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News

February 2010 : Women@Business Successful Lead Project for DG Enterprise

Inova is a key partner in one of only nine projects to be funded under the European Commission's DG Enterprise programme to foster entrepreneurial spirit in female undergraduates across Europe. Inova will transfer its successful Mentoring Circle methodology to trainers working with female undergraduates in Greece, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany and Italy. The project will also aim to introduce an innovative scheme to place female undergraduates on placement abroad with women-owned businesses. The kick off meeting took place in Cyprus in February 2010. read press release

October 09, Sheffield: Connecting European Businesses - Free Event for SMEs

Inova organised an event at the Jury's Inn Hotel in Sheffield with the European project EUCOMEN to encourage UK small businesses to network and find out about doing business abroad. Speakers from Creative Sheffield, UK Trade and Investment, the Regional Language Network and Sheffield Hallam University presented the benefits of trading abroad and encouraging SMEs to think globally. The event was a great chance for Sheffield and Yorkshire-based businesses to find out about the benefits of trading across Europe. Companies from Latvia, Czech Republic, France, and Italy also attended to network with UK businesses. download conference presentations

download event agenda

June 09: Inova Recruiting Women Starting up Businesses in Doncaster

Inova is looking to start new Mentoring Circles for women wanting to start up a business who live in Doncaster. We currently run Mentoring Circles for women starting up social enterprises as well as women starting up general businesses. To find out how to join this free programme and build your business confidence, contact Inova.

April/May 09: Inova Recruiting Women Returners for Career Development Project

Inova is now recruiting women who are wanting to return to work but who have been on a career break for any reason, in order to join a small group of women to receive training and support in building confidence and CV/application skills to return to work. If you are a woman wanting to return to work, contact Inova for more details about this free programme in Sheffield.

March 09: Inova Trains Businesses in Inter-Cultural Awareness

Marina Larios delivered the informative workshop 'Cross Cultural Considerations for Business in Mexico' on March 18th 09 to businesses operating in Yorkshire and Humber who are looking to prepare to export their services/products to the USA, Canada or Mexico. visit event site

Feb 09: Inova Launches European Career Circles for Women Returners Across Europe

Inova has been successful in receiving funding from the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme, to export our methodology recognised in the UK by SFEDI (Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative) to a new group of participants: women returners across Europe. Inova hosted the first European meeting for the project called EU Return in London on 22nd and 23rd January at the Royal Academy of Engineering. Participants from Portugal, Romania, Switzerland and the UK took part in a training the trainers session where training methodologies and exercises to use when working with women returning to work following a career break were discussed and exchanged. visit EU Return

Feb 09: New Elected Executive for WiTEC

More than 8 European Countries travelled to Halmstad, Sweden in order to participate on the 30th January 09 in the elections of the new WiTEC Executive Committee. WiTEC (European Association for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology) which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year in Amsterdam has since 1988 being the leading association in Europe in the promotion of women in science, engineering and technology. Inova is pleased to announce that Marina Larios, Inova Director has been re-elected to her position of WiTEC President for 2009-2011.

The new elected executive members are:

Marina Larios (UK) President
Miretta Giacometti (Italy)- Vice-President
Nadia Chryssikopoulou (Greece) Vice President
Ute Wanzek (Germany) Secretary
Taru Kankkunen (Austria) Treasurer

Marina Larios stated: “I am extremely honoured to have been elected for the third time as WiTEC President and will pursue my commitment towards WiTEC ensuring the association grows from strength to strength. WiTEC has just received the great news of new EC funded programmes which gives us a great start for 2009!”

For further information please contact WiTEC secretariat.

Jan 09: Celebrating Achievements: Female Entrepreneurs, 10th Sept 2008, Sheffield, UK

Inova ran a highly successful event on 10th September 2008 at The Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, UK to celebrate the achievements of women entrepreneurs who had been through the various Inova mentoring and training programmes for women starting up or developing a business. The event was attended by over 100 women entrepreneurs and policy makers and was a great opportunity to celebrate the successes of women in Sheffield and South Yorkshire. During the event Councillor Sylvia Anginotti spoke about the importance of programmes such as those run by Inova to encourage and support more women to start up in business. Cllr Anginotti also released a new policy on the night of the event stating that Sheffield City Council are committed to making sure that Sheffield becomes one of the best places to set up in business as a woman.

“A joyful, seamless and thoroughly uplifting event! Brilliant achievement and a great way to top it off."
Frances Wells

“I really enjoyed the conference. The speakers were very informative and made me want to be one of those female entrepreneurs. Very enjoyable and I met some very interesting people who are clearly passionate about what they do which was very positive.”
Jennie Medcalf (Sheffield International Venues)

Read Event Programme (PDF, 140kb)

Read Speaker Biographies (PDF, 71kb)

Read Cllr Sylvia Anginotti's speech (PDF, 57kb)

Read letter of support from Paul Scrivens, Leader of Sheffield City Council (PDF, 381kb)

project focus

Inova chosen to represent UK in new European network project to share best practice on mentoring women.

success stories

"We got lots of help and advice through Mentoring Circles."

Jessica Zeun, JD Approach

women in SET

Find out about our work with women in Science, Engineering and Technology.