The UK remains vulnerable to eroding manufacturing investment and capability.

Coupled with the financial crisis highlighting the UK economy’s over-dependency on service sectors,  the Government is trying to increase the role that manufacturing plays in the growth of the economy.

The Technology Strategy Board commissioned the Institute of Manufacturing at Cambridge University (IfM) to author a report identifying UK manufacturing strengths and barriers to growth. The landscape for the future of UK manufacturing feeds into this strategy paper, TSB’s High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Strategy.

The purpose is to help companies in high tech fields to “accelerate their innovation journey from concept to commercialisation”. It will do this by:

• Doubling its direct investment in HVM innovation to £50 million a year.
• Focus investment decisions on the most attractive technologies and sectors where the UK is becoming a global player.
• Make investment choices using a set of 22 manufacturing competencies, identified by the IfM report.

Its all with a view of delivering economic return on investment. As David Bott, director of innovation programmes at the TSB says in his recent blog, “To me, innovation is all about making money.”