(Office hours 08.30am-5:00pm)

Book A Tour
Innovation Centre Knowledge Gateway Logo

| 01206 405 500

Scale your business in our thriving community of innovation

A bold home for innovative businesses in Essex

Find your workspace

01206 405 500
Office hours 9am – 5pm

Innovation Centre
Knowledge Gateway, Boundary Road
Colchester, CO4 3ZQ

The Innovation Centre is the focal point for the University of Essex’s Knowledge Gateway; a research and technology park situated on their Colchester campus.

A creative hub for innovation

ICKG is a place where start-up and early stage innovative businesses can rent flexible office space, book impressive meeting and conference facilities, benefit from business support, and have access to research expertise – as well as student and graduate talent.

The Innovation Centre is based at the University of Essex’s Colchester Campus, which is an official University Enterprise Zone designated by the Government as a centre for nurturing and supporting new digital and creative businesses.

Find your workspace

A catalyst for growth

By supporting fast growing and early stage businesses, the Innovation Centre is helping the University to drive economic growth in the East of England, and establish this area as a globally-recognised centre for innovation. Combined with the excellent facilities on the University campus, the thriving hub of the Knowledge Gateway is an essential place for entrepreneurs and like-minded business owners to base themselves and develop new ideas.

Find your workspace

A strong partnership

Innovation Centre, Knowledge Gateway is a partnership between the University of Essex (University of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2018) and Oxford Innovation (the UK’s leading Innovation Centre operator). Their joint aim is to make high-tech and creative start-up and scale-up businesses into sustainable and commercial successes, which has a continuous positive impact on the local economy.

Oxford Innovation logo
University of Essex logo
Find out more
Benches Outside Innovation Centre
Quote icon

What our customers say

“The Innovation Centre is a great location for young thriving tech businesses. The facilities, business community and support have been invaluable to us and would benefit any business. ICKG is located in the University of Essex’s Enterprise Zone, and this has been of particular benefit to us as we work closely with the University’s academics, students from the drama school, and we are also looking to hire interns and graduates to build our human resources capacity.”
Angela Knox
Angela Knox
Keep Fit Eat Fit
“Have found the staff, facilities & professional experience at ICKG of real beneficial support to the development & growth of my business. Great value for money with a very high standard of customer care, plus positive engagement - especially in these current challenging times - with good safe working practices deployed to ensure business as usual”
Tony Parker
Tony Parker
Borland Insurance

Meet the team

Duncan
Bird

Innovation Director
Read bio

Georgina
Watts

Centre Manager

Read bio

Karly
Jarvis

Assistant Centre Manager

Read bio

Penny
Horey

Customer Experience Assistant

Read bio

Interested in joining our community?

Modal video image
Find out how our customers are thriving at ICKG

Grow your innovative business at the University of Essex’s Knowledge Gateway.

For more information about pricing, availability or to arrange a tour, please get in touch.

Book a tour
Shopping icon

10 minutes from Colchester High Street

Car icon

26 miles from Chelmsford on the A12

Tube icon

46 minutes from London Liverpool Street

Plane icon

30 miles to London Stansted Airport

  • 01206 405 500
    Office hours 08:30am - 5:00pm
  • Innovation Centre
    Knowledge Gateway, Boundary Road Colchester, CO4 3ZQ
Linkedin Facebook Instagram Youtube

info@innovationcentre-kg.co.uk

Sign up to newsletter
© Oxford Innovation Ltd  | Privacy Policy  | Cookie Policy
Website by Sharp Ahead

Duncan Bird

Innovation Director

With 30 years of experience in marketing, branding, and music, Duncan has worked with both startups and global giants. He’s founded two service businesses in the advertising and creative sectors—one in London and one in New York—and has also been a founder and partner in multiple manufacturing startups in the beauty industry. Duncan’s career includes roles as VP at Sony Music and VP of Brand & Digital at Fiverr, where he helped transform the company into a global NYSE-listed brand. Having recently returned from many years in New York, Duncan is a passionate music enthusiast, record collector, and DJ, and an avid fan of generative AI, Duncan is exploring the intersection of technology, culture, and music through his writing on Substack.

Georgina Watts

Centre Manager

Georgina comes to Oxford Innovation with a wealth of knowledge and experience in operations and customer service, within the retail sector. She is looking forward to working with the team, managing day-to-day centre operations and helping the centre to flourish. Georgina really enjoys meeting people and loves spending time with her family camping and going on bike rides.

Karly Jarvis

Assistant Centre Manager

I’ve spent the last 10 years working in facilities management, specifically for Mitie where I have dealt with several clients from public to private sector. I’m looking forward to learning and experiencing all the new aspects that come along with working for Oxford Innovation. In my downtime I enjoy spending time with my family, ‘trying’ to train my 5-month-old chocolate labrador puppy and going wild swimming.

Penny Horey

Customer Experience Assistant

I have 10 years of experience in the telecoms sector, including 2 years in administration and provisioning. Following my time in telecoms, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to start my own business in retail as an early adopter of a successful franchise. With the support of a fantastic team and my partners, I co-owned and operated the RocoMamas Gourmet Burger Franchise for 5 wonderful years before making the move to the United Kingdom. I chose to make Colchester my home and have been a CEA at ICKG for 2.5 years. I’m proud to be part of a vibrant and ever-growing community.

Book a Tour

Join an inspiring community of innovators and entrepreneurs at ICKG.

  • Book a tour of our innovation centre
  • Get more information on sizes, pricing & availability
  • Have your questions answered
  • Secure your choice of office, coworking space or meeting room
Innovation Centre Knowledge Gateway Boundary Road Colchester CO4 3ZQ
Your Name
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.