Driving Business Innovation

Introduction

The British Library provides expert advice and free information for entrepreneurs and SMEs, focused on intellectual property and innovation. Our Business & IP Centre opened in 2006, and houses £5m worth of free information, as well as offering workshops and 1-1 advice sessions.

Following the success of the Centre in St Pancras, six new Business & IP Centres are being established in partnership with the city libraries in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle, bringing the same services to thousands more entrepreneurs across England.

Our other business services include the Document Supply Service, which extends access to scientific and business information to organisations in the UK and around the world.

Supporting Case Studies

Driving Business Innovation – facts and figures

Over 300,000 visits by entrepreneurs and SMEs to the Business & IP Centre since 2006.

96% of users would recommend the Business & IP Centre to others and 84% could not have achieved their results without it.

9 in 10 businesses that started with the help of the Business & IP Centre were still trading after the critical three year point, compared to the London average of 6 in 10.

150+ new jobs are being created in London through the three-year Innovating for Growth programme for high growth SMEs, funded by ERDF. Two-thirds of participants started their company with the Library’s help.

More than 90% of the UK’s highest spending research and development companies use the Document Supply Service, among them the UK’s top 25 pharmaceutical companies.