Our History

Cornwall Marine Network supports local marine businesses to grow. We talk to you, our members, to understand the barriers you face to growing your business, and use this evidence of demand from across the local marine sector to bid for project funds which then pay for the staff and grants that can overcome these obstacles and help your business grow.

The services we provide include support to help you improve productivity, introduce process and product innovations into your business, new skills and training for you and your staff, and digital marketing advice. We also nurture meaningful connections between our members.

Cornwall remains home to some of the world’s most innovative, cutting edge and forward thinking marine businesses and we listen and respond to your needs to create benefits, provide sector representation and maintain this momentum of growth to benefit the local marine sector and the wider Cornish economy.

Since the CMN team was first established in 2005, we have supported you to create over 3,650 new jobs, having won and delivered more than £40 Million of project funds, all of which have added around £600 Million of value to Cornwall’s economy.

CMN was formed by a group of Cornwall marine business leaders in 2002. CMN was established as a not-for-profit private company, limited by guarantee and so it is owned by our 300+ member businesses. This structure provides the ethos and integrity of the CMN model, we exist to help our members make more money, rather than make money from our members. Any trading surpluses are reinvested back into benefits for our members. The more members we have, the stronger the evidence of demand to influence our bids for project funds, meaning the more money we can win to provide services and support to you. Working together, the CMN model works and keeps growing.

CMN’s first success at winning project funds was in 2002, when an Objective One bid for more than £1 million allowed us to employ staff members and deliver marketing grants and skills improvements to members, directly creating 214 new jobs as a result and creating 1,550 new apprenticeships.

With the continued support of members, CMN has repeated this model of using evidence of the priority needs of the sector to bid for and win more than 100 projects, bringing more than £40 million to spend on members.

The Cornwall Marine Academy (CMA) was created in 2008 to raise awareness of the wide range of career opportunities in the marine sector, deliver vocational training and work experience to young people aged 10 to 24 and support their employability and progression into Apprenticeships or jobs. The Academy has supported more than 35,000 young people aged 10 – 25 with careers advice, taster sessions, vocational training and pre-Apprenticeship training, supported by an army of 110 volunteer Marine Ambassadors from our members who share meaningful hands-on experience of their own career progression and the job opportunities in the local sector. This has resulted in improvements to the supply of employable young people into the sector.

Cornwall Marine Network exists to help Cornish marine businesses grow. Our expert team know the sector and the challenges. We will support you to:

• Identify areas of your business where productivity can be improved, then advise on the processes for achieving the improvements
• Improve the skills levels of your staff team by helping you understand your emerging skills needs, then provide you with a company training plan that signposts you to local training providers to provide the solutions you need
• Provide expert mentoring to help you introduce new processes and product innovations into your business
• Gain one-to-one advice on how to improve the effectiveness of your digital marketing and website
• Signpost you to funding opportunities and support you with applications
• Network with local marine businesses
• Ensure Cornwall marine sector is represented at national level
• Gain service excellence

Please contact the CMN team to discuss how we can support you further.