The Defence Office for Small Business Growth

The role of the Defence Office for Small Business Growth (DOBG) is to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access the defence supply chain and scale up to meet defence challenges.

DOBG provide services to help find opportunities, understand requirements, and connect with the right teams:

• Business enablement support: Initial help to SMEs with elements of business growth and supplier development, scalability, and growing business networks.
• Procurement and commercial support: Initial help to understand and navigate defence procurement process, providing advice, best practice, and issue resolution on procurement and commercial matters.
• Regulatory and compliance readiness: Advice and signposting help and resources to around security clearance, intellectual property issues, commercial compliance, and helping SMEs to become defence.
• Export and international markets: The DOSBG will signpost and connect SMEs to the partners who can advise and support with export opportunities and international market entry.

Additional services are expected throughout 2026 to provide deeper support and new tools for SMEs.

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The East Midlands Regional Defence and Security Cluster (EM RDSC) brings together academic institutions, government bodies, public sector agencies, and the defence and security industry across the East Midlands, including Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, Derby and Derbyshire. The EM RDSC aims to play a crucial role in enhancing military capabilities and driving economic growth by working closely with the UK Ministry of Defence, facilitating innovation to be tested, partnerships to be made, and growth at scale to be realised through the cutting-edge R&D capabilities, defence assets, and collaborative approaches available in the East Midlands.

Regular face to face meetings bring together SMEs, primes, academia and public sector partners to share updates, explore opportunities, and strengthen collaboration across the region.

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