The Business School's Small Business Centre is an internationally acclaimed body for enterprise research and development. The mission of the Small Business centre is to be the leader in the understanding and development of enterprise, entrepreneurship and Small/Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through research, innovation and dissemination of relevant knowledge, models and approaches. It achieves its mission through ten objectives which cover all aspects of its activities. Established over 25 years ago, the centre has pioneered detailed research into the processes of entrepreneurship, enterprise and small business management. The results of the continued research underpin all the programmes and other activities and have lead to a wide range of academic and practical publications. It delivers many programmes including development courses for owner managers and tailor-made and open programmes for business support networks including national banks, Business Links and business counsellors. Its work is supported by organisations such as the Department of Trade and Industry, the Overseas Development Administration, the British Council and Training and Enterprise Councils as well as commercial clients such as NatWest Bank and Microsoft Ltd. The Small Business Centre comprises approximately 45 staff in 10 units, each of which focusses on a particular client base.