A GROWING business innovation centre has welcomed two new firms.

Agile Research and Innovative Creations are among the first businesses to join the Innovation Centre at Essex University’s Knowledge Gateway research and technology park.

The newly-launched centre offers offices for firms alongside networking opportunities, business support and masterclasses for technology businesses.

Independent research agency Agile Research has been in business for just over a year.

The firm provides user research opportunities to organisations including gov.uk.

Research director Nick Richmond said the Innovation Centre is the ideal choice of home for the business.

He said: “It’s a good fit with what we do and our experience of working with emerging products and services.

“The business support is also proving invaluable with Neil, the centre’s Innovation Director, already helping us to make links with the university, local businesses and funding opportunities.” Innovative Creations has been going strong for nearly two decades, offering cloud development services focusing on big data and analytics.

The business has a strong base in the energy industry but is growing into manufacturing

and developing sensors for housing.

James Brand, the firm’s chief executive officer, said: “There’s nothing in the area like this.

“We’re keen to meet people and collaborate and it’s well-connected to the university.

“We’ve had a lot of interns from Essex University come through the business already and have taken one of them on permanently.”

The Innovation Centre is a partnership between the University of Essex and Oxford Innovation, the UK’s leading innovation centre operator. To find out more, visit innovationcentre-kg.co.uk.