ENTREPRENEURS in Hampshire are to receive support so they can turn today's ideas into tomorrow's products.

SETsquared is a joint £5m initiative between the universities of Southampton, Surrey, Bristol and Bath, which aims to create a knowledge-based, hi-tech community across southern England.

The SETsquared centre, based at the Centre for Enterprise and Innovation on Southampton University's Highfield campus, opens today.

It is the largest funded initiative of its kind and has attracted £5m from the Higher Education Innovation Fund, spread over three years.

Entrepreneurs with knowledge-based, high-growth potential ideas will be able to move into the serviced office space, meet other entrepreneurs, share ideas and do business together far more easily than before.

They will also be able to draw on university expertise and a range of tailor-made support services.

Nick Smailes, SETsquared director, said: "Anyone interested in starting a hi-tech business should contact us to see how we can help."

Douglas Bellworthy, one of the first members, is founder of Intelligent Memory, a company developing a hardware relational database accelerator that will improve the performance of databases by as much as 10,000 times.

He said: "What I realised was that it takes a lot more to start a business than having an idea for technology. The mentoring and advice have been invaluable."

For more details log on to www.setsquared.co.uk or call 023 8059 2819.