Here at the Centre for Enterprise (CfE), we combine research and business support in a wide range of successful projects.
Our research and business projects are focussed on a number of key areas, including enterprise and business start-up; SME growth; knowledge management; the relationship between enterprise and regeneration; and gender and female entrepreneurship.
We carry out projects in a number of sectors, including manufacturing, the creative and media sector, financial & professional services, biolife sciences and the social economy.
These projects provide us with valuable research knowledge and at the same time, provide vital support for small businesses. To find out more about any project, simply follow the links below.
Current Projects
MSc Entrepreneurial Practice
One year full-time or 30 months part-time Details
Contact: Gladstone Minzie
New Entrepreneur Scholarships (NES)
NES is an innovative programme for entrepreneurs, pioneered at MMUBS to help people from less advantaged communities develop business ideas, and equip budding entrepreneurs with the skills, confidence and know-how to start a business career. Details
Contact: Dominic Martinez
Innospace
Innospace is a quarter-million pound graduate incubation project launched by the Centre for Enterprise (CfE) at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School. Funded by the CfE, MMUBS and ERDF and based at the MMUBS Minshull Building in city ... Details
Contact: Dominic Martinez
Mentoring for new businesses
This Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) sponsored project seeks to help new entrepreneurs survive and flourish in their first few years of starting their own business. Details
Contact: Dominic Martinez
Urban Regeneration: Making a Difference
MMU is one of four universities involved in the Urban Regeneration: Making a Difference project, a £3.2m collaborative venture funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (HEFCE) Strategic Development Fund. Details
Contact: Dr Clare Schofield
Student Placements
The Student Placement programme offers businesses a 12-month staff resource in the form of an MMUBS student with a 2-year background in Marketing, Finance, Business Information Technology, Business Operations, International Business & Retailing. ... Details
Student Projects
This project enables local business to access Final Year Students studying Business Studies and Business Enterprise degree to help them with a particular problem or issue connect with their business. Details
Contact: Alison Brooker
Completed Projects
Leading Edge
The ERDF project's aim is to improve the competitiveness of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in the Financial and Professional Service (F&PS) sector. Specificaly for the project, an innovative leadership and management diagnostic tool called ... Details
Contact: Alison Brooker
IntoEnterprise
IntoEnterprise is a one-to-one business coaching and diagnostic tool initiated by the Centre for Enterprise at MMUBS and partly funded by the European Regeneration Development Fund and the North West Regional Development Agency. Details
Contact: Alison Brooker
Managing Maternity in Small Firms
Managing Maternity in Small Firms is a research project funded by the European Social Fund which examines the support available to help small firms manage staff during pregnancy and after childbirth. The projects ultimate aim is to develop an Action ... Details
Contact: Dr Debbie Ellen
ELFE - E-Learning for Female Entrepreneurs
ELFE - E-Learning for Female Entrepreneurs - is a multi-national project set up with partners across Europe. It is a free, accessible, female-specific learning course supporting women who want to set up a business, offering an online step-by-step ... Details
Contact: Bo Zhang
Embedding Innovation within SMEs
Embedding Innovation within SMEs is a UK national outreach project being carried out by Salford University, Lancaster University and Anglia Ruskin University. Details
Evolution of Business Knowledge
Dr Michael Zhang, ESRC Senior Research Fellow, worked on the Evolution of Business Knowledge from September 2003 to August 2006. Funded by ESRC, this was one of 14 projects UK wide looking into evolution of business knowledge in SMEs. Details
Equal Opportunities Project - Breakthrough
The main purpose of the project was to develop an innovative benchmarking tool to assist Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) in the north-west region to undertake an equal opportunity audit focusing on gender. The tool ‘Breakthrough’ identifies ... Details
Contact: Alison Brooker
Learning in SME Networks
This project has developed from our previous studies on regional small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and is an integral part of our on-going research on learning and knowledge management within SMEs Details
Contact: Alison Brooker
Financial Management & Cost Management in SMEs - Trafford Park
Effective financial management performance is critical for business survival and growth. Without clear financial controls and targets linked to strategy a business can under-perform, not matter how entrepreneurial and enthusiastic its owners, investors ... Details
Contact: Alison Brooker
Supply Chain Management Skills Project - Envisage
Envisage was the culmination of four ESF supported projects run by MMUBS between 1999 and 2002. The first project analysed the management development needs of owner managers in (SMEs) Small and Medium sized Enterprises, operating within manufacturing ... Details
Contact: Alison Brooker