PP Plus issues ‘commercialisation’ rallying call to UK designers and manufacturers

Posted on 10 Oct 2024 by The Manufacturer

A collective of specialists is urging more UK designers and manufactures to commercialise emerging technologies at home.

PP Plus, which brings together the best of manufacturing, business and academia, is encouraging domestic companies to work together to ensure intellectual property born here is maximised here – helping to generate wealth and jobs in the process.

The organisation believes it has the perfect recipe of combined expertise to take innovators from concept development and prototyping through to protecting their IP, contract manufacturing and driving sales through PR and marketing.

It has already received significant interest from several high-tech projects and has recently boosted its membership numbers from 20 to 22 with the addition of business support experts Oxford Innovation Advice and Wanted Studio, a leader in brand, investor confidence and business functions.

Richard Spears, Marketing Manager and one of the key drivers behind PP Plus, commented: “We’ve seen massive demand for this initiative since we launched back in April and am currently working with companies to bring new technologies to market in photovoltaic solar panels, reverse vending, vertical farming and AI vision systems.

“It proves there is an appetite out there to commercialise IP and we want to really put our offer on the map, both through more collaborations and keynote speeches at major industry events.

He continued: “The UK has a wealth of innovative companies that come up with new concepts and ideas that have true commercial potential and the opportunity to scale, especially around green tech. However, they simply don’t have the capacity or additional expertise to realise these fantastic ideas.

“Even if they know where to look for this, they often tie themselves in knots trying to find the right route as the traditional support network is convoluted. That is why this initiative was born and the reaction has been phenomenal.”

PP Plus’ initial focus will be on supporting companies developing solutions for clean energy, future mobility, agritech innovation and machinery/equipment that contribute to a circular economy.

This will create sustainable innovations that will answer critical questions about how we are going to feed ourselves in the future, how do we ‘power’ our society and how do we travel without destroying our planet.

The journey starts with a 1-hour discovery session that is completely free of charge and will identify the next steps and the specialist support required to commercialise and scale up the technologies.

That may see the client access one, two or three of the main pillars (manufacturing, business, academia) covering anything from product approval and manufacturing capabilities to accessing grants and funding, marketing support and collaborative research and testing facilities.

Richard went on to add: “One of our key focuses as a group is the changing nature of the investment landscape, with AI attracting a lot more investor attention.

“This is taking some of the momentum away from green/clean and climate tech and one of the things PP Plus can do is help companies come together to capture investment through the power of collaboration.”

For further information, please go to www.pp-plus.org.

For more articles like this, visit our Leadership channel