The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group (EI), formerly know as the Enterprise Group, within Warwick Business School was formally established in 2003/4 having evolved from the Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, CSME.

CSME began in 1985 under the direction of the late Mr. Ian Watson and from 1987 was running two pioneering undergraduate courses in entrepreneurship, one in Warwick Business School, ‘Entrepreneurship and Small Business’ and the other, ‘Starting a Business for Engineers’, in association with the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick. These courses, intended to widen enterprise awareness amongst Warwick students, were delivered by Nigel Sykes and other CSME staff.

Building upon this work Warwick, in conjunction with the Universities of Birmingham, Coventry, Aston, Central England, Wolverhampton, Keele and Staffordshire established the Mercia Institute of Enterprise, MIE. This consortium established the ‘third mission’ activities of universities alongside those traditional core responsibilities of teaching and research. Mercia funding, provided under the Science Enterprise Challenge, underpinned enterprise teaching at Warwick between 2001 and 2006.

During these five years three new undergraduate modules/courses were established and the number of students taught by the Enterprise Group rose from just over 200 to well over 700. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group also teaches the module ‘Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation’, on Warwick Business School’s Full-Time, Modular and D.L. MBA Programmes.

Currently, the Enterpreneurship & Innovation Group has the following undergraduate and postgraduate teaching commitments. It is also possible to study for a PhD.