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Incubator: CEEI Valencia
Valencia is now a fast developing region, one of the three largest cities in Spain.
Historically, it has had an important agricultural base (growth of citrus fruits in the
Huerta) and is a regional capital and port.
The incubator is a member of ANCES, the association of Spanish BICs (there are 21
Spanish BICs), and of a closely co-operating group of BICs in the Valencia region. The
incubator is substantially funded by the region (over 40% of funding) and also receives
European funding (11%). It concentrates on raising the level of entrepreneurship around
the region and not just on internal operations for tenant companies. Indeed, it sees one of
its main objectives as being a centre for entrepreneurship for Valencia and we return to
this point in some of the best practice examples
· Assistance in financing
2. Incubator Operations
Note: In addition to the above the incubator offers hot desking facilities at its business centre.
There are 11 staff of whom 7 are professional or managerial (including offering advice
outside the incubator) and 4 are secretarial.
Benchmarking of Business Incubators Section
Admissions go through a number of stages as follows. Details of the stages are shown
below. Because the incubator concentrates both on internal and external projects, both are
shown
Stage Number in 2000
Initial contacts 778
Information requests 424
Inquiries with projects 344
Initial business plans 180
Final business plans 119
Projects to market 69
Tenants are generally encouraged to leave the incubator relatively quickly, given the
limited internal space. A typical time is three years.
3. Best practices
Flexibility of working space – The incubator offers a variety of types of working space
including space aimed both at the manufacturing sector and the service sector. Within the
latter the incubator offers smaller companies a ‘hot desking’ facility under which users
are able to:
· use a desk and an office when they require it and store away their material when
not required, thus freeing up the desk and the room
· use the other services of the incubator including meeting rooms, business
planning services, advisory services etc.
This flexible working in a ‘business centre’ provides a cost-effective solution for small
users
Benchmarking meetings between BICs in Spain – The BICs in Spain carry out regular
benchmarking exercises, for example either by teleconference or by physical meetings.
Teleconferences are held quarterly to discuss specific topics and meetings are held, one a
year or more. Meetings to discuss specific topics also provide an opportunity to influence
others (e.g. ministers) that may be invited to the meetings.
Business planning guidance – The 21 BICs in Spain have co-operated in the preparation
of enhances business-planning software. They have produced a CD-ROM which guides a
company through the preparation of a business plan, and which provides the necessary
business planning software to set out a plan. The software takes companies through a
question and answer session and produces a plan using MS Excel.
Experience suggests that the preparation of a business plan takes some time (typically
150 days) and the software is therefore valid for 200 days and can be extended further by
agreement with the BICs.
Companies within the incubator felt that the incubator offered reasonable value for
money. Most of the companies seen had used the business planning services but had now
developed their activities. It is clear that there is a concentration in high tech work.
5. List of Interviews
Name Position
Jesús Casanova Director General. Also Presidente de la Asociación
Nacional de CEEIs (ANCES)
Six tenant companies