This partnership also puts the Floreon team in close contact with University of Hull academic staff and researchers who are on hand to provide their knowledge and expertise.
“There's a chance to bounce ideas around, but also follow that up with some real science as well,” added Andrew. “If we're looking at a particular area, greenhouse gas emissions or testing the properties of plastic, we can speak with the relevant academics who have the experience to help us with our development.”
Brian Houston, Knowledge Exchange Lecturer and InventX Manager at the University of Hull, believes that the collaboration with Floreon is ‘a perfect match’.
He said: “As a local SME themselves, and very focused on low carbon innovation, they were already the perfect match for us in order to collaborate and help them grow.
“Our initial aim was to understand what Floreon’s challenges were in terms of their barriers to innovation and understanding how we could support that as a university. It's challenged us to think more like an industrial company. We can see that the changes that we're making and the adaptions that we're implementing are really making a difference.
“What started as helping develop a more expedient innovation process has evolved into a deeper partnership between Floreon and the University of Hull academics. We're starting to combine our efforts and apply for combined research funding, and take those innovation processes beyond the core products of Floreon to greater impact potential.
“Working with a company like Floreon is incredibly satisfying because we've set out at the Innovation Centre to support net zero innovation and to support low carbon technologies. Floreon embodies that. Within everything they do, they are trying to disrupt the plastics industry and they are effectively replacing oil-based plastics from consumer markets. That absolutely harks to everything that we want to support.”