The Rail Accelerator and Innovation Solutions hub for Enterprise (RaisE) has been officially opened in Goole.
More than 150 guests joined representatives from East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Siemens Mobility and the University of Birmingham on May 27, to tour the three-storey business centre and learn more about the support it will provide for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the rail sector.
Brigg and Goole MP Andrew Percy also unveiled a plaque to celebrate the occasion.
The building houses conference rooms and communal break-out areas, with free onsite parking. A cafe was due to be operational by the end of June (after this issue of RAIL went to press).
Offices and workshops on the ground and first floors are available to SMEs from £25 per square foot, which includes heat, power, light and “easy in/out terms”.
The University of Birmingham’s Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE) will have office space on the first floor, offering support for SMEs to diversify into rail and for existing rail SMEs to develop their products and services.
The second floor is reserved as office space for Siemens Mobility, which owns the £200 million factory that is under construction next door (and where some of the next generation of Tube trains will be built for London Underground’s Piccadilly Line).
The £8.1m project was part-funded using grant money secured from the European Regional Development Fund (£1.5m) and the Getting Building Fund (£1m), via the Hull and East Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
It is hoped that RaisE will create more than 90 new job opportunities once SMEs begin moving in.
Phase two will now shortly get under way to construct a £50m centre of excellence developed between BCRRE and Siemens.
To read the full story, see RAIL 959.
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