A recruitment process was launched last month, despite the fact that the future of the Greenhouse, situated in Market Street, had been placed in doubt at the end of last year.
On 30 June the appointment was flagged up on the Digital Greenhouse website. The web page is still live, however a link to the job details and application process has been broken.
Questions about the process from the Guernsey Press a week later saw the Economic Development Committee finally confirm this week that the recruitment process had been stopped.
But the fact that the process had even started had also been flagged up to States chief executive Boley Smillie.
The States said it was prepared to pay between £80,000 and £100,000 for a director to create impactful, deliverable programmes, grow a community of start-ups, entrepreneurs and digital businesses, and lead funding, sponsorship and partnership strategies to ensure long-term sustainability.
The process had not reached the stage of inviting applicants for interview.
ED reviewing Digital Greenhouse’s future role
Economic Development Committee president Sasha Kazantseva-Miller said that the review of the Digital Greenhouse was taking place in stages and work on its future role and structure is still progressing.
‘A number of options are being considered but the new model is yet to be agreed and the Digital Greenhouse continues to operate as a Committee for Economic Development service,’ she said.
‘Following recent discussions with the Innovate Guernsey Board, the committee had agreed to freeze the recruitment process for the director role, pending consideration of the 2027 budget and further progress of the Digital Greenhouse review.’
The review is being carried out in partnership with the Innovate Guernsey Board, a group of industry representatives with a mandate to foster innovation, drive economic growth, and strengthen the island’s digital economy and community.
Together Innovate Guernsey and Economic Development established an interim governance board in February to run the Greenhouse.
The board said it was keen to build on the ‘great work’ of the Digital Greenhouse to date and would look to expand existing business accelerator programmes, largely focused on the start-up and innovation sectors.
But it is known Economic Development has concerns about the £450,000 annual States grant for the Greenhouse, and the cost of the property it uses and the output from it, and whether the whole project could be run by the private sector.
Demand for the service was one of the issues to be investigated as part of the review, which is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
The Digital Greenhouse has been running since 2016, supporting start-ups and small local businesses with business growth, and providing a rental office space service.