The EDP course is open to applications from companies from across the globe and on EDP 2009 there were 140 participants from 27 countries. The course is aimed at the most ambitious companies with growth potential and aspiration. HIE places are awarded to H&I companies subject to a selection process against criteria based on business growth aspiration and global potential.

Companies are only encouraged to apply for a place on the course if they fit the following criteria:

• Describe your business as ambitious
• Articulate your company goals for next 12 to 36 months
• Describe how EDP participation will help achieve the goals
• Describe what makes you stand out as an entrepreneur
• Are committed to improving long term customer relationships by enhancing the value delivered by the business
• Are committed to enhancing the company’s revenue and profit performance
• Are interested in building a company that can successfully compete on the global stage
• Have a highly ambitious business plan you would like to develop using the help and inspiration of world-class entrepreneurs
• Be willing to share your experience with other aspiring Highlands and Islands entrepreneurs
• Are available on the dates of the course

The competition for applications will open in September of 2009 and will be announced through the HIE website, press and business networks in the Highlands & Islands.

What format does the course take?
The course is taught over an extremely intensive week. Through lectures by senior MIT faculty, visits to high-tech start-ups, and live case studies with successful entrepreneurs, participants will be exposed to the content, context, and contacts that enable entrepreneurs to design and launch successful new ventures based on innovative technologies. Specially designed team projects give participants hands-on, practical experience developing a business plan, while networking events bring participants together with members of MIT’s entrepreneurial community.

Whilst the H&I business are in Boston participating on the course, typically HIE will arrange a series of wrap around meetings, networking events and introductions with contacts from the wider MIT and Boston community such as SDI, GlobalScots, Saltire Fellows and MIT Research Fellows in order to allow our businesses to gain most value from the visit to North America and expend their network.

The course fee is normally $8000 per person. Due to HIE’s relationship with MIT, membership of the MIT Industrial Liaison Programme (ILP) and network of contacts in the MIT community we are able to negotiate a lower rate and charge participating businesses from the Highlands & Islands only £2140 per person. This fee includes travel and accommodation cost and attendance at any other networking events built in around participation on the programme in the Boston area.

What are the benefits to participating businesses?

• Create, identify, and evaluate new venture opportunities
• Interpret customer needs and quantify the value proposition
• Navigate the venture capital investment process
• Understand how the process of starting new ventures may vary geographically and culturally
• Obtain critical feedback on business plans
• Start and build a successful technology-based company
• Develop the skill and drive needed to create totally new industries
• Leverage new science and technologies from corporate or university laboratories
• Enhance and expand their networks

• Operating on a global scale
• Larger in scale and size
• Pro-actively accessing and attracting investment in to the region
• Collaborating on a business to business international basis
• Increasingly involved in international programmes e.g. Global Scot, Saltire Fellows
• Engaging in new models for collaboration with academia
• Increasing the levels of research income in to the region
• Increasing the levels of commercialisation activity
• Increasing numbers of highly skilled migrants moving in to the region
• Relying less on public sector support
• Celebrating and promoting success stories widely

Outcomes from H&I companies previously participating on MIT courses include:

• Considerable benefit from the exposure to new thinking at MIT.
• A feeling from businesses that MIT visits are different to other visits and more rewarding.
• Evidence that those participating on the visit programme built links with other local businesses. {Several businesses felt that they now have a group "on whom they could call" if they needed advice or to talk through new ideas.}
• Enhancement in the relationship between businesses and HIE and an increase in scope for ongoing or new joint project work. This has shown HIE as credible and serious about growth amongst the business base.
• The opportunity to meet brilliant and leading academics, noting that having open conversations with them was of most value and of noticeable difference to businesses experiences of Scottish and UK academia.
• Being able to take a completely different perspective on the challenges facing rural areas by looking at advanced thinking on urban solutions; and the openness and "can-do" approach of MIT staff, researchers and students.
• A consensus amongst businesses that the Highlands and Islands were likely to derive more value from the relationship with MIT than with other research/academic organisations in the UK given their different approach and shared understanding of the purpose and aims of relationship.
• One previous EDP participant reported EDP helped bring forward business expansion by two years.
• One third of businesses attending the EDP have secured additional external funding in order to expand.
• One quarter of businesses have created joint ventures in the USA after EDP attendance
• Three EDP businesses created a new Highland based business currently employing six staff with a turnover of £600,000 p.a. with future projections substantially higher.
• Many businesses reported a shift in focus on winning business from larger companies and to steer away from smaller contracts.