Ukraine-Russia invasion: Businesses at heightened risk of cyber attacks, security expert warns

Businesses could be at a heightened risk of cyber attacks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – an expert from cyber security firm CSS Assure has warned.

Ukrainian banking and government websites were knocked offline last week by a spate of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which are designed to crash sites by bombarding them with excessive requests at the same, causing server overloads and shutdowns.

UKREiiF showcase for i54 business park opportunity

i54 South Staffordshire will be in the spotlight at the UK’s Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF). The major Midlands business park, located in South Staffordshire on the county border with Wolverhampton, has recently seen the completion of a 60-acre western extension.

A new occupier is already lined up for part of the extension but an opportunity for an end user to secure the remaining 25 acres for advanced manufacturing, technology, training and innovation will be showcased by Invest Wolverhampton, Staffordshire County Council and South Staffordshire Council at UKREiiF (May 16-18).

UKSPF tendering opportunity

Dudley Council is one of the council in the UK who are inviting providers of services for the following broad themes to submit tenders, as part of a Dynamic Purchasing System:

UK’s largest arts and crafts retailer celebrate new store opening with hundreds of customers queuing in excitement

Hobbycraft, the UK’s largest arts and crafts retailer, celebrated the opening of its new store at Battery Retail Park, Selly Oak, Birmingham, on Saturday with a host of crafting activities, product offers and goody bags for the first 100 customers who walked through the doors.

UK’s largest built environment event makes welcome return with record visitors

The UK’s largest event for the built environment, UK Construction Week (UKCW) Birmingham, made a welcome return to the NEC last week, with visitor numbers up 19% from last year. The show drew over 23,900 visitors from as far afield as Turkey, Brazil, Australia and Canada, and included a host of high-profile names including West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, Channel 4 presenter George Clarke, and BBC journalist and presenter Simon Jack.

UK’s net zero strategy must deliver more help for switch to green manufacturing – academics

The UK government, trade bodies and multinational corporations must offer greater support to smaller businesses around making the transition to green manufacturing, academics have warned ahead of COP26 and following the publication of the UK’s net zero strategy today.

Steven McCabe and Beverley Nielsen, Associate Professors at Birmingham City University and co-editors of a new book featuring contributions from leading industrialists, industry body representatives, political commentators and academics on the topic, suggest much more must be done in order to enable and support SMEs in a UK-wide switch to environmentally sensitive production across sectors.

Umicore joins eSkootr Championship as founding Global Sustainability Partner

The eSkootr Championship (eSC) has announced its first Global Sustainability Partnership with world-leading materials technology and recycling group Umicore.

The partnership will see Umicore develop and implement a circular design strategy for batteries used in the eSkootr series with the ambitious aim of applying potential insights to the real world of micromobility products and services.

The partnership will also use the promotional platform of the new sport to deliver educational programmes and advocacy campaigns for a new generation of mobility consumers demanding a more equitable and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels.

Umicore will work closely with the eSC Commission and its team of sustainability, technical and policy experts in the implementation of the partnership, ensuring that best practice on battery recyclability is dialled into the rulebook of the sport from the outset.

Hrag Sarkissian, eSkootr Championship CEO said: “We recognise and applaud Umicore’s strong commitment to cleaner mobility through new technologies and techniques. The use and reuse of battery materials at every point in the value chain has enormous implications for micromobility. We’re excited that Umicore shares eSC’s vision for the series as an innovation lab for knowledge transfer in this vitally important area.”

Chair of the eSC Commission Sustainability Working Group, Dr Cristiana Pace,  added: “Our Umicore partnership underlines how important circular design is for eSC and the meaningful and measurable achievement of our environmental mission. Although a new sport, eSC is already demonstrating its robust approach to sustainability through the programmes and partnerships it’s developing. I’m thrilled that Umicore is joining us on this new journey.”

Tom Van Bellinghen, VP OEM Sales and Marketing at Umicore Rechargeable Battery Materials said: "We are excited to be the first Global Sustainability Partner of eSC, the world’s first eSkootr Championship™. As a key player in rechargeable battery materials, Umicore is a proud contributor to a sustainable battery value chain. We strongly support eSC’s commitment to a net-zero carbon footprint in this exciting clean mobility solution and we look forward to sharing our expertise related to a closed battery loop design with eSC’s sustainability team."

Under Investigation: The African Regional Awards and Seminar

We have been informed that the event that the advertisement placed on page 16 of the February 2020 edition of The Phoenix Newspaper relating to an African Regional Awards and Seminar in Ghana is under investigation as it may not be happening.

This advertisement has been removed from the online version of the February 2020 edition of the newspaper, but will obviously still be in the printed copies.

University hosts international conference on assessing the ESG movement and its impact on business

Luiss University hosted an international conference on "Assessing the ESG movement: Ethical reflections on ESG and its impact on Business," organized by Rome's University, the Wharton University of Pennsylvania, and ETHOS Observatory of Public Ethics. The conference aimed to improve understanding of the ESG movement, contribute to its moral assessment, and explore approaches to realizing its underlying values.

University launches government-funded course for small business owners

Birmingham City University is to deliver a 12-week programme to support senior managers of small and medium sized businesses in boosting their business performance, resilience and long-term growth.

The ‘Help to Grow’ course is 90 per cent funded by the Government and has been designed to allow participants to complete it alongside full-time work. According to recent data published by the British Chamber of Commerce, in which more than 1,000 firms were surveyed, 63 per cent of SMEs said they were emerging from lockdown with either concrete plans or intentions to grow their business over the next 12 months.

Mark Gilman, Professor of SME Growth and Development at Birmingham City University, said: “The pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges for businesses, particularly SMEs, and it is vital that these organisations get the support they need to bounce back and make sure our region thrives beyond the pandemic.”

The Birmingham City University programme will include both online and face-to-face sessions and will allow business owners to develop capabilities in leadership, innovation, marketing and employee engagement. Course participants will also receive one-to-one support from a mentor, providing personalised support to develop business growth plans.

University of Birmingham Coding Bootcamp alumnus lands top tech job in the city

Meedaxa Ahmed has landed a top job as an integration engineer at Birmingham-based digital innovation company, Synaptek, after graduating from an intensive University of Birmingham Boot Camp.

The University of Birmingham launched its popular Boot Camps last year and has since welcomed 135 students to its 24-week intensive Coding and Data Analytics courses. With the rising demand for web development and digital skills across all industries, the University of Birmingham Boot Camps are designed to prepare students with the knowledge and skills they need to tap into today’s technological economy and help bridge the nation’s skills gap. 

University set for £5 million expansion to its City South Campus

Birmingham City University is set for a £5 million expansion to its City South Campus, which will provide additional teaching and training space for more than 1,000 healthcare and education students.
 
The University has acquired a new property at 12 Harborne Road, close to its campus in Edgbaston, to boost capacity and learning space for students taking up courses at its Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences.
 
The building has been purchased for £2.2 million with a further £2.8 million to be invested to transform it into a state-of-the-art training facility for students.
 
The new building will provide a host of additional teaching space for existing students, as well as creating capacity to train over 1,000 more public service professionals of the future.
 
The Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences is the largest trainer of undergraduate nurses in the Midlands, and also offers training for a range of public service careers, including allied health professions and teaching.
 
Executive Dean of the Faculty Professor Ian Blair said: “This is a truly fantastic acquisition for the University and Faculty.  It will facilitate practical skills development for our nursing programmes and provide much needed teaching space for all courses based in City South.
 
“This could not have come at a better time for the Faculty as we continue to expand our student population and curricula offering.”
 
The acquisition will also see the University’s Skills Practice and Care Enhancement lab relocated to the state-of-the-art building.
 
This follows a £41 million extension to the City South campus opened in 2018, which provided professional level learning facilities for all HELS courses, including specialist facilities for those studying to become primary or secondary school teachers.
 

Unleash private sector but also invest in strategic economic strengths, says NCUB

A combination of measures announced in the budget today will create new opportunities for innovative start-ups and will help unlock private investment.

However, these measures must be underpinned by a collaborative and sustainable university sector to succeed says the National Centre for Universities and Business, the collective voice of UK business and universities. Today’s announcements set an economic growth goal of 2.5% and seek to drive up private investment through targeted tax and regulatory measures.  

UNLEASH World returns to showcase Fortune 500 companies transforming the future of work

UNLEASH, the fastest-growing HR events across Europe and the US, returns to Paris for its 11^th year from the 17^th, though to 18th October, 2023.

Up to 2,000 cold homes to get energy saving heating and insulation after region secures £19m funding

Up to 2,000 old and cold homes across the West Midlands are to get energy saving insulation, low carbon heating systems and other fuel reducing technology after the region secured more than £19 million of government funding.

The money, which follows a successful bid co-ordinated by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) into the government’s Sustainable Warmth Competition, comes as the region seeks to ramp up action to tackle climate change, reduce fuel poverty and support its #WM2041 ambition to be net zero within the next 20 years.

Upcoming events to match homebuyers with ideal homes in Nottinghamshire

Barratt and David Wilson Homes is inviting house hunters to five of its upcoming events in Nottinghamshire this month (August). The events are free to the public and, with no appointment required, homebuyers can receive a tour of the properties available and find out more about how they can save money and hassle when securing a new home.

Uplift in demand shows increased confidence in coach travel

Latest figures from the UK’s largest coach operator show strong signs of the public’s increased confidence in domestic travel as the country moves toward the next step in the roadmap. National Express restarted operations with a limited timetable and reduced passenger numbers per vehicle on Monday March 29 following an 11 week suspension. Around 70% of seats were sold on services for its first week back, increasing to 80% over the Easter weekend.

John Boughton, commercial director of National Express UK Coach, comments: “Our first week back on the road has been encouraging. We will be adding new routes, including to Yorkshire, Nottingham and Blackpool, and increasing the frequency of some services from mid-April to meet the growing demand we are seeing in line with the next easing of restrictions.

“There have been significant jumps in people planning a coach journey in 2021 every time we reach a date in the roadmap or there is an announcement. We saw online searches increase by 24% yesterday (Sunday 5 April) following the official confirmation from Number 10 that we will move to step two of the roadmap on Monday 12 April.”

Big cities including Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham are consistently popular with demand for leisure destinations growing noticeably from mid-May onwards. “The uncertainty around foreign travel means more and more people are planning a break in the UK this year and using coach travel for their journey.

“Our new option to book accommodation and attractions along with coach travel, complete with a price guarantee and ABTA protection, is proving popular. And we are seeing particularly strong interest in services to major UK holiday destinations such as Bournemouth, Brighton, Blackpool, Skegness and Devon.”

A new full UK-wide timetable will go on sale later this month, and has been redesigned to offer quicker journey times, increased punctuality and improved connectivity for journeys in 2021. “We are going to make coach travel more convenient and even greater value in 2021.”

“We’ve removed the booking fee for any purchases made through a National Express online account and included more options to claim a refund or amend a journey if circumstances change. We have also automatically extended over 100,000 previously purchased coachcards by 12 months.”

There has also been significant investment in making the iconic white coaches the greenest fleet on the road on its return. The average age of a vehicle is only three years old and every one meets the highest possible engine emission standard (Euro VI).

John Boughton continues: “National Express has always been part of being able to see friends and family, go on holiday, attend events and visit attractions. We’re excited to play our part in the UK public’s safe return to travel and help make this happen again.”

Significant covid-secure measures are in place for travel with National Express, including:

• A reduction in the number of seats available on all coaches and social distancing in both stations and on vehicles.
• Enhanced cleaning in both stations and on coaches, including regular aerosol based disinfection -sometimes called ‘fogging’.
• An additional filter on the air conditioning systems of all coaches to reduce bacteria and corona type viruses; and improve air quality.
• Temperature screening before allowing travel with anyone with a high temperature reading not allowed to travel and given a full refund.
• Provision of PPE and use of protective screens on vehicles and in coach stations
• The requirement for customers to wear face coverings when in stations and travelling on coaches, in line with Government guidelines.

Uponor renews its Group strategy and introduces new financial targets

Uponor renews its Group strategy and introduces new financial targets to drive profitable growth. Uponor’s new Group strategy is centred on maximizing the core and sustainable innovation.

Michael Rauterkus, president & CEO of Uponor, said: “Uponor is a leading partner and a pioneer in sustainable water systems and indoor climate. We are well positioned to benefit from the megatrends of net zero, productivity and clean water. 

Urban air mobility market to reach $29 Billion by 2030

As per the report published by The Brainy Insights, the global urban air mobility market is expected to grow from USD 2.1 billion in 2021 to USD 29.0 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 33.9% during the forecast period 2022-2030.

Urban air mobility (UAM) is a highly automated, on-demand, unpiloted, cargo or passenger-carrying air transportation service. The concept of transportation has made city travel easier by avoiding traffic jams and congestion on roads.

US corporations are ahead of the UK in creating net zero strategies

A new survey of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) decision makers in the US and UK, commissioned by carbon credits ratings provider, Sylvera, has found that large US corporations are ahead of large UK corporations when it comes to creating their net zero strategies.

Over three quarters (78%) of US ESG decision makers surveyed said their company has a net zero transition strategy already in place, whereas only just over half (55%) of UK ESG decision makers said the same.