Venture Capital Fund for Low Carbon Innovation in the East of England

In June, UEA, through the Low Carbon Innovation Centre (LCIC), was provisionally appointed as Fund Operator for an exciting new investment fund in the East of England. This appointment, which follows UEA’s success in running the Carbon Connections programme has now been formalised and since the summer, the UEA team, led by LCIC’s Chief Executive Dr Chris Harrison, has been working hard with EEDA to obtain government approval for the Fund.

With approval now in place, the next stage will be to appoint a Fund Manager who will be responsible for raising private money for co-investment into innovative, regional SMEs alongside investments from the £8M pot from the European Regional Development Funds.

The fund will have a broad low-carbon remit and be capable of supporting a wide range of new and established companies in their low carbon activities and products through equity investments.

Anyone seeking investment for a venture is advised to keep monitoring EEDA and LCIC web pages for further information as it becomes available.

The Fund is expected to formally open for business in summer 2010. Businesses are kindly asked not to contact us yet. However, anyone interested in the Fund and wishing to keep up to date with developments, or who is interested in the work of LCIC more widely should visit the LCIC Innovation pages.

Fund Managers interested in applying to work on this project should note that the contract notice has been posted on TED - http://ted.europa.eu - with the title: GB-Norwich: Corporate finance and venture capital services.