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Peterborough is set to host an international summit on how to stimulate and accelerate economic growth in the clean technology sector. Visitors from across Europe will attend the event on 4th June.

The free-to-attend summit is being held as part of the Cleantech Incubation Europe (CIE) project, funded by the EU’s INTERREG IVC programme. Peterborough is one of six partners collaborating on the project to identify ways to help SMEs and young start-up companies to develop new sustainable products, services and processes through the use of cleantech incubators. The projects’ findings will be disseminated Europe-wide to enable other regions to implement improvements to their incubator programmes.

As home to one of the largest clusters of environmental businesses in Europe, Peterborough is an ideal host city for the event which will bring together experts to look at removing the barriers to commercialising cleantech innovations. Speakers on the day include the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board.

Businesses, local authorities, and experts from cleantech incubators from the Netherlands, Finland, Hungary, France and Italy will look at how the UK is driving growth in the cleantech sector – through incubation and opportunities for funding and support.

Gareth Jones from Opportunity Peterborough is organising the cleantech summit in Peterborough, he said: “It’s great to be able to welcome representatives from Europe to Peterborough to share best practice on how cleantech innovations can be made commercially viable and how we support start-ups in this field. All too often cleantech products and services don’t get the support they need and yet this is a vital economic export for the UK and Europe. The CIE project is helping to address this and I’m delighted that Peterborough is at the forefront of this change.”

The free event is open to anyone supporting SMEs in the cleantech sector as well as local cleantech businesses. All the details can be found by visiting www.cleantechincubation.eu