Net Zero UK – Ready For a Green Future

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The net zero challenge facing the UK will precipitate fundamental changes to the UK economy and to the ways in which business is done.

To help companies understand how these changes will affect their sector and their business, Enterprise Ireland UK has launched “Net Zero UK – Ready for a Green Future”, a new market intelligence initiative for Irish exporters to the UK.

The Enterprise Ireland UK office will be providing focused sectoral insights on the key UK net zero challenges, opportunities, and market developments. This will include analyses on products and services that are at risk of becoming obsolete and an examination of future net zero technology trends and demand areas. This market intelligence will help to inform your company’s strategic business planning and R&D efforts, helping to future-proof your activities in the UK market.

A series of webinars featuring sector-focused sustainability experts, corporate stakeholders and UK net zero policy specialists will take place daily between Tuesday 22nd and Friday 25th June.

Learn more and register below:

 

Webinar – Net Zero UK Overview, Why, When and How? 

Tuesday 22nd June, 15:00 to 16:00

The net zero challenge facing the UK will reform the ways in which business is done. To help Irish exporters understand how these changes will affect their sector and growth, Enterprise Ireland UK and UK net zero experts will host a market insights webinar to examine:

  • The major industry and policy drivers that will accelerate the UK economy towards net zero emissions

  • The impact of the UK’S Sixth Carbon Budget, Green Industrial Strategy and individual corporate net zero plans

  • Key sectoral updates

  • Enterprise Ireland’s organisational climate action strategy

  • Green initiatives such as the €10 million Climate Enterprise Action Fund

Register today

 

Net Zero UK webinar series

Net Zero UK Overview – Introductory Session   – 22nd June 15:00-16:00 

Getting to the start line of the race to Net Zero – Decarbonising the Construction Supply Chain  – 23rd June 10:00-11:30

The Role of the Energy Transition in UK Net Zero   – 23rd June 15:00-16:00

UK Local Authorities and Net Zero   – 24th June 15:00-16:00

UK Agriculture and Net Zero   – 25th June 10:00-11:00

Market Watch – A view from Manchester

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Key Takeaways

• The UK is the largest export market for Enterprise Ireland clients
• The North West of England has been growing at a faster rate than London in recent years.
• The Manchester office for Enterprise Ireland opened in 2019 and is providing support for many Irish firms operating into and in the region.
• Despite Covid and Brexit, business is still moving.
• There are opportunities for Irish companies in many areas including construction, healthcare, digital technology, and life sciences
• Irish companies may also achieve contracts with local authorities

As our closest neighbour, the UK has long been a crucial trading partner for Ireland and as one of the fastest growing regions of the country, the North West of England was the obvious choice for Enterprise Ireland to open up a second UK office last year.

Headed up by Laura Brocklebank and her colleague Kevin Fennelly, the Manchester branch focuses on opportunities for Irish clients in manufacturing – covering areas such as pharmaceutical and food and drink as well as paper, print and packaging. It is also leading on UK local authorities with major spending budgets across infrastructure, transport, healthcare and more.

“The UK is the largest export market for Enterprise Ireland clients, which, despite the challenges of Brexit, grew 2% to €7.9 billion in 2019, with all non-food sectors recording growth of 6%,” says the senior marketing advisor.”

And the market continued to perform strongly in spite of uncertainty, demonstrating that client companies have remained committed to the UK market and its short/medium-term growth potential.

“Adding to this, the north west of England is a particularly dynamic region which actually grew at a faster rate than London in recent years – in fact, if it were a country, it would be the 12th largest economy in Europe. And this was the key driver for Enterprise Ireland when selecting Manchester to locate its new office last year.”

Brocklebank says the Greater Manchester region alone is the size of the Irish market and the combined authorities of Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, North of Tyne, Sheffield City Region and Tees Valley have devolved powers which means that decision-making powers and funding are transferred from Westminster to these regions.

“The UK remains a key first export market for Irish industry to enable them to innovate and diversify and for these reasons, many Irish companies look to the North of England to set up a presence in the UK and it is often their first overseas presence,” she says.

“Our Manchester team focuses on opportunities in manufacturing, along with partnerships with UK local authorities who have major spending budgets. We collaborate extensively with our London office and work as one team with our 20 colleagues who are specialists in various sectors including Construction, Life Sciences, Healthcare, Digital Technologies, Cleantech and Renewables – all of which are of strategic importance and opportunity across the region. In effect, we are also the eyes and ears on the ground for our colleagues leading these sectors.

“As the North of England is traditionally the industrial heartlands of the UK, having a base here shows our commitment to the region and we are attuned to the needs of Irish companies, which are active all across the area.”

Accessibility is key and the Irish Sea has long been an important link between the UK and Ireland. So as the Port of Liverpool has submitted a bid to become established as a UK freeport, the regional lead says this could provide an opportunity for Irish companies with relevant smart ports solutions and automated and high-tech solutions which facilitate maritime trade and logistics.

“Ireland’s strong marine and civil engineering companies will be keen to collaborate with UK partners in the North West to help facilitate the necessary infrastructural upgrades required to cater for increased trading and customs realities,” she says.

“In addition, over the past number of years the area has experienced a boom in new building and infrastructure projects and there are many Irish companies leading in the Construction sector – John Sisk & Son have created a major landmark with Manchester’s Circle Square Affinity Living Project, ESS Modular opened their Manchester office in July 2020, having completed a number of projects in Leeds and Oldham, and have a current project with North Manchester General Hospital. And Techrete’s architectural precast concrete cladding can be seen on the iconic One and Two St. Peter’s Square.”

Manchester is also home to a fast-growing £5 billion digital ecosystem and has been officially ranked as the UK’s Top Digital Tech City, while Newcastle became Smart City of the Year 2019 for its innovative approach in using technology to help transform services and improve the lives of residents.

The marketing expert says there is a lot happening in the region which could provide opportunities for Irish firms.

“Digital tech company, Gamma Location Intelligence has recently opened their first overseas office in Manchester as they expand into the UK, having established in Ireland in 1993,” she says. “They have become a market leader in the provision of location intelligence systems and services which drive innovation across many sectors including insurance and retail, focusing heavily on cutting-edge research and development projects, leveraging Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.

“And in October 2020, VRAI, a data driven VR stimulation training for high hazard environments, announced their expansion into the UK with their first overseas office in Gateshead’s PROTO Centre, the UK’s immersive technology cluster.

“There are also opportunities for Irish businesses who can support local authorities in digital transformation, smart cities, connectivity, transport, housing, infrastructure, roads and highways and adult and social care. And a great example of this is SilverCloud which works with Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, providing support for those who may be feeling stressed and anxious due to the current pandemic.”

Of course, there are still some challenges, with uncertainty surrounding both Covid-19 and Brexit but the UK will continue to be an important and attractive market for Irish enterprise.

“Earlier this month, we had a rich and productive meeting with Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham and Liverpool City Region Mayor, Steve Rotherham, to discuss and agree the strongly aligned sectors of which Enterprise Ireland clients have strong supply chain capability,” says Brocklebank. “So we are looking forward to further collaboration and to have deeper engagement across these sectors.

“Enterprise Ireland also warmly welcomes the announcement of a new Consulate General for the North of England and we are looking forward to working together to strengthen Ireland’s presence in the region.”

To learn more about UK opportunities see the Evolve UK page here 

Orbidal CEO

Evolve UK Webinar – Selling your Digital Solution to the UK Public Sector

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Laura Brocklebank, Senior Market Advisor, Enterprise Ireland UK and  Tony Corrigan, CEO, Orbidal will present best-practice and opportunities that exist in the UK public sector and how to be successful at winning UK Public Sector contracts. The webinar will feature:

  • Overview of UK Public Sector Procurement – Covid-19 update and what’s happening now?

  • Overview and opportunities that exist with UK Public Sector – Spotlight on Digital Frameworks

  • Best practice for prospective public sector suppliers

  • What makes a supplier successful at winning contracts?

  • Orbidal’s process to ease and simplify the process of tendering.

How Rennicks are looking to the future with support from the Sustaining Enterprise Fund

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“Covid-19 was an obstacle, but, thanks to Enterprise Ireland, it hasn’t thrown us completely off our desired path. The Sustaining Enterprise Fund has given us peace of mind and the stability to pursue the future we had planned for our business.”

Dolores Cantwell, Director of Finance & Operations, Rennicks Group Ltd.

Key Takeouts

  • Established more than 40 years ago, Rennicks Group Ltd. is an Irish company specialising in retro reflective products for the licence plate and traffic sign markets. The global pandemic halted factory operations, drastically impacting the company’s revenue stream.
  • Director of Finance & Operations, Dolores Cantwell, contacted Enterprise Ireland about applying for the Sustaining Enterprise Fund, who partnered with them to prepare documents for the financial assessment.
  • Funding from Enterprise Ireland has allowed Rennicks to meet its existing financial commitments and continue administrative operations, supporting the business as it plans for recovery and beyond.

Case Study: Rennicks

Rennicks is a Dublin-based company servicing the vehicle licence plate and road infrastructure markets in the United Kingdom and South Africa. The business has existed since 1976, but was the subject of a management buy-out in 2017. Director of Finance & Operations, Dolores Cantwell, says they were on an upward trajectory at the start of 2020, with solid numbers reported for the first quarter of the year, before the global lockdown landed.

“When Covid-19 hit we were worried,” says Cantwell. “Initially, it looked like there would be a complete shutdown with no revenue stream for at least four months. It was an extremely concerning prospect.”

Rennicks’ primary business involves a light manufacturing process, which means the business relies on its factory operations. The lockdown in Ireland prevented employees from working. The factory closed and all staff were sent home. Cantwell says their administrative team was forced to quickly adapt to a remote work style. The company was also forced to immediately assess its cost outlays, resulting in a combination of lay-offs and pay reductions across the organisation.

 

Searching for solutions

Thankfully, Rennicks has always maintained good relationships with its supply chain partners, which gave them some time, but they still had commitments to fulfill. After the initial shock of a global pandemic and a total halt in production, the team took stock and realized they would need to look outside of their existing resources for financial support if they were going to successfully ride out the storm.

“We saw the information about the Sustaining Enterprise Fund and contacted Enterprise Ireland,” says Cantwell. “The two team members they sent us were superb.”

She says Enterprise Ireland worked with Rennicks to gather and reformat its financial information for the SEF assessment. The team calmly worked through the numbers, showing an enthusiasm for the business that bolstered Rennicks and gave the team the confidence to move forward. Admittedly, Cantwell says, she expected red tape and political hurdles when applying for funding, but this wasn’t the case at all. Instead, she says they found a group of engaged, forward-thinking people at Enterprise Ireland, eager to support their business.

“The team at Enterprise Ireland couldn’t have been more responsive, open, and encouraging,” Cantwell says. “It was a breath of fresh air.”

 

Looking toward the future

Despite the global pandemic, Rennicks was able to continue a small portion of its distribution business. The supply chain was disrupted by lockdown and the company’s revenues still dropped 60%, but funding allowed them to meet their commitments and work toward recovery. Thanks to the Sustaining Enterprise Fund, Rennicks had the working capital to continue administrative operations during lockdown, allowing it to focus on its future. Currently, the business is working on a push into new markets, and is developing value-added propositions for its existing market in the UK. Cantwell says they did everything they could to support their customers during a difficult time.

 

“Our business has been built on providing quality products and excellent customer service,” she says. “During lockdown, it was our key priority to maintain contact with our customers.”

Cantwell’s advice for other companies impacted by Covid-19; Focus on the fundamentals, but be prepared to be flexible and to adapt to the changing situation. She believes if you continue to give excellent customer service, keep your eye on your goal, and are adaptable in your approach, you’ll eventually make it through.

“Business will come back,” Cantwell says. “In the interim, it’s important to stay customer-focused. Try not to get side-tracked. And do make use of the supports that are available.”

 

Click here to learn more about applying for the SEF. Contact your Development Advisor or our Business Response Unit to find out more.

Changing Construction – How GreenStart has Powered Passive Sills

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Cork-based company Passive Sills was created with a vision of making changes in the construction industry

The company could not be more timely in their mission as together building and construction are said to be responsible for a massive 39% of all carbon emissions in the world right now.  Passive Sills produces thermally efficient building products and offers environmentally friendly building materials and product options to the construction industry.

Globally, leading cities and companies are committing to a highly efficient and decarbonised building stock by 2050 but put simply – the Paris Agreement is demanding an even more ambitious built environment strategy than is currently there and for this to happen strong implementation is required.

The European Commission has recognised the vital role that the built environment sector can play in delivering the requirements of the EU2050 long-term strategy to become climate-neutral.

Passive Sills wanted to push forward on this with the help of Enterprise Ireland GreenStart funding and gain a clear picture of the environmental impact of manufacturing their products.

“In the construction industry, everything is going towards zero carbon emissions.  It’s going to be a requirement in EU legislation anyway and taking into account the Paris agreement and what this country, the world and individual companies are doing to reduce emissions, it made sense for us to get on board as soon as possible”, explains spokesperson Janice O’Leary.

“We want to spread the word and change the way people think when they are building. They have the option to move away from heavy concrete and go for lightweight more thermally efficient options.  New Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) standards requirements are a reality now and people are making more informed choices as it’s all about future proofing.  Our products including our insulated window sills and oversills suit most types of construction projects, have a lower carbon footprint and are 64% more thermally efficient than concrete, reducing cold bridging. They also have almost half the embodied carbon of concrete alternatives.”

 

Support from GreenStart

So how did Enterprise Ireland GreenStart support Passive Sills?  The company had very clear goals – to carry out a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of their products to understand clearly all the processes and materials that have an impact on the environment and to produce a Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and a public Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) which now sits proudly on their website. Passive Sills also wanted to produce an Organisation Environmental Footprint (OEF) for their custom manufacturing facility in Youghal.  In addition, they wanted to receive access and training for a new online reporting tool called Ecochain, to generate detailed reports for clients.

“The Enterprise Ireland GreenStart grant helped us to nail all of this down. While we needed a lot of information for certain calculations and it did take time, we were able to calculate our carbon footprint and were pleasantly surprised with some of the results that we found. We have now also launched a new website – lightweightmouldings.ie – offering a full range of lightweight decorative mouldings and we’re expanding our product range.”

“The GreenStart process made us think in a slightly different way.  All of this was something that we would have had to do in the future anyway – specifically we knew the requirement for an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) would be coming down the line – and Enterprise Ireland gave us a push to get it done now.”

“We were more than happy with the process and what we achieved and we would highly recommend the process to other businesses.”

 

To get your business ready for a green future visit Climate Enterprise Action Fund or contact the Climate Action Team

 

Evolve UK Webinar – Pricing

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This webinar,  in  conjunction with Simon-Kucher & Partners, examines the most important profit driver; Pricing. It will also discuss how professionally managing pricing can add millions to your bottom line.

Chaired by Deirdre McPartlin, Manager of Enterprise Ireland UK, with expert insights from Simon-Kucher & Partners, a leading global consultancy specialising in top-line growth strategies with 35 years of experience with monetization topics of all kinds – from pricing strategies, customer segmentation, user experience, offer design, and packaging, to negotiation techniques, and sales excellence.

    • Mark Billige – CEO

    • Peter Colman – Partner

    • Phil Derby – Business Partner, Ireland

     

    One Planet. One Health – Danone and GreenPlus

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    “The health of people and the planet are intertwined.  You can’t have one without the other”, states Mark Stafford, Nature and Sustainability Manager at Danone, Wexford.

    Danone’s mission is to bring health through food to as many people as possible with high quality products contributing to all life stages. This is where sustainability and the environment comes in and it is one of the four key pillars at the company – they have now adopted ‘nature’ as a business fundamental for all supply points and sustainability roadmaps for their brands.

    The company used Enterprise Ireland’s GreenPlus scheme to empower line management and teams to manage and improve energy performance at basic unit level and they have now achieved certification to the prestigious ISO 50001 International Energy Management Standard.  This standard aims to help organisations to continually reduce their energy use and therefore their energy costs and their greenhouse gas emissions.

    Through their work with GreenPlus, the Energy Management System (EnMS) at Danone has now been implemented successfully across the site, system accreditation has taken place and a number of energy saving opportunities have been identified. This has enabled the company to implement solutions and their annual energy savings are now measured and verified.

    So how was their journey with Enterprise Ireland’s GreenPlus and what were their main challenges? Peter Pearson, Nature Co-ordinator explains: “We started looking at the gaps and found the biggest gap was metering.  Data monitoring and reporting systems presented a challenge as the metering available on-site did not satisfy our requirements with regard to reporting detail and frequency”.

    “Going down the ISO 50001 route focused our minds on the areas we needed to tackle. It raised awareness within the company.  It identified savings and improved our knowledge on the use of energy onsite.  We found the process easy to navigate and it was fairly straightforward. It was great to have the support of Enterprise Ireland and it was very helpful.”

    Danone aims to become carbon zero across their value chain by 2050 and to do that all elements of the business need to become carbon neutral. “Our plant in Co. Wexford has become the first infant formula production site in the world to be certified as carbon neutral.”

    “Our net zero carbon rating has been certified by the Carbon Trust, an independent global climate change and sustainability consultancy,”  said Stafford

    Explaining the benefits across Danone of engaging with GreenPlus, he pointed out that “We needed buy in from management which we quickly achieved and it was also important to make all employees aware of where we needed to get to and our ambitions. We weren’t surprised that through the GreenPlus process we identified many opportunities – we knew they were there but just didn’t have visibility of them.  The process helped us to pinpoint exactly where we needed to make improvements”.

    “As part of our roadmap for the project there was also a huge focus on energy reduction and efficiencies and implementation of the ISO 50001 was crucial to that journey”.

    From a business perspective, Mark Stafford and Peter Pearson point out that consumers and customers are looking for sustainability more and more and all the research backs this up.  The expectation is there and that goes for all activities within a company.

    “The feedback is that people want more sustainably produced products and environmentally friendly products.” 

    “All employees are now aware of where we need to get to.  We have nature champions across our business units and they are now bringing in their own ideas in relation to sustainability and the environment for our brands.  There are a lot of projects now going on in the company. This includes our intention for all of our supply points and business units to be BCorp certified. We know where we are and where we need to get to and what we want to achieve.  We are very focused.”

     To get your business ready for a green future visit Climate Enterprise Action Fund or contact the Climate Action Team

    Webinar Series: Free Trade Agreements

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    EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Canada, Japan, Mexico and South Korea enable Ireland to increase its trade, GDP and national income. The FTAs allow Irish exporters to explore new opportunities as market access increases and they benefit from competitive advantage in doing business in these countries.

    Join Enterprise Ireland as it hosts a webinar series on Free Trade Agreements and doing business in these four export markets: Canada, Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

    Each webinar will be opened by Robert Troy TD, Minister of State Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with responsibility for Trade Promotion. The webinars feature contributions from market experts and guest speakers from Irish companies who will share their experiences on doing business in specific markets.

    If you’re considering exporting to these markets, or scaling your existing export business, these webinars are for you.

    Click on the links below to register for upcoming webinars.

    Doing Business in Japan

    Thursday, 17 June 2021, 9am BST

    The EU Japan Economic Partnership Agreement provides a positive backdrop to Ireland Japan trading relations. This webinar will explore the experiences of key Irish business interests in Japan, and will outline the knowledge, networks and access supports available to capitalise on what is an increasingly important market for ambitious Irish exporters.

    For the full agenda and to register, click here.

     

    Doing Business in Mexico

    Tuesday, 22 June 2021, 3pm BST

    With duty-free trade on most goods and a simplification of the customs procedures, the latest 2018 EU-Mexico trade agreement has improved the already positive and prosperous relationship between Ireland and Mexico. This webinar features two market experts who will highlight opportunities and explain business culture and processes, as well as providing practical guidance for market entry.

    For the full agenda and to register, click here.

     

    Doing Business in South Korea

    Thursday, 24 June 2021, 9am BST

    The EU-South Korea FTA can provide enhanced business opportunities for Irish businesses. This webinar brings together experts on the topic to provide knowledge and insights on key elements of the FTA, and to enable Irish businesses to make use of the FTA to its fullest in doing business in South Korea.

    For the full agenda and to register, click here.

    Doing Business in Canada


    Tuesday, 25 May 2021, 3pm BST

    Attendees will learn more about the opportunities available in the Greater Montreal region, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and Europe, and what incentives are available to Irish companies looking to expand in North America.

    Watch back on-demand, available here.

    Vivian Farrell, CEO Modular Automation

    Modular Automation: Creating and nurturing the women leaders of tomorrow in Ireland’s engineering sector  

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    What do you do to promote gender balance in an industry when there are simply not enough women actually coming through the educational process? This was the issue faced by Shannon-based Modular Automation, a cutting-edge provider of complete automation integration solutions for the medtech sector in Ireland, Europe, North America and beyond. Engineering, particularly electrical and mechanical, tends to be very male-dominated, a fact discovered by Modular’s CEO, Vivian Farrell.

    With a background in strategic marketing and working at a management level in Bank of Ireland, Sherry Fitzgerald and Vodafone, Vivian joined Modular seven years ago to head up their brand marketing and communications. “After spending 11 years with Vodafone in their headquarters, I wanted to explore something different as I had three small children by then. I decided to move back to Tipperary, near to where I was from, and discovered that the west of the country was a hotbed for medtech, with a lot of big names here. I didn’t know a lot about the industry but I was interested, and when a marketing role came up in Modular, I decided to go for it.”

    As a non-engineer and a woman, Vivian found herself something of a rarity in the industry. “It’s unusual to come across another female CEO in these circles, or women in leadership roles, because engineering tends to be quite male-dominated. Things are changing but it’s slow.

    “Currently, there are 170 people on the Modular team. Creating a gender balance is extremely important to us and we have a number of initiatives to boost this.” says Farrell.

    “Currently we’re at 10%, which isn’t exactly where we want to be, but it reflects the type of business that we’re in. We’ve set ourselves a target as a management team of getting to 30% by 2025. The 10% are mostly outside of the core engineering roles in our business.”

     

    New initiatives

    Their gender-balance target is ambitious, but Vivian says they are working hard to achieve it. “In the last 12 months we introduced paid maternity leave, something that’s very common in the multinational space, but more unusual for an SME. We put this into place to promote a better gender balance – but also to compete with those multinationals for talent. We also celebrate any big days, for instance, we celebrated International Women’s Day by giving every woman in the business a copy of Michelle Obama’s book, ‘Becoming’.

    “We’re also very vocal about being inclusive as a company and talking about our 30% goal – this in a way is setting out our stall for potential employees.” says Farrell.

    Like many companies in the sector, Modular also offers an apprentice scheme. “Traditionally our apprentice schemes would be in electrical engineering and tool-making – we have not had even a single female application for these. But we are rolling out new apprenticeships to other areas of the business, and I think that will provide another career path for women.”

     

    Back to the start

    In such a male-dominated industry, change takes time, and Vivian believes it needs to go back to the schools. “Female applicants are still few and far between. So it’s a long game – we need to be engaging with girls at Junior Cert stage or even earlier. We are seeing little glimmers of success; for me, in the role that I’m in, I feel the responsibility of showing girls that they can get to a leadership role in the industry.

    “I’m involved in an initiative called Explore Engineering, which is led by key business leaders in the Midwest, along with the two main educators, UL and LIT. Our role is to increase the supply of engineers into the Midwest region; a key part of that is to get girls to consider engineering as a career choice. So for us at Modular, we are going to schools and talking to the students, building relationships with the principals and career guidance teachers, encouraging skill-building visits to us and other businesses, getting them to meet some of our younger engineers to learn more about the job.”

    The battle, then, is to get women into the industry first, then to nurture their talent to get them into a leadership role. “It’s not easy to be the only woman in a big team of men and it’s about nurturing them and keeping an eye on them to make sure they progress. As a leader, you have to be aware of that and ensure you have strategies in place to help them prosper in those types of environments. For instance, offering greater flexibility so parents can juggle caring and their jobs by offering working from home options or allowing flexible working hours to accommodate the school run – which I have myself.

    “Being a working mum myself, I know what it’s like and what you need, so I can bring that understanding to the organisation to try and make it a better place for women to work.”

    Ultimately, however, getting that balance is worthwhile on a business level, Vivian explains.

    “Our business is built on designing and building equipment, creating new solutions; that environment requires a high level of creativity and idea generation so therefore needs as much diversity of thought and opinions as possible.”

    But while organisations can make a change on a small and local level, ultimately, we need to change on a national level. “This is such a difficult, complicated topic, and it has to be a national conversation in order to change things,” says Vivian. “Organisations like Enterprise Ireland have a part to play, and something like The Level Project will certainly help to bring the topic into the spotlight. Having two daughters myself, I’ve seen the lack of awareness as they go through school. It’s a cultural change so it takes time.”

     

    Start improving gender balance in your company with The Level Project Toolkit.

    Evolve UK Webinar – Selling to the NHS in the post-Brexit era

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    The NHS provides a significant opportunity for suppliers and will continue to do so beyond January 1st 2021.

    This webinar places the spotlight on Digital Health and Health IT with insights into how you can sustain and win business with the NHS beyond January 2021. It was developed to inform Irish businesses considering selling to the NHS for the first time as well as those needing additional information about the overall UK healthcare landscape and the various procurement pathways.

    Hosted by Marie-Claire Henry, Senior Market Adviser – Healthcare & Lifesciences, Enterprise Ireland and Martin Bell, an expert in the UK healthcare sector.

    The webinar will feature:

    – Building relationships

    – Navigating the NHS landscape

    – Building credibility

    – Regulation & procurement

    – Market entry to sustained growth

    For any queries around selling to the NHS, please email Marie-Claire Henry.

    Evolve UK – Pharma Manufacturing Sector webinar

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    This webinar forms part of the Evolve UK Webinar series and provides an overview of the UK Pharma sector including the regional clusters and the main UK pharma manufacturers.

    Hosted by Laura Brocklebank, Senior Market Advisor for UK Manufacturing and Heike Owen from Shibumi Consulting Ltd the webinar will look at the opportunities, challenges and hot topics in the UK Pharma sector. 

    Download the supporting report here. 

    Evolve UK – Local Authorities webinar

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    This webinar forms part of the Evolve UK Webinar series and gives an insight into  how UK local authorities are developing new ideas and innovative ways of providing services.  With more than £100bn expenditure per year on a wide range of services across the UK, it is an attractive proposition for any supplier.

    Hosted by Enterprise Ireland’s Laura Brocklebank with expert insights from Go-Exporting’s Mike Wilson, the webinar will examine:

    • Changes in Local Authorities Structure

    • Local Authority Funding Update

    • Key Investment Areas of councils

    • Opportunities for Irish suppliers

    • Impact of Covid-19 on UK local authorities