesses are not simply paying tenants. Part

of the attraction is the potential interaction between businesses and the students and teaching staff.

We seek businesses who want to involve themselves with the life of the campus, involving students in

project work, committing to supporting the curriculum through guest lectures and presentations and

providing opportunities for students and apprentices to experience the reality of new and growing

small businesses alongside their studies. The cyber and design facilities created should the bid be

successful can be accessed by tenant businesses at preferential rates. The campus is host to regular

breakfast briefings and various other business-to-business events and conferences. We would expect

tenant businesses to play a part in those opportunities and perhaps be the subjects of our monthly

breakfast events.

The attractiveness of the space to prospective clients goes beyond the environment. The facilities

elsewhere in the building are all potentially attractive to a small business or a start-up. Having on-site

support from the college’s Apprentice Training Agency is a useful addition to the portfolio. The ATA

would allow small businesses to share apprentices, perhaps the businesses not being large enough in

their early phase to employ an apprentice outright. At the higher level of skills, the university’s

graduate internship/placement service, also on site at UCAV, would provide ready access to talented

undergraduates and graduates able to assist with project work. For small businesses in technical and

innovation areas, the neighbouring design space would be an invaluable resource for research and

development, prototyping and demonstration. Another aspect of business support can be provided

by the college’s Copy Shop, a professional printing and reproductive agency.

10 January 2017

By developing the café space, the business incubation space would benefit from a facility that has

proved to be central to the success of many similar spaces around the country. Professional and

creative meeting places have become an important part of business life for entrepreneurs and in

keeping with our vision that the campus is a professional business and learning environment, having

a café that encourages networking and collaboration between clients of the incubation space, their

own clients and the professional users of the university campus itself is an attractive proposition that

will encourage and support business innovation and growth.

Assessing demand and the potential market

It is difficult to prove demand for our facility, but what we have done is to infer likely demand by using

a number of sources. The following section will look at the business landscape in the area, reflect on

the developments due for Aylesbury in the coming years mentioned in the previous section, the

current options available to start-ups, trends from other incubation centres in the south east and

benchmarks from a centre in Bicester, a town not dissimilar to Aylesbury in terms of its size and

growth. None of these will prove the case or guarantee a level of occupancy because to an extent,

our centre will create a market, but together they provide a level of confidence that the centre will be

an attractive proposition and will reach levels of occupancy that make the project sustainable.

The nature of local businesses

The Geography of Creativity in the UK, a 2016 report by NESTA, states that creative industries are

growing more rapidly than other sectors in most parts of the country. High Wycombe and Aylesbury

features as one of 47 creative clusters in the UK, having attributes of high concentration and growth.

Creative businesses make up 12.9% of all businesses in the area and 10% of all jobs. Digital technical

industries grew 32% faster than the rest of the economy from 2010 to 2014, with job creation rates

almost three times higher than in the rest of the economy.

Buckinghamshire ranks 4th among the 39 LEPs for the share of employment in the digital economy,

with 8% of businesses being in the digital economy in 2014. Within that share, computer consulting

accounts for the largest proportion, ahead of digital programme production and computer

programming. In the year to July 2016, there were 7,600 job opportunities in the digital economy in

Bucks, a third of which were for programmers and software developers.

There are only around 35 businesses in AV with more than 50 employees, 15 of which have over 250

employees. Around 1,000 businesses in AV have 10-50 employees and 75% of businesses have fewer

than five employees.

Local developments and current provision

The Buckinghamshire Housing and Economic Development Needs Assessment (HEDNA) report from

2016 contains a number of points pertinent to the application. Aylesbury Town Centre has a relatively

limited supply of good quality office floorspace that is becoming out-dated and less attractive for local

businesses. There is no Grade A town centre office floorspace in the town. The Employment Land

Review in Aylesbury Vale in 2012 recommended that in Aylesbury, new town office floorspace should

be encouraged in the centre.

11 January 2017

Trends and benchmarks from other centres

Research carried out for the ten years up to 2013 by an established operator, Oxford Innovation,

covered their 21 centres, eight of which are in Bucks or the neighbouring counties of Oxfordshire and

Berkshire. We have looked at the typical profile of businesses occupying incubation centres and cross-

checked it against Bucks statistics where we can, to infer the potential market.

62% of incubated businesses have an annual turnover of less than £100k. 58% of businesses moving

into the centres were previously home-based and local to the centre. This suggests a good potential

market among home-based businesses that do not wish to relocate too far from home. From a

“retaining Bucks talent” perspective, it is encouraging that 60% of business remain local to the

incubation centre after they “graduate” to their own premises.

Oxford Innovation’s established centres have an average occupancy of over 90%. A recently opened

18,000 sq ft centre in Fareham was fully occupied by the end of its first year. A centre based at UWE

in Bristol opened in August 2016 with 30% of its space pre-let. The closest centre is in Bicester, a town

that is undergoing expansion similar to that experienced by and planned for Aylesbury. A number of

the Bicester centre’s tenants travel from Aylesbury or from the Aylesbury direction.

To ensure maximum attractiveness to our potential tenants, we have explored the reasons that

businesses elect to work from incubation centres. The main reasons are the cost-effectiveness of the

space and the flexibility provided by short notice periods. For three quarters of businesses, the

convenience of location, the quality of the support services and the perception of the business by their

customers were important. Over half valued the networking opportunities generated by shared

space.

Virtual office use is most common among businesses that have graduated from the centre but

continue to use mail and phone handling services.

Business survival rates among well-supported incubated businesses exceed those of the national

average by a few percentage points within two years, to around 20% better survival rates for

businesses in their third year or beyond.

The “digital” descriptor can be appended to many types of businesses. It is also true that for many

start-ups, exact classification of their sector is simply not practical in the early days of the business as

their own markets and products evolve. Therefore to maximise the chances of the early success of the

innovation hub, we will be reasonably liberal in our interpretation of what constitutes a “digital

business”. Longer-term, hubs such as ours are particularly successful when they acquire a strength

and reputation in a field, so we will continually assess the make-up and success of our customer

businesses so as to specialise and be more discriminating when the opportunity presents itself. For

the purposes of market research, however, we should focus on digital industries.

12 January 2017

Space use and pricing

We intend to appoint a managing agent to run the facility on our behalf as part of a larger contract to

incorporate this and the other facility proposed by the university. The following figures are taken from

some initial work carried out with an existing operator for use as a benchmark.

The net lettable space of the two large ground floor spaces A and B is derived after deducting space

allocated to other services:

sq. metres sq. feet

Gross internal area 674 7255

Conferencing 110 1184

Business lounge 30 323

Common & services 101 1087

20 workstation hot-desk area 120 1292

Net lettable space 313 3369

To optimise the space for what we anticipate will be the mix of business sizes (based upon patterns in

other south east based centres), we will sub-divide that space in the following manner.

Office breakdown Unit size

(m2) Qty Total desks

Total area (m2)

2 workstation rooms 14 11 22 154

3 workstation rooms 21 5 15 105

4 workstation rooms 28 2 8 56

45 315

We intend to offer licence fee rates to longer-term tenants which are inclusive of rates, service charges

and utility costs, of £35 per square foot, or £377 per square metre per annum. Therefore, a dedicated

desk in one of the rooms shown above will cost the tenant £220 pcm and a two-workstation room will

cost £440 pcm.

For those wanting greater flexibility, they may use the hot desk facility. A dedicated hot desk can be

hired for £220 pcm. A non-dedicated desk costs £150 pcm. The plan assumes 2.5% inflationary

increases to these prices each year.

The rate for virtual office use is £70 pcm.

BEST is likely to develop the third floor of the campus in 2017. In the longer term, should the success

of the incubation facility put pressure on space, it would be possible to expand activity into a defined

area of the third floor, perhaps relocating the conference and meeting spaces to the third floor to

enable the creation of more desk areas so as to be able to accommodate more business tenants.

Assumptions

Based upon a conservative pricing structure and the confidence that the centre will be successful, we

have assumed an occupancy level for the licensed space of 50% in year one, rising to 90% in year two

and 100% in year three onwards. For the hot desks, we have been more conservative in our

predictions of occupancy than we were in the initial bid. We project 60% occupancy in year one rising

to 90% in later years. Similar levels are regularly achieved at established centres in the south east.

13 January 2017

We have assumed a level of meeting room and conference room hire, partly based upon experience

at other incubation centres and partly on current demand for space in the campus that we cannot

fulfil due to academic activities.

For expenses, we have applied an industry benchmark for costs. There are staffing and marketing

costs associated with mobilisation and pre-opening. We have assumed a management fee of £2 per

square foot plus 5% of revenue due to the managing operator.

The profit and loss shows pre-opening costs of £71.5k, a loss of £34k in year one and profits of £50-

70k in year two and onwards. At that rate, the centre breaks even for BEST during its third year of

operation and over five years, generates a cumulative profit of £173k.

A detailed profit & loss as well as other financial figures can be found in the appendices.

Objectives 2 & 3 – Grow apprenticeship provision in Bucks and retain Bucks talent.

The university and college partnership, BEST, will provide a service to support local businesses with

the new apprenticeship standards, levy and funding mechanisms. This will take the form of a service

where businesses can seek advice on choice of apprenticeship standard, paying the levy (where

applicable) and how to access funds paid into the levy for use for apprenticeships and other training.

Aylesbury College operate an Apprentice Training Agency (ATA) which can provide small businesses

with apprenticeship support in the shape of a contracted or shared apprentice.

The University has successfully secured HEFCE funding to support the development and roll-out of ten

degree apprenticeships. This is the first step in a much larger commitment to offer vocational and

academic routes to graduation in a variety of sector subject areas.

Alongside the apprenticeship service will be a service to connect businesses to opportunities for

student placements, internships, live briefs and employment for apprentices and graduates. The

service will provide advertisement, initial selection, response handling and reference checks.

The service will include a space for a staff member to be based three mornings a week. The office

space will be equipped to enable expansion of the service with increased staffing in the future. The

facility will incorporate a second, self-contained room to be booked out by recruiters for the purposes

of interviews and meetings. Outside the two private rooms (with glass walls for promotional and

security purposes) will be drop-in space with PCs and docking facilities for visiting students to search

opportunities. Rooms will be resourced so that activity is supported by appropriate technology. The

cost of equipping the space will be £13,350.

Additional resources for running the centre will include the CRM system (adopting the one currently

used by the existing service at the University), staffing costs, and ongoing office running costs.

This interaction will enable businesses to benefit from the skills and knowledge of our diverse student

population, and employ graduates who will make a valued contribution to their organisation.

We expect some of the businesses to come from the university’s own graduates, retaining their talent

in Bucks where currently, London and other parts of the south east are their likely destinations.

The consequence of the apprenticeship support and advice centre, plus the links with tenant and

visiting businesses, will drive apprenticeship recruitment at all levels. We believe that 1,350 extra

14 January 2017

students will be generated by the facility, 650 of which will be apprentices at levels two and three.

The remaining 700 extra students will be a mix of foundation degree, degree, postgraduate and degree

apprentice students.

Objective 4 – Support technical incubation and inspire young people to consider

technical careers.

This facility will occupy one of the classrooms on the upper floors. This is a change from the original

bid so as to maximise the viability of the incubation spaces and to site the facility in an educational

setting on the upper floors. The additional equipment required to create the design facility space will

cost c.£188k.

The technical design space will allow designers and inventors, young people and the wider community

to experience the use of design technologies and connect it with business advice, skills training and

education and incubation facilities for entrepreneurs to capitalise on the spark ignited by the

opportunity to experiment, and nurture that interest in a controlled, professional and entrepreneurial

environment. It is available by arrangement, for all of the incubation space tenants, providing an on-

site facility for their convenience. The space will inspire young people to pursue careers or start

businesses in design and technology sectors. It will demonstrate to young people what is possible

with design technologies and show them real people creating designs that emerge from real incubated

businesses, and which lead to highly-skilled, rewarding and stimulating roles in employment. It will

demonstrate the opportunity of high skill and graduate level work in the region, retaining graduates

with a hunger to succeed as technicians, leaders, managers and entrepreneurs. The connection of the

space for designers to design prototypes and the opportunity to connect with evaluation programmes

in the Assisted Living Lab offers the potential to lever the impact of that capacity more effectively and

to get greater benefit from the test facility. Investment would also help with the wider BTVLEP skills

priorities in relation to enhancing work based learning and teaching provision at higher levels, the

creation of placements and projects with business for students and the brokering of graduates into

businesses needing graduate employees. It will bring improved intelligence of business needs for the

university and college.

Manufacturing companies across all industries have made 3D virtual simulation a valuable engineering

tool to synthesize and define their physical products. Sophisticated simulation is no longer just for

specialists. It’s the inspiration that fuels innovation. Product engineers can make their technical

decisions driven by simulation insights, uncovering significant product and business benefits.

With powerful and intuitive simulation solutions, product engineers can virtually test new ideas,

quickly and efficiently evaluate performance, improve quality, and get the knowledge for product

innovation. There are several areas in to which the simulation suite for design could be developed.

The suite can provide a range of both simulation and design systems. CAD fits into many industries

even if they are not directly into design. The HoloLens system will allow companies to not only develop

products but also to assess their working environment. AR (Augmented Reality) is the direction in

which all mobile CAD systems are going as computing power increases. These systems allow reverse

engineering of existing systems and real-time viewing of future designs. The AR system will allow UCAV

to present an outward view to industry that will enable companies to remain competitive for the

future. It will allow them to bring their staff for training and underpin their apprentice programmes

and encourage further staff development. The software will allow aspects of research in such areas

15 January 2017

as product design, spatial design and games design and animation. The design and planning of

environments and work areas for operational management and production layout both in factories

and assembly areas will all be enhanced by this system. It is not restricted just to UCAV, it can be a

mobile system which can be taken to employer or educational premises and used to demonstrate on

site processes and systems. The process of superimposing digitally rendered images onto our real-

world surroundings gives a sense of an illusion or virtual reality. Recent developments have made this

technology accessible using CAD systems.

The MS Microsoft HoloLens is made up of specialized components that together enable holographic

computing. The optical system that works in lock-step with advanced sensors. This is linked to the HPU

that makes light work of processing a large amount of data per second. All those components and

more enable you to move freely and interact with holograms. This will allow students to develop

products and to view them in 3D in the virtual space and real space at the same time.

The inclusion of the MS HoloLens will attract both business and research projects to the UCAV site to

test and to train their staff. It will become an essential training tool in the STEM subject area and will

allow staff to interact with the designs in real time and space within the virtual environment. This will

be a significant offer to the local and regional industries for them to include both short course training

programmes and for them to use it as part of the apprenticeship degree programme in their staff

development.

The equipment and costs requirement for this are estimated as follows:

Computing equipment £40,000

10 Headsets from MS HoloLens £42,000

3D laser scanner £28,000

Digital Simulation Software 12 seats (CAD, HTC Vive, CAM, Translation) £23,000

Digital support engine (Unreal Engine, Cry Engine) £22,000

Simulation unit (setup and wire) £33,000

£188,000

The benefits to be gained from this for companies can be broken down in to the following areas:

Apprenticeship Training Provide bespoke training tailored to the needs of the company Specialist training on the CAD and FEA Support to the Degree programmes and from the degree programmes

Boost product innovation allowing companies to: grow market share and differentiate through ground breaking product design; empower the engineering team with intuitive, powerful 3D simulation tools to compare

design scenarios and new ideas; bring innovative products to market.

Improve product efficiency

Improve product performance, such as lower pressure drop and increased horsepower Improve eco-effectiveness of product designs

16 January 2017

Decrease product development costs

Reduce the need for costly prototyping by integrating virtual testing early in product development

Reduce outsourcing costs by testing performance and functionality internally

Shorten time-to-market Optimize product development with intuitive, CAD embedded simulation for structural,

fluid flow, motion, plastics injection moulding, and sustainable design Reduce the need for time-consuming physical prototyping Optimize assembly performance by verifying part and mould designs in the earliest stages

of development

The facility will allow new and fledgling companies to access this simulating facility without having to

make the considerable investment normally required. It will allow the University to grow

apprenticeship provision in the engineering and technology fields.

The county has provided a significant amount of support to the technical industries only to find that

this talent then moves away to develop in other areas. With the use of this technology we should be

able to provide a technical incubation hub which can be used to enthuse and inspire young people to

consider technical careers as an attractive and interesting direction to develop.

Within the apprenticeship agreement there is a requirement to provide modern instruction in the use

of CAD and system design. This project will allow the courses delivered at UCAV to provide instruction

in the latest software.

All processes are in place for the purchase of the equipment and to design and setup the mobile

system. The supply of some of the more specialist equipment will be dependent on the order date if

it is to be put in place in time. Discussions with the suppliers suggest they can have all of the equipment

on site within three months.

This system will generate income from both the opportunity to provide training to companies and the

chance for consultancy from businesses in any technical field. On consultation with the existing

student body they are keen to learn the system and to use it in their work environment. Animation

and game students are also enthusiastic about this development as they see it as the next stage of

their development in the games arena. There will be the need for training and development of staff

in this technology and as the income grows staff from other campuses can become involved.

The facility will provide the opportunity for UCAV’s training and education opportunities in digital

technologies, gaming and design to be showcased to schools, demonstrating to them the value and

exciting opportunities presented by careers in these sectors and directing them to the opportunities

in the BTVLEP area to develop those skills either through full time education in the college or

university, and through work based routes stimulated by this proposal and business demand for

apprentices with higher level skills.

The mobile facility will take the training and education opportunities in digital technologies and design

out to classroom-based learners in schools and colleges, demonstrating to them the value and exciting

opportunities presented by careers in these sectors and directing them to the opportunities in the

BTVLEP area to develop those skills either through full time education in the College or University but

also through new innovative work based routes stimulated by this proposal and business demand for

apprentices with higher level skills, as predicted by UKCES LMI skills need projections for the region.

17 January 2017

The mobile facility will allow designers and inventors, young people and the wider community to

experience the use of technologies in design and making, and connect it with business advice, skills

training and education and incubation facilities for entrepreneurs to capitalise on the spark ignited by

the opportunity to experiment, and nurture that interest in a controlled, professional and

entrepreneurial environment.

The University engages in an extensive range of outreach activities both in schools and on our own

campus. Through a new partnership with MBT Solutions, we want to take this activity to the next level,

utilising state of the art simulation equipment which MBT specialise in. An outreach programme

focusing on key skill areas is proposed using simulation tools to capture the imagination of young

people and create environments where they can experience virtual simulations of a range of careers

or real-life scenarios where their skills could be employed. The portable equipment can be delivered

to any site. A programme of 50 interactive events at schools across the area (in year one) will link to

other outreach activity in mentoring and provide students with an unforgettable and inspiring

experience that showcases the wide range of career pathways that derive from study at Bucks.

The capital cost of the project is estimated at £60k and would then be delivered through the Bucks

New University outreach team with an expected minimum life of 2 years, delivering 100 events. The

University will develop content through the partnership with MBT and focus on skill areas that are

considered LEP priorities. Student participants will be surveyed for impact and be tracked in terms of

education and employment outcomes. There may also be scope to use this programme to promote

higher apprenticeship opportunities and to showcase the University portfolio at events and in public

spaces, subject to budget.

Objective 5 – Support businesses with their cyber and organisational security.

The approximate cost of adding the IT infrastructure to create a completely quarantined and isolated

“dirty lab” for cyber resilience testing and education is £320k. The creation of this facility creates

various possibilities. Firstly, it provides and on-site IT laboratory which incubated businesses can use

to devise and test their IT capabilities and systems. In particular, a growing business needs to

understand the levels of resilience of its website, customer databases and payment systems.

Secondly, the BEST partners will incorporate cyber resilience training into their appropriate

programmes, ensuring that as students graduate, they have an understanding in the area. This is of

importance as we realise the ambition of students undertaking placements, apprenticeships and

employment with hosted businesses.

As the challenges facing the UK evolve, the facility will develop the university’s offering into this realm,

providing a home for education and practical cyber resilience training and research. Unlike many

market offerings that focus only on cyber security, this facility will stand out as providing integrated

security, resilience and continuity training, offering a 360° approach to contemporary threats and

risks. In aggregating such courses, the university is positioned to go to market with a rounded

proposition, benefitting from the synergy generated by addressing needs across the breadth of

industry sectors, from absolute beginner to Chief Executive. This aggregated provision will ensure

that clients benefit not only from a high-quality, dedicated environment, but also from the university’s

far-reaching marketing efforts, including development of cross promotion and progression path-ways.

18 January 2017

Facilities at the new UCAV premises presently offer two classrooms and a computing laboratory, with

room for considerable expansion as the project develops. These are dedicated spaces, enabling the

generation of a consistent brand, look and feel, from marketing materials, website and training

materials, through to the classroom.

The centre will be marketed as a UK-wide resource, and the development of an executive strand is key

to the success of the facility; as such the classroom provision will meet the standards expected by that

seeking executive-level education. The cyber resilience centre also aims to be at the centre of regional

activity with the aim of Buckinghamshire becoming a hub region for cyber education, training and

business development. The facility will be equipped with cyber resilience education in mind, and

alongside the 22-seat laboratory, additional high-end laptops will be available to students working in

classrooms.

The courses we will develop and run from the enhanced facility are shown below:

Cyber Resilience for Executives

Digital Forensics and Recovery

BCI Certificate

Fundamentals of Information Assurance in HMG (FIAHMG) IS1 & 2 - Information Risk Management for HMG IA Practitioners

(IRMHMG)

CISSP

(ISC)2 SSCP Certification

BCS Certificate in Information Security Management Principles

Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)

Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator (CHFI)

Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional (GICSP)

Cyber Security Overview for Industrial Control Systems

Introduction to Accreditation

The cyber investment would, for the courses listed above, enable most of those courses to run

quarterly, with an aggregated 384 training seats available per year.

We will develop these programmes using a blend of outsourced and in-house expertise and academic

resources to design and deliver. While outsourced delivery offers an income stream we aim to

generate and build a reputation for the facility at UCAV through Masters degrees in Cyber Security

(with the aim of accreditation by GCHQ/National Cyber Security Centre), Degree Apprenticeships in

Cyber Security and short resilience and cyber-related courses to meet market demand.

19 January 2017

Project costs & BEST’s contribution

A summary of the capital costs can be found in the table below:

Item Cost

Fit out of ground floor shell spaces £ 620,000

Furniture £ 60,000

IT capability & equipment £ 72,000

Design facility & simulation equipment £ 188,000

Mobile outreach & digital simulation suite £ 60,000

Cyber enabled £ 320,000

Total £ 1,320,000

There are a number of elements to BEST’s contribution. Capital already spent on fit-out of the main

building by BEST is £0.7m including a STEM capital grant of £487k from HEFCE. This includes creating

what is the shared reception and atrium space, the building’s ICT infrastructure and the classroom

elements of the Cyber Resilience Centre. We would also fund the equipping of the café space (c.£30k)

to serve the revised ground floor. Revenue expenditure on UCAV including the lease is currently

funded by BEST at an annual cost of £1.7m, which would rise once the additional ground floor spaces

are operational. The other annual elements of BEST’s contribution are found in the table below:

Item Value per annum

Additional operating costs for the building attributed to new facilities (security, maintenance, cleaning, etc.)

£ 68,000

Management and operation of the incubation spaces £ 50,000

ICT maintenance, licence, connection and management costs £ 75,000

Apprenticeship and graduate support services £ 60,000

Operation of mobile outreach & digital simulation suite £ 90,000

Cyber resilience staffing and support £ 70,000

Total £ 448,000

These are annual costs as they are estimated for year one. We would expect the value of BEST’s

contribution to grow incrementally as the level of service increase to meet increased use of the

facilities.

20 January 2017

Supplementary information

The landlord of the campus is Aylesbury Vale District Council. BEST is a long-lease tenant over 35 years

with an opportunity to acquire the freehold for £1 at the end of the lease. BEST is a charity limited by

guarantee and owned equally by Aylesbury College and Bucks New University.

21 January 2017

Appendix A – ground floor plan

The plan below shows the ground floor of UCAV, with the main front entrance through the doors

bottom centre. The blue shaded areas are the two spaces planned for development.

A B

22 January 2017

Appendix B – financial headlines for the incubation space

Income

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Notes

Licence fee average rate £ 35.00 £ 35.88 £ 36.77 £ 37.69 Rates, service charge & utilities included. Rises with inflation at 2.5% Rate per hot desk (dedicated) £ 220.00 £ 225.50 £ 231.14 £ 236.92 Max. of 45 dedicated and drop-in. Rises with inflation at 2.5%

Rate per hot desk (drop-in) £ 150.00 £ 153.75 £ 157.59 £ 161.53

Rate per virtual income £ 70.00 £ 71.75 £ 73.54 £ 75.38 Max. of 12. Rises with inflation at 2.5%

Conferencing income £ 43,000 £ 44,075 £ 45,177 £ 46,306 Rises with inflation at 2.5%

Expenditure

Year 0 Details

Staffing costs £ 37,500 Pre-opening staffing

Staff travel £ 3,000

Staff training & recruitment £ 5,000

IT consumables and licences £ 3,000 Set up of CRM & management systems

Marketing & events £ 23,000 £16k pre-opening marketing suite, £7k website

£ 71,500

Staffing costs

Year 1 salary Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

Incubation Director (0.4 fte) £ 50000 £ 20000 £ 20500 £ 21013 £ 21538

Centre Manager (0.8 fte) £ 35000 £ 28000 £ 28700 £ 29418 £ 30153 Customer service assistants (0.6fte) £ 16575 £ 9945 £ 10194 £ 10448 £ 10710

Total £ 57945 £ 59394 £ 60878 £ 62400

23 January 2017

Appendix B – profit & loss for the incubation space