Accredited Business Incubator (ABI)®

Optimize Incubators for their intended purposes.
Affirm your organization's commitment to entrepreneurship.
Recognize your organization through a globally-recognized standard acknowledgment.

Overview

Accreditation of a Business Incubator by GInI assures all affected stakeholders that this Incubator has been thoroughly assessed, and that its design and operation therefore conform to GInI’s strict accreditation standards. No other organization prescribes this same level of accreditation standard for Business Incubators as does GInI. Accreditation by GInI is therefore the global standard of accreditation for Business Incubators.

The world as we know it is changing at an unprecedented pace. Indeed, as we enter into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, countless new world-changing technologies are being developed and put to use for a wide range of new purposes. In many cases this is changing not only the products and services we consume, but also how our societies operate. For businesses, this is opening up a whole new world of opportunity, not only for new offerings, but also for completely new business models that never existed before.

And so the time is ripe for new entrepreneurial ventures to rise up – ventures who are prepared to deliver the fresh new business models and value propositions that move us from the world of yesterday and today into the world of tomorrow. For this to happen however, the world needs the oases capable of nurturing and supporting these nascent young ventures as they begin their journeys forward. The world needs Business Incubators capable of giving these ventures the resources and leads they need to begin on solid ground.

Yet how does one ensure that a given Business Incubator has the necessary resources and capabilities it needs to get these new ventures off the ground in a robust and effective manner? What indicators are there that a particular Incubator has what it takes to succeed in getting new business ventures launched, operational, and eventually profitable? For this, a credible and reliable accreditation standard is required.

The GInI Business Incubator Accreditation is such a credible and reliable accreditation standard – a means by which leaders the world over can develop confidence in the design, operation, and capabilities of their Incubators. The GInI Business Incubator Accreditation stands alone as the only such standard in the world, setting the benchmark against which all world-class Incubators must be measured.

GInI awards three levels of accreditation for Business Incubators: Basic, Advanced, and Premium. Each of these represents an increasing level of value the Incubator offers to its resident business ventures.

Business incubators accredited by GInI will bear GInI’s Accredited Business Incubator badge. This distinction offers significant value to both the Incubator’s operating organization and its resident new business ventures, as well as to all those supporting these new ventures.

GInI remains fully committed to pursuing excellence and continuous improvement in all activities relating to the GInI Accreditation Center and the GInI Accreditation Program. The Business Incubator Accreditation Guidebook provided on this page sets forth the policies, procedures, and standards used to assess the design and operation of individual Business Incubators and to thereafter accredit them to GInI’s standards.

Businesses wishing to secure GInI Business Incubator Accreditation must work through a GInI Authorized Training & Assessment Provider (ATAP)® and GInI Authorized Innovation Assessors (AInAs)® of their choice to complete the Business Incubator Assessment process and thereafter submit to GInI the Business Incubator Accreditation Assessment Report (BIncAAR). GInI Business Incubator Accreditations are valid for two years and must be renewed via re-assessment every two years. GInI awards three levels of accreditation for Business Incubators. Each of these represents an increasing level of value the Incubator provides to its resident business ventures. These three levels are:

Basic.
Advanced.
Premium.

What Organizations Should Apply?

Any organization operating a dedicated Business Incubator, whether private, corporate, university, or otherwise.

Benefits

Confidence that the design, operation, and capabilities of the Incubator are optimized for its intended purposes. Affirmation of the operating organization’s ongoing commitment to entrepreneurship and the regional impact this offers. Peer recognition for achievement to a globally-recognized benchmark standard.

Obtaining

Compliance Demonstration

Compliance to these requirements is established through an independent third-party assessment carried out by GInI’s Authorized Innovation Assessors (AInAs) working under the direction of a GInI Authorized Training & Assessment Provider (ATAP). This assessment is conducted live on site at the Business Incubator using GInI’s Business Incubator Accreditation Assessment Tool (BIncAAT), after which the Assessors submit a summary report (the Business Incubator Accreditation Assessment Report, or BIncAAR) to GInI for final determination of accreditation status.

The Assessment Process

Organizations wishing to secure accreditation of their Business Incubator would take the following steps to have the on-site assessment conducted.

They will first identify and retain a GInI Authorized Training & Assessment Provider (ATAP) of their choosing to coordinate and oversee the overall assessment process.
This ATAP will then retain two independent GInI Authorized Innovation Assessors (AInAs) to conduct the on-site assessment of the Incubator.
Upon the scheduled date, these two GInI AInAs® will visit the Business Incubator and conduct a live on-site walking assessment of the Incubator. In the process of working through the assessment questions the Assessors will tour throughout the Incubator, and will expect to engage directly with the Incubator’s users in order to ensure good transparency and objectivity in the assessment.

The Business Incubator Assessment is done using GInI’s Business Incubator Accreditation Assessment Tool (BIncAAT), which is comprised of 74 questions focused on the following four core areas:

The Incubator’s Management Practices.
The Incubator’s Network / Ecosystem Resources.
The Incubator’s Community Resources.
The Incubator’s Facilities Resources.

These four areas examine a number of critical areas for the Incubator, including the following:

Profile of the Operating Organization – five informational questions.
Operating Context – seven informational questions.
Incubator Management – four assessment questions.
People Resources – eight assessment questions.
Ecosystem / Network Resources – eight assessment questions.
Community Resources – six assessment questions.
Facilities Resources – 48 assessment questions
Comments – Assessors note details on the “No’s” they have entered explaining them further.

Assessing these factors allows GInI to establish that the Incubator is in fact of the caliber and quality needed to bear the GInI accreditation.

So that the operating organization might properly prepare for the assessment ahead of time, it will be supplied with the BIncAAT questions prior to conducting the formal assessment. This allows the organization to prepare clear evidence of its answers to each of the questions addressed.

Once the two Assessors have completed this assessment process, they will then compile a standardized final report – the GInI Business Incubator Accreditation Assessment Report (BIncAAR) – and submit to GInI for review.
GInI will then review the Assessors’ findings, as documented in the BIncAAR, and based on these findings will make its final determination of whether or not the Business Incubator satisfies all of its requirements for accreditation.
GInI will subsequently notify the applying organization and their ATAP of their determination (pass or fail) and provide both parties with a copy of the Assessment Report.