Three Amazing Opportunities! – Create Growth Hub

Applications now open for the Civic Community Fund

Audience: local groups, organisations, or individuals

Do you know local groups, organisations or individuals that would benefit from seed funding and support from the University of Derby?

The Civic Community Fund provided seed funding to four organisations in 2025 – The SEND Dynamic CIC, The Pond Project, Nightwatch Dark Sky Events, and Link CVS.

Professor Rhiannon Jones (Civic and Community Practice) Head of Civic and Communities at the University of Derby said, “We want to work with people who see value in a lasting partnership and who are eager to develop their projects with our experts to make a real difference, both to the region and the communities within it”

Successful applications will be able to demonstrate close alignment with University’s Civic Agreement and its goal.

Applications must be submitted by Friday 20 February. Applicants will be notified of funding outcomes by Monday 2 March.

For information, please follow the link below:

Civic community funding – Community – University of Derby

Game Changer Awards at the Cavendish Building 

Audience: Founders, small businesses and large corporations that invest in innovation

On Thursday 26 February, we’re hosting the Game Changer Awards at the Cavendish Building. It’s an evening where a small group of students from across the University of Derby will take to the stage to share the ideas they’ve been developing through our Pitch Perfect competition.

Pitch Perfect has been running for years, mostly behind the scenes. This time, we’re opening the doors and turning the final stage into a shared evening with people who enjoy being around new ideas and early ambition.

You’ll hear short pitches, have time to talk with the students before and after, and spend the evening in good company with food and drinks. There will be cash prizes awarded on the night, including an audience vote, so everyone in the room gets a say in recognising the ideas that resonate most.

The focus is on helping students practise how they talk about what they’re building, how they show up with confidence, and how they respond to questions in front of a room.

It’s also a chance to spend time in Cavendish and see how the building and the Game Changer Labs are becoming a home for student founders and entrepreneurial activity in Derby.

If that sounds like a good way to spend an evening, we’d love you to join us.

To book your place, visit our website and fill in the registration form.

EarthScale 

On March 17^th we will be hosting the first Regional Hub Event, as part of the EarthScale project we are delivering at University of Derby.

EarthScale is an initiative aimed at supporting IP-rich climate tech startups and spinouts scale to commercialisation. University of Derby are one of six founding universities to provide support via EarthScale, along with Imperial College London (lead partner), Cranfield University, University of Leeds, University of Nottingham, and University of Exeter.

The project aims to support organisations during a 12-month programme to help them grow and scale, providing 4 main pillars of provision:

• Access to world class technical and manufacturing facilities
• Expert enterprise development
• Talent and peer engagement
• Policy and regulation navigation

For the Regional Hub Event, we are bringing together partner universities, academic specialists, regional stakeholders, investors, entrepreneurs and businesses, to showcase aspects of sustainability, innovation and business at University of Derby, and the wider local region, helping to develop the local ecosystem by providing:

• Workshops (focussing on aspects such as gaining investment and investment opportunities, starting up your organisation, and strategic decision making)
• Q&A Panel Sessions (with individuals from local authorities, industry and innovators, tackling your questions about collaboration and partnership to accelerate innovation and sustainability)
• Presentations (from University of Derby, Imperial College London, industry and stakeholder partners, local entrepreneurs and many more, providing information about what is happening in the region around innovation and sustainability, additional support available through universities and wider opportunities, plans for the future, and much more!)

Date: 17^th March 2026

Time: 9:30am (doors open for networking and refreshment) with speakers starting at 10am. Close of the event is expected to be 3pm but is TBC.

Location: University of Derby, Cavendish Building, Agard Street, Derby DE1 1DZ

If you would like to book onto the event, please complete the booking form below:

https://app.geckoform.com/public/#/modern/21FO00set6fp6y00cnlxubxp77