York e-commerce business PureNet, which has just expanded into new premises to enable it to add to its 23 staff, is looking to defend its title as Science and Technology Business Of The Year at The Press Business Awards 2011.

The business, which boasts West Ham Football Club, Prostar Sports Limited, Ride-Away, Ritchey ID and Fearing among its clients, is also going for Best Business and Higher Education Link after founder and chief executive Dr Paul Gibson’s strong links with the University of York have enabled the business to advance.

It has provided solutions for the university’s Training Gateway, which provides free corporate and professional training, the Higher Education Academy (HEA), which helps individual academic staff, discipline groups and senior managers in institutions to identify and share effective teaching practices, and it created an online research environment for students to take psychometric tests for CETLE (Centre for Excellence in the Teaching and Learning of Enterprise), which helps students develop enterprise skills.

Also among the firm’s clients is Academia, which provides software and hardware for schools, colleges and universities.

Richard Smith, digital marketing manager for the business, said working with higher education institutions had delivered “profound” benefits to PureNet, helping to establish the company during its early period of growth and providing a steady revenue stream, as well as improving the learning experience and enabling institutions to improve their services.

He said: “As well as being a platform for growth, the work undertaken has been the driving force for the development of cutting-edge technologies to meet the demands of the projects for which PureNet has been commissioned.

“This has, in turn, contributed to skill sets within the company and the portfolio of services available to clients in other sectors with whom PureNet works and delivers projects.”