The Vinod Sekhar Incubation Centre (VSIC) was launched 16 November 2016 at The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) by Professor Sir David Greenaway, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Nottingham. VSIC is the fruit of the collaboration between UNMC and Petra Group to provide a platform to facilitate the research innovations to become viable businesses ventures.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir David Greenaway said: “The launch of the Vinod Sekhar Incubation Centre here at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus marks an exciting step in the continued development and reach of our activities in Malaysia. As the strength and breadth of our research grows, opportunities for commercialisation and other forms of knowledge transfer become increasingly relevant and important; in turn this underpins innovation necessary to drive the knowledge based economy."
“We are also motivated to ensure our students with entrepreneurial ambitions have access to the support need to drive enterprise. The Vinod Sekhar Incubation Centre will provide this support. It will also complement parallel investment taking place in incubation at the University of Nottingham in the UK and University of Nottingham Ningbo China. I look forward to seeing the success of the many business ventures that will arise from this venture.”
The key objectives of VSIC is to increase the level of entrepreneurship skills among researchers, to strengthen existing relationships between UNMC and businesses in Malaysia, to develop R&D products for commercialisation as well as to establish a long lasting collaborative relationships with industry players.
At the launch, Datuk Dr Vinod Sekhar, Chairman and CEO of Petra Group said: “I am a firm believer in innovation being the way forward – to create wealth, to solve problems, to build a better future. I am very honoured that the University has chosen to put my name on the incubation centre. As an entrepreneur myself, I think this is an exciting opportunity not just for the students of Nottingham University, who may have exciting startup ideas, but for industry leaders as well. Once it gets going, VSIC should hopefully offer industry leaders plenty of opportunities to invest in technological startup companies that will clearly have the stamp of quality from the University of Nottingham. The startups need the support of industry leaders; and industry cannot survive without innovating. Innovation is at the heart of all development. It's at the heart of entrepreneurial success."
Vinod Sekhar Incubation Centre
VSIC will also offer prospective UNMC students, academics and staff with early stage business support, access to academic expertise, mentoring supports and access to a structured training program to enable them to develop the skills to set up, establish and run a business.
VSIC will then manage start-up and spin-out companies by providing space, access to facilities, mentoring support, and access to a network of investors.
VSIC is located at Block B in UNMC and is designed to host eight designated rooms for start-up or spin-out companies. These rooms provide hot desks for incubates, cubicles, office units as well as other shared facilities, such as a meeting and training room. It has a total space area of approximately 3,700 square feet.
About UNMC
The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) offers a world-class British education which is ranked among the top 100 universities worldwide according to QS World University Rankings 2016/17.
Designed to reflect University Park Campus in Nottingham, it is a self-contained, vibrant village situated on an attractive and landscaped 125-acre site. UNMC has around 5,000 students and around 700 teaching and administrative staff from all over the world.
According to The Graduate Market in 2015, High Fliers Research, our alumni are Britain’s top choice for employers. We offer the best of UK education in an Asian setting.
About Datuk Vinod Sekhar
Datuk Vinod Balachandran Sekhar is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Petra Group, a global group of companies that is headquartered in Malaysia and focuses on rubber recycling, biotechnology and financial software. He is also the Chairman of the Sekhar Foundation, based in Kuala Lumpur and the CEO of Green Rubber. He is a great advocate of “Social Capitalism” where business interests and societal concerns must work hand in hand.
(Article and Thumbnail Image : Professor Sir David Greenaway signing the plaque. Also seen is Datuk Vinod Sekhar and Professor Graham Kendall )
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More information is available from Josephine Dionisappu, PR & Communications Manager at The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus on josephine.dionisappu@nottingham.edu.my.
Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with a “distinct” approach to internationalisation, which rests on those full-scale campuses in China and Malaysia, as well as a large presence in its home city.’ (Times Good University Guide 2016). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and the winner of ‘Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers’ at the Times Higher Education Awards 2015. More than 97% of research at The University of Nottingham is recognised internationally and it is 8th in the UK by research power according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014. It has been voted the world’s greenest campus for four years running, according to Greenmetrics Ranking of World Universities.
Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest-ever fundraising campaign, is delivering the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future.
Posted on 17th November 2016