£12 million East Midlands iHub open for business

The £12 million iHub is the centrepiece of Infinity Park, the new 100-acre manufacturing focused commercial and technology site in Derby, which is situated close to the world headquarters of Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace and within 15 minutes of OEMs including Bombardier, Toyota and JCB.

The 45,000ft² facility, which has Enterprise Zone status, provides high quality, flexible workspace for start-ups, early stage businesses and high growth SME’s looking to expand their role within the transport engineering and hi-tech sectors.

As well as offering 18 traditional office workspaces (from 127ft² to 970ft²), the iHub provides 14 ground floor workshops for businesses seeking a more hybrid working environment. The workshops range in size from 375ft² to 4,451ft² and will cater for a broad range of uses in a managed workspace environment.

New tenants include Ultra Biotecs and engineering design specialists Addqual, along with Canadian firm Sciemetric, which tests and monitors processes across the assembly line; London-based cloud data consultants Elastacloud and patent and trademark attorneys, Serjeants, who were previously based at Leicester's own hi-tech innovation hub.

A further 40% of accommodation is currently under negotiation, which will take the building to 90% occupancy within its first year of trading.

An addition to the facilities available at the iHub is the ‘iLab’, which promotes invention by enabling the rapid prototyping of a range of products and services. It also boasts high end virtual reality, 3D printing and surface microscope equipment.

The iHub will offer a supportive and collaborative environment to enable businesses to innovate, grow and develop. Tenants will also be eligible to a range of support from ENSCITE, a collaboration between Aston and Derby Universities and Derby City Council.

www.gov.uk/topic/business-enterprise/european-regional-development-funding