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Bright Red Triangle (BRT) offers free lifelong enterprise support to students, graduates and staff of ��Ҷ��, Edinburgh Napier University and Edinburgh College. Their mission is to equip users with the skills and knowledge they need to support their business ventures from idea to launch, to long-term growth and sustainability.  

As a member of the BRT community, you will have access to a wide range of resources designed to support your entrepreneurial journey. These include expert advice and mentorship from BRT Enterprise Advisors, a calendar of free events and workshops, funding, and opportunities to grow your network by connecting with a vibrant community of people and businesses. 

To learn more, visit the .

To join the BRT community, simply follow the instructions provided on the . 

Business Gateway is a service which offers free and impartial advice and support to businesses across Scotland. The East Lothian Council Business Gateway team have been a key partner of ��Ҷ�� since 2012. 

��Ҷ�� students, staff and graduates, as well as members of the East Lothian community, can make one-to-one appointments with a Business Advisor through the Business Gateway website. Meetings can be held online or in the Business Gateway office, which is located within our Startup Studio.  

The Business Gateway service is a one-stop-shop for business support, offering impartial advice and which cover a range of topics such as marketing, branding, getting the best from your website, and finance. 

To learn more, visit the .

��Ҷ�� is working with anchor institutions across East Lothian to increase community wealth in the region. The formal between East Lothian Council (ELC), ��Ҷ��, Edinburgh College and other key regional stakeholders is part of the Scottish Government’s approach to harness the economic and social leverage of influential anchor institutions across the country.   

We are embedding the concept of CWB through the ��Ҷ�� Startup Studio and our Bright Red Triangle (BRT) collaboration.    

The ��Ҷ�� Startup Studio links the services of BRT and ELC’s Business Gateway and aims to raise the profile of East Lothian as a place which supports entrepreneurial mindsets, business start-up and inclusive economic growth.  

CWB principles are also being used to positively shape and drive our academic strategy with the - a joint venture between East Lothian Council and ��Ҷ�� which is funded by the . The new Hub, which is on track for completion in 2025, will be made up of flexible laboratory, office and fully equipped meeting and conference spaces for rent and will be a major asset to the local communities, as well as further afield.

��Ҷ�� has an important presence in East Lothian through a combination of being a largescale employer, generator of entrepreneurial thinking, mindsets and innovation, purchaser of goods and services, and controller of large areas of land and fixed assets in the locality. Read more about QMU's partnership with ELC.

Converge work with Scottish universities to help staff, students and recent graduates with innovative business ideas to develop and grow thriving, sustainable businesses.

They specialise in supporting aspiring entrepreneurs to create successful start-up and spin-out companies, by providing business training, access to resources and funding, connectivity to their network of experts, and validation of business ideas.

Each year, Converge run a series of free online business workshops in addition to their series of four competitive Challenges:

• KickStart Challenge: the first step for early stage ideas - test the robustness of your idea, equip yourself for entrepreneurship and prepare for the more advanced Challenges.
• Create Change Challenge: For social shakers and creative thinkers looking to change the world for the better.
• NetZero Challenge: For projects that can deliver maximum impact for Scotland's net zero goal.
• Converge Challenge: For high-calibre, innovative projects with serious growth potential.

For more information, visit the .

The Scottish Government's Microfinance Fund 2025 is intended to support students and staff from Scottish universities in achieving their entrepreneurial ambitions by offering awards of £1,000 - £3,000 to help them test and progress their business ideas.

Current QMU students and staff are eligible to apply. Projects must be pre-incorporation without a business bank account and must have received less than £5,000 in financial support for business, commercialisation or enterprise activities to date.

For eligibility criteria, an overview of the application process and opening/closing dates for applications, visit Scottish Government Microfinance Enterprise Fund 2025

Santander Universities supports ��Ҷ�� through a variety of scholarships and awards, including the Santander Universities Enterprise Fund.

The Santander Universities Enterprise Fund is intended to help and support QMU students, graduates and staff to achieve their entrepreneurial ambitions, with awards ranging from £1,000 - £2,500.

Funding can be used for a variety of purposes, including to purchase equipment or cover other business-related costs such as developing marketing materials, websites or apps or, for our creative members, costs associated with putting on shows, etc. It can also be used to support business-related travel costs or the costs of attending or exhibiting at conferences and events.

For eligibility criteria, an overview of the competition process and opening/closing dates for applications, visit Santander Universities Enterprise Fund - Guidelines

The mission of the Edinburgh Merchant Company Enterprise Fund is "to support community development by providing opportunities for entrepreneurship and business birth through the provision of appropriate grants coupled with the education, encouragement and mentoring of the founders of supported businesses".

The fund offers awards of £500 - £5,000 to enable successful applicants to progress their business ideas. In addition to funding, the Edinburgh Merchant Company also offer invaluable mentorship opportunities to applicants.

For eligibility criteria, an overview of the competition process and opening/closing dates for applications, visit The Edinburgh Merchant Company Enterprise Fund - Guidelines

The Ventures Lab by Challenges Group provides support for aspiring and early-stage social entrepreneurs in Scotland.

They offer a range of interventions to support new enterprises to understand their customer needs, develop their business model and value proposition, access financing, prepare their go-to-market strategy, design (and even trial) their core service or product offering. They can also provide support with legal incorporation and brand and website development. This enables enterprises to focus on what they do best - tackling society's biggest challenges and delivering extraordinary impact.

To learn more, visit .

ICURe is Innovate UK's pre-accelerator programme for researchers and is designed to help explore the commercial application and potential of research.

The programme is designed to guide researchers through the process of refining and validating the commercial potential of their research.

ICURe enables researchers to validate their business ideas, define clear value propositions and business models, and then test with their prospective target markets.

For more information, visit the