This year, the Science Park welcomed Disha Indoria and Sophie Clark, MSc and MBA students respectively at WBS, to deliver three-month projects across the summer.
Disha, 26, who has a background in fashion, worked directly with Blythe Valley Innovation Centre in Solihull, one of the Science Park’s sites, to enhance its marketing strategy and allow its community to grow.
She said: “I wanted to create a targeted marketing strategy for Blythe Valley to help it attract a wider range of innovative businesses to help it increase occupancy and build an even stronger community.
“Part of that was to understand its current strategy and identify potential areas for improvement.
“After working with Centre Manager Andy Stewart and the tenants there, one of the main things I implemented was a more comprehensive strategy for boosting its presence on LinkedIn – a social media platform where a lot of its potential occupiers are active on.
“Blythe Valley is highly regarded by its current tenants and has a lot to offer, so improving the marketing strategy will get even more companies in and allow the centre to flourish.
“It’s been a brilliant experience – the feedback I received throughout the project was incredibly helpful and I was encouraged and motivated all the way through.”
Sophie, 27, worked alongside Mihir Rathi, Project Manager in the Science Park’s sustainability team, to help embed green clauses into leases for tenants across its sites, committing both tenants and the Science Park together to enhance the environmental credentials of their spaces.
She added: “I have a keen interest in sustainability, so when an opportunity came to work at the Science Park with their team, I thought it would be a great fit for my studies.
“I conducted a questionnaire with tenants across the Science Park’s sites to understand their attitudes towards sustainability clauses and what they were happy to commit to, and also met with the Science Park’s site managers to gauge their opinions.
“After analysing the feedback and working with Mihir, we drafted clauses that the Science Park could drip-feed into tenant leases over the next few years depending on their circumstances.
“It’s been so worthwhile to work with the Science Park. They couldn’t have been more accommodating, and I’m hopeful I can use my findings from this project in my dissertation.”
This was the second year of the placement scheme between WBS and the Science Park, which was set up to encourage talented business students to enhance their studies and produce meaningful results for the Science Park and its tenants.
Victoria Lynch, Head of Commercial at UWSP, said: “After such a successful partnership last year, we were keen to continue our placement scheme with WBS students this summer as well.
“Disha and Sophie were both excellent and felt like part of the team during their time with us.
“Blythe Valley Innovation Centre is now implementing Disha’s LinkedIn strategy, and Mihir is confident of introducing fair green clauses across our sites thanks to Sophie’s support.
“Summer internships and student projects are a great way for businesses to support talent development and gain value from engaging with the significant talent brought by high-calibre students from the University of Warwick.
“The demonstrable impact delivered for our business and customers is the reason we recommend Warwick students to our business community.”
