UK Shared Prosperity Fund an opportunity to rebalance growth

Future business support funding after Brexit should help to rebalance growth across the UK, targeting more deprived areas across the country, where firms have significantly lower turnover. Sharing Prosperity, a new report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and the Enterprise Research Centre, says it is critical that funding levels are not cut when… Read more

New data on SMEs in Northern Ireland

The ERC launched some new data on SMEs in Northern Ireland at the Entrepreneurship in Action event organised by Invest Northern Ireland in Armagh on 12th November. Nola Hewitt-Dundas presented findings from the Micro-business Northern Ireland report, and Karen Bonner presented findings from the Northern Ireland Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report. On the same day… Read more

Northern Ireland’s enterprise progress threatened by Brexit uncertainty

Proportion of early-stage entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland grows 75% in 15 years Meanwhile, established micro-businesses employ 20% of people, showing high rates of profitability and exporting Bad Brexit deal could “set the clock back” on enterprise, academics warn   Brexit’s risk to recent positive trends among Northern Ireland’s entrepreneurs and micro-firms has been spelt out… Read more

GEM UK: Northern Ireland Report 2017

Authored by ERCs Mark Hart , Karen Bonner , Jonathan Levie and Laura Heery  the Northern Ireland element of the annual report, is being launched today, Monday November 12th  at the Entrepreneurship in Action event held at the Marketplace Theatre & Arts Centre, Armagh. In 2017 the Department for the Economy and Invest NI sponsored the Northern Ireland component of the GEM… Read more

Northern Ireland’s enterprise progress threatened by Brexit uncertainty

Brexit’s risk to recent positive trends among Northern Ireland’s entrepreneurs and micro-firms has been spelt out in new research. The two studies by the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) and Queen’s Management School show that the number of people in Northern Ireland becoming entrepreneurs has risen significantly in recent years, while its micro-firms (those employing 1-9 people) are the… Read more

Financial Times special report on the UK’s entrepreneurs

ERC data features in today’s Financial Times special report on the UK’s entrepreneurs: Belfast stands out for start-up productivity.   While Belfast still struggles to foster companies that survive for at least three years, this year’s data from the Enterprise Research Centre show that Northern Ireland performs above the UK average in other key metrics… Read more