The University of Warwick has joined forces with the region's first Coventry and Warwickshire Business Festival, and held an event to showcase its business support services to SMEs on Monday 20th November.

Warwick's annual Meet the University event informed ambitious businesses of the wide range of SME services the University is able to provide, including research and development, academic expertise, recruiting students, training current staff, hiring facilities and accessing start-up support and funding.

Watch the video of the event here.

This year, Meet the University fell on the opening day of the region’s inaugural business festival, which is taking place from the 20th November to the 1st December. The Coventry and Warwickshire Business Festival celebrates the region’s thriving business scene, stimulating business growth and encouraging inward investment by demonstrating the variety of industries in the area.

Warwick has pledged substantial support to the Festival, signing up as a partner and with Professor Kerry Kirwan, WMG and University of Warwick Academic Director of Research as the Festival’s Sector Lead for Automotive and Advanced Manufacturing.

As well as the Meet the University event held on 20th November, Warwick is also holding a science and engineering focused industry event on 29th November to help relevant businesses of any size gain access to state-of-the-art equipment and collaboration opportunities through direct contact with its world-renowned scientific departments. It's also supporting two Coventry City of Culture events, the first on Monday 27 November on the latest tourism analysis for Coventry and Warwickshire and the second on Thursday 30 November on boosting digital creative industries in Coventry.

Professor Kerry Kirwan, Head of the Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing research group within WMG, “We’re delighted to be hosting these two events as part of the first Coventry and Warwickshire Business Festival. Warwick has a long history of connecting academia with industry, and we work closely with businesses of all sizes from all sectors to provide them with the right support to unleash their potential. We hope to welcome lots of the region’s dynamic businesses to our events to share our expertise and initiate new collaborations.”