Innovate UK has awarded £25 million to a series of projects that will help businesses to develop new manufacturing methods and materials and boost UK productivity.
The awards were made to 170 partners in 64 projects that were successful in a materials and manufacturing competition. All projects will be led by a business and include at least one small and medium-sized enterprise (SME).
Among the successful project applicants are:
- The Distributed Factory: developing a system for distributed manufacture of office furniture using manufacture-on-demand to enable local producers to compete with global competition
- Medical Wireless Sensing Ltd: developing a metamaterial to enhance the signal from MRI scanners to speed up diagnostics or improve resolution
- REALCAR 3 or the REALITY project: follow-up to Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) previously successful project. Looking at sorting post-consumer scrap aluminium from automotive sources for recycling and reuse in JLR cars
- West of England Textiles Ltd: development of a novel process to improve the quality and competitiveness of British woollen cloth. The aim is to increase the market share of British woollen cloth against imports
Quality of applications was very high
Simon Edmonds, manufacturing and materials director at Innovate UK, said:
The quality of applications from manufacturers across the country was of exceptionally high standard, which shows the appetite of our businesses to innovate and grow.
The competition was particularly focused on helping SMEs in the manufacturing and materials supply chain, supporting them to scale up and become more productive.
The competition was for a variety of projects ranging from short feasibilty studies to larger research and development projects.