Looking out for SMEs
SMEs are the life-blood of economies and innovation. In the UK, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with less than 250 employees, account for 99.9 per cent of the UK’s 5.5 million private sector businesses and employing 16.3 million people with a combined annual turnover of £1.3 trillion (Federation of Small Businesses, 2022).
Research that matters
Over 30 years, CEEDR’s academics and students have earned international recognition for their SME research. Recently, our work on potential high performance, sustainable innovative SME finance and support policy has contributed to major policy, support practitioner and SME impacts to key UK business finance programmes, contributing to our top tier UK REF university impact rating. Our clients include the British Business Bank, Innovate UK, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Greater London Authority, Research England and international public policy makers.
To find out more about our contract research scoping and evaluative work and grant research, including city and rural enterprise and equality and just transition work for a low carbon and nature positive economy, follow this link to find out more about the impact of our important work in this area.
Some recent, ground-breaking grant and contract research projects include:
- SME Nature Positive Finance
Client - Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) - SME Financing for Biodiversity: Building Nature Measurement and Impacts into SME Financing (‘SME FinBio’)
Client - Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Finance for Biodiversity (F4B) - Green Investment Toolkit
Client - Middlesex University Business School RKEFF - Development of an impact strategy of early-stage ventures – challenges and ways forward (2021)
Client - Middlesex University Business School, Research Knowledge Exchange small grant fund (RKEFF) - University Innovation Knowledge Centres (IKCs)
Client - UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) - European University Ecosystems
Client - Research England - Redefining SME Productivity Measurement and Assessment for a Low Carbon Economy
Client - ESRC Productivity Insight Network (PIN) - Evaluation of the Regional Growth Fund
Client - Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy - Entrepreneurial-University Eco-Systems
Client - Research England and British Business Bank - Evaluation of the English European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Client - UK Ministry Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) - An econometric analysis of public support for innovation on business outcomes
Client - Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy/Innovate UK - Regional Investment Funds – Early and Interim Assessment
Client - British Business Bank - Innovation Loan Pilots – Evaluation
Client - Innovate UK - Exploring the impacts of volunteer business mentoring on young entrepreneurs
Client - Youth Business International - Investment Accelerator – Evaluation
Client - UK Research and Innovation - CEEDR, Middlesex University and ISBE June 2017 Conference
- Exploring the success and barriers to SME access to finance and its potential role in achieving growth
- The Innovative firm's journey to finance
Client - Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. - Exact, research into SME efficiencies
Client - Exact. - Research into the future of VC and Private Equity Finance in Northern Ireland
Client - Department for Enterprise Trade and Industry (DETI) - Early Assessment of the Angel Co-investment Fund
Client - Department for Business Innovation and Skills and reporting to the British Business Bank - Interim Assessment of the Enterprise Capital Funds (ECFs) and Capital for Enterprise Fund (CfEF)
Client - Department for Business Innovation and Skills and reporting to the British Business Bank - SME Finance in London
Client - Greater London Authority - Investigation into the motivations behind the listing decisions of UK companies Client - Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
- Research into Mid-sized Business Growth
Client - Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - Interim Assessment for the New Business Link Universal Offer
Client - Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - The Impact of the Credit Crunch on the Financing and Growth of Technology-based Small Firms in the UK
Client - Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Research and Knowledge Exchange Fund - Early Assessment of the UK Innovation Investment Fund
Client - Department for Business, Inovation and Skills - Research to understand the barriers to take up and use of business support
Client - Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - Follow-up research into Mid-Cap Businesses having difficulty raising bank finance
Client - Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - Evaluation of Business Finance projects
Client - London Development Agency - Early assessment of impact of BIS Equity Scheme Initiatives
Client - Department for Business Innovation and Skills - Mystery Shopping, the early stages of the Business Link services
Client - Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - Access to Finance Scoping Study
Client - London Development Agency - SMEs in a Low Carbon Economy
Client - Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - Business Link Enterprise Gateway Service: Transformational Business Support
Client - Sussex Enterprise Ltd - Review of research and data on SMEs in public services
Client - Office of Government Commerce, H.M. Treasury and Department for Business, Energy and Regulatory Reform - Access to Finance for Scottish SMEs
Client - Scottish Government
