Small businesses looking to get ideas off the ground are being offered free advice by technology experts.

Staff at the Centre of Excellence in Mobile and Emerging Technologies (CEMET), which is based at the University of South Wales (USW), are offering access to an Advice and Guidance Workshop Programme to discuss how to develop the tech behind a business concept.

The purpose of the programme is to help businesses in the pre-development stages of a project. It provides entrepreneurs with a safe collaborative space to ask questions and get help from some of the development team, which specialises in all aspects of technology.

Matt Smith, who is Commercial Manager at CEMET, said:

“When starting a business, there are a million different jobs to do and decisions to make – and CEMET can help. We provide a wide range of support to help small business get their plans together.”

Gareth Lloyd, UX/UI Designer at CEMET, added:

“This can range from help with developing a product roadmap, ensuring the business is appropriately positioned to conduct research and development activity; support in building a sustainable plan, defining goals, and targets to support long-term R&D; and suitable websites, software, and applications.

“We provide everything from user research, through to product design, and product development, we'll advise on it all.”

CEMET enables eligible SMEs in Wales to access funded collaborative research & development via a unique three stage R&D process, which transforms an innovative idea into a high-quality product. The process ensures that entrepreneurs are best placed to capitalise on the collaboration, with the aim of stimulating business growth.

CEMET is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Welsh Government.