Bristol Question Time: Meet Future Space's Elaine McKechnie

Elaine McKechnie is centre director of Future Space, an innovation hub for fledging tech and science firms. At just over one year old, the space – based on the UWE campus in Bristol – is 70% let and home to some of the most innovative home grown and international businesses.

The space provides office and lab space for firms in the growth phase up to 10 to 15 people. However, McKechnie said she had witnessed a real issue for start-ups in Bristol finding space as the grew from 15 to 100 people. She said that “grow on” space was still sparse, expensive and quite risky for firms when they were still in that growth phase.

Spaces that were in demand from the young, innovative companies were the less shiny parts of Bristol, said McKechnie, such as shipping containers.

Listen in to find out more about Future Spaces and the start ups it incubates.