London, Manchester, Munich, 17 May 2005 ... Following a competitive 10 agency tendering process, Northbank Communications, in conjunction with The Broadcast PR Business, is pleased to announce that it has been appointed as PR consultants to the SETsquared Partnership. The SETsquared Partnership is a partnership of the four universities of Bath, Bristol, Southampton and Surrey, which, together, have a collective research base of over 6,500 researchers and a research budget of £250 million. The Partnership has won funding of £12 million from HEIF to maximise the social and economic impact of this investment in research by encouraging enterprise and entrepreneurship across the region.

Northbank will co-ordinate a programme of outreach to the national media to promote the partnership and celebrate its success in business enterprise and entrepreneurship education. The programme of activities will be implemented in partnership with The Broadcast PR Business, who will bring additional knowledge and expertise complementary to the Northbank team.

Commenting on the appointment, Sue Charles, Northbank’s CEO, who will lead the account, said, “I have long been aware of the success of SETsquared in technology transfer and I am very pleased to be able to work with them as they build on this success. We would like to see the SETsquared Partnership recognised as one of the leaders in entrepreneurship and enterprise, and we are looking forward to working with them to promote the group in this way.” Alongside Sue, key team members on the account will be Dr Rebecca Todd from Northbank and Matthew Locke from The Broadcast PR business, supported by Rowan Minnion, also from Northbank.

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Notes:

1. Northbank Communications Ltd - www.northbankcommunications.com
Northbank Communications, a fully integrated PR and communications consultancy, focuses on serving science-based companies and organisations, with a strong focus in the life science industry. Northbank helps early stage companies establish a corporate presence through PR, image development, website design and corporate materials, as well as value adding services including business plan writing and investor presentations. For more mature companies the consultancy can offer a range of dedicated services or integrated campaigns, focused on either marketing or financial audiences. The consultancy has a fully equipped design studio offering on and off-line design solutions.

Northbank Communications Limited was formed through the merger of Charles Consultants into STMP Marketing Solutions Ltd in November 2002 and operates from offices in London and Congleton (near Manchester) in the UK, and Munich, Germany. The Company employs 23 staff with an annual turnover approaching £2m (€3m).

2. The Broadcast PR Business

The Broadcast PR Business was created in 2002 by Heather Fearfield and Matthew Locke to provide broadcast strategies across a wide range of clients. The business also has strong specialist PR skills in education, venture capital, technology transfer and financial services. Heather Fearfield worked formerly at the BBC, Granada TV and Planet 24. Matthew Locke worked at Kleinwort Benson and Hill and Knowlton.


For further information please contact:

Dr Rebecca Todd, Senior Account Manager
Tel: +44 (0)20 7886 8157
Email: r.todd@northbankcommunications.com

Matthew Locke, Director, The Broadcast PR Company

Tel: +44 (0)20 8297 2004

Email: matthew@broadcastprbusiness.com