Manufacturing businesses are being urged to apply for a share in a new £120m fund, which opened for applications yesterday, March 21.
The government funding is being made available through the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative to support research and development, skills training and capital investment in the industry.
For more information on the fund, visit http://www.innovateuk.org/content/competition/advanced-manufacturing-supply-chain-initiative1.ashx
Over £73 million was been awarded from Round 2 of the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI) to 12 national supply chain projects.
Examples of winning bids include the creation of a ‘National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme’ led by the Aerospace Growth Partnership to address skills shortages and improve R&D collaboration in the aerospace sector. The £35 million project will create nearly 5,000 jobs in the supply chain. Another successful bid, led by David Brown Gear Systems in Huddersfield, will position the UK as a world leader in the creation of large gearboxes for the next generation of offshore wind turbines.
More funding
In a move to provide businesses with even further access to funds, government will release £30m in loans to support the growth of UK small and medium sized companies.
This figure is expected to rise to over £70m as more money is attracted from the private sector. Three lenders – Market Invoice, URICA and Beechbrook Capital – will manage the funding.
Business Secretary Vince Cable commented: “A lack of access to finance is still choking off too many small businesses, preventing them from growing, taking on new staff or investing in new equipment.”
The government previously committed, through the Business Finance Partnership, to provide £100m of funding in a bid to offer a more diverse pool of financing opportunities for SMEs (at the moment 85% of loans to businesses come from the big four banks).
