Students at Kent will soon be benefiting from a major new philanthropically-funded project which unites academic research and expertise in business to inspire, train and equip students to start a business or a social enterprise.

The ASPIRE (Accelerator Space for Innovation and Responsible Enterprise) project will provide brand new dedicated space to help students develop commercial and social enterprise ideas and will facilitate a range of inspiring and interactive sessions from successful entrepreneurs, business leaders and Kent alumni.

The ASPIRE project will be informed by Kent Business School (KBS) research into innovation and entrepreneurship, and by a dedicated Professional Services team at the Business School. It will focus on the acceleration of ideas and the pre-incubation stage of the start-up process. Through ASPIRE activity, students will be inspired to generate ideas, co-create, market test their ideas for viability and link them with successful entrepreneurs including a dedicated Entrepreneur in Residence.

‘As a School that is very much about supporting the next generation of business leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs, the ASPIRE project will be a great asset for our students from across the University and to help them in starting their own business. I am delighted that the facility and activity will be housed in the new building where students can have easy access, not just to the ASPIRE support team, but to academic colleagues based at the School who specialise in entrepreneurship and innovation. I am very much looking forward to seeing ASPIRE support future generations of Kent students turn their ideas into reality.’

Martin Meyer
Director, Kent Business School

ASPIRE builds upon the School’s existing Enterprise and Start-Up modules and activity such as the ever-popular annual Business Start-Up Day and Business Start-Up Journey programme.

ASPIRE will be a specially designed workspace and will be based in the new building shared by Kent Business School and the School of Mathematics, Statistics & Actuarial Science.

The ASPIRE Project will be accessible to all student across the University and KBS would be grateful to academic and professional services staff for sharing this story with their students.

For more information about ASPIRE, contact Jack McDonnell, ASPIRE Project Officer on 01227 816492.