Innovate UK’s Post

Supporting Local Economic Growth 🚀 Yesterday, Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Innovate UK, and Ben Houchen, Mayor of the Tees Valley, jointly launched the new Tees Valley Local Action Plan alongside Dean Cook, MBA, FRSB, Executive Director of Place at Innovate UK, Helen Kemp, Business and Skills Director, TVCA, Frank Millar, CEO CPI and Sophie Walton, Director of Strategic Partnerships at CPI, at the National Biologics Manufacturing Centre, CPI in Darlington. Co-created with the Tees Valley Combined Authority and local innovation leaders, the Local Action Plan supports businesses to drive innovation-led economic growth, boost productivity, and create sustainable, high-value jobs within the Tees Valley innovation ecosystem. It will support the region to unlock dynamic growth across innovation clusters in Net Zero, Digital, Bioscience and Manufacturing. By collaborating across the ecosystem, this Action Plan will also: 🤝 Strengthen and collaborate with local partners to maximise the impact of this Local Action Plan. 📈 Build alignment between national economic plans, local growth strategies, and the UK Government's ambitions. 🛠️ Utilise Innovate UK’s Products and Services to simplify the innovation ecosystem for local businesses. 🌐 Lead the creation of the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040 and establish Tees Valley as a Smart Region by 2032. As the UK’s innovation agency, we prioritise Place and commit to partnerships that unlock community innovation. A key example is Innovate UK's Tees Valley Net Zero Launchpad, developed with the Combined Authority. This initiative accelerates the net zero innovation cluster, advancing the UK's climate goals. 🔗 Learn more about the Tees Valley Local Action Plan: https://ow.ly/WyBa50ThjrP #BusinessInnovation #Innovation #ActionPlan #TeesValley

Accelerating growth on a global stage with Innovate UK support 🌍 Cambridge based innovator Novalia has developed a multitouch technology that transforms ordinary surfaces into interactive displays. Novalia started accessing Innovate UK Business Growth's support in 2021 after receiving grant funding from Innovate UK, and since then it has: ✅ Participated in Invest-Ability Intensive Training ✅ Raised £1 million investment ✅ Secured a £1.2 million Innovate UK Innovation Loan ✅ Developed its IP strategy through an IP Audit The company’s innovations are boosting the UK economy by creating skilled tech jobs and enhancing productivity across sectors such as retail and education. This growth benefits local economies and stimulates related industries. 🔗 Read more about Novalia's journey with Innovate UK, and how this innovative business is helping the UK become a leader in its field: https://ow.ly/a1AM50TgysS #BusinessGrowth #Investment #EastofEngland

Growing the UK life sciences industry Innovate UK is proud to announce its role as a delivery partner for the 2024 Voluntary scheme for branded medicines Pricing, Access, and Growth (VPAG). As announced by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) last week, £400m of public and private investment will support faster patient access to cutting-edge treatments, strengthen clinical trials and improve medicines manufacturing in the UK. The VPAG Investment Programme, will target investment in three critical areas: 📊 Clinical trials 💻 Health technology assessment 🛠 Manufacturing Our Future Medicines team will deliver the Manufacturing theme, on behalf of the Office for Life Sciences (OLS). The Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Programme (SMMIP) will focus on innovation in sustainable medicines manufacturing to support global net zero commitments. It will involve co-developed challenge funding and collaborative R&D programmes focused on three core pillars: 🧪 Green chemistry 🔄 Circularity ⚙️ Productivity and resource efficiency As well as two critical enablers: 📜 Regulation 📐 Measurements, standards and data The first two competitions are now open. The SMMIP aims to enhance the UK’s appeal as a hub for medicines manufacturing investment, boosting economic growth and resilience. 🔗 Find out more here:  https://lnkd.in/eZM3sAE4

Innovate UK awards £2 million to six innovative projects using data and AI to make environmental monitoring and investment easier. 🌍 The winning projects are: Ocean Ledger, Tierra-Foods & The University of Huddersfield, Auquan & UCL, Caledonian Climate Partners & new gradient, City Science Corporation & Caerphilly County Borough Council, Zulu Ecosystems & Severn Trent. The Innovate UK grants, which range from £250,000 and £500,000, are part of a £7 million Integrating Finance and Biodiversity for a Nature Positive Future (IFB) programme led by NERC: Natural Environment Research Council. Catherine Makin, Innovation Lead for Green Finance at Innovate UK, says, “Nature positive investing is not a new idea, but, as a market, it is still in its infancy. It therefore comes with significant risk, which impacts investor confidence. For us to harness finance that protects, restores and benefits nature, we need to reduce that risk, build confidence and demonstrate the potential for returns so that we see more investments, sooner. Data is a crucial part of that picture, as it can support investment decisions by helping to build confidence that the finance is achieving desired and expected outcomes." 🔗 Read the press release here: https://ow.ly/FtgJ50TgagP #AI #BusinessInnovation #Innovation

Innovate UK is a supporting partner of Cenex Expo 2024, bringing together people delivering the net zero and connected automated mobility future 🤝 On Day One of the Expo, our speakers highlighted Innovate UK's Transport Vision for 2050 - A transport system that enables the movement of people and goods from one location to another through safe, seamless, net zero, connected, cost effective, accessible and reliable means. Our commitment to delivering this vision is solidified by our investments in developing secure and resilient-by-design infrastructure for energy supply, cross-modal mobility hubs and smart transport tools. For example, Innovate UK supported Nyobolt, presented an electric car battery that can successfully charge from 10% to 80% in four minutes and 37 seconds! ⚡️ Maryann Chen, CEO of UK Start up Kaasai said: “The V2X demonstration grant program has given us the backing and funding to develop IP in this industry, it has also helped us expand commercially through the partners in the program as well attracting other commercial opportunities” The V2X Innovation programme is funded by Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and delivered by Innovate UK To read the Innovate UK Transport Vision 2050, visit - https://ow.ly/qgiT50Tfu1J To find out more about the V2X Innovation programme visit, https://ow.ly/TCim50Tfu1K Mike Biddle Claire Spooner Josey Wardle Dennis Weitschat

🔋 Would you like the opportunity to meet Prof Martin Freer, new CEO of The Faraday Institution? Martin is passionate about leading the Faraday Institution – a key delivery partner of UK Research and Innovation’s Faraday Battery Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK- in advancing energy storage technologies which are key to achieving net zero. He believes in fostering strong collaborations with industry to set ambitious research challenges and develop the skills needed to support the UK’s battery sector. Visit us at Cenex Expo 2024 in Hall 3, C3-414 tomorrow (Thursday 5th September) to connect with Martin and start a conversation! You can find out more in a recent interview with Martin here: https://ow.ly/6qkh50Tff60 #Networking #CENEX #BatteryIndustry #Innovation #BusinessInnovation

Helping UK businesses grow at pace 💪 Listen to Luke Tan, Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder at Supercritical Solutions, discuss how Innovate UK is supporting his emission free fuel business to grow rapidly. Supercritical Solutions is on track to double the size of its team with Innovate UK support through: 💰 £500k of grant funding 📈 1:1 business strategy support 🌐 Forging international collaborations With this support, Supercritical Solutions is on track to facilitate the UK’s transition to net zero. Hear more about Supercritical's journey here: https://ow.ly/ux7z50Tf5Nn #NetZero #BusinessGrowth #BusinessInnovation #Hydrogen #Innovation

📣 The Innovate UK team will be at Cenex Expo 2024 🎙️ Our experts will speak on topics ranging from roadmaps for transport decarbonisation, optimising transport and energy through V2G, green growth in the UK and internationally, and more. Meet the speakers: ➡️ Mike Biddle, Executive Director for Net Zero ➡️ Claire Spooner, Director of Mobility ➡️ Josey Wardle, Innovation Lead - Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure ➡️ Richard Morris, Innovation Lead - ACV ➡️ Venn Chesterton, Deputy Challenge Director - Driving the Electric Revolution ➡️ Steffan Eldred, Innovation Lead - Zero Emission Vehicles ➡️ Matt Silver, Innovation Lead - Investor & International ➡️ Sarah Tennison, Head of Clean Growth Strategy & Impact To find out more about Innovate UK and how we can support you and your business, come and meet our team at the Net Zero Main Plenary 🤝 To register for Cenex Expo 2024, visit: https://ow.ly/pEjS50Te9nc

Since 2016, our Innovate UK Women in Innovation programme has played a vital role in strengthening the UK’s innovation system. We’ve worked hard to develop this unique programme, and we care about its success deeply. For this year’s Women in Innovation awards, we said that we’d fund a portfolio of up to 50 projects. Last week, we communicated that 25 applicants had been successful for funding. As public funders, we must manage our budgets carefully. The decision to only award this number was a mistake and we prioritised wrongly. We recognise the impact this has had on the many applicants, and on the community as a whole, and we apologise wholeheartedly. We confirm we will be funding a total of 50 awards. This represents a total investment of £4m for the current cohort, as originally committed. As well as confirming 50 awards, we also want to reassure everyone who applied that we remain committed to supporting and increasing opportunities across the system for women innovators. We will be contacting all applicants to highlight how they can access support from Innovate UK and our partners. The response to this programme has been our highest to date, and demonstrates the increasing number of women-led innovative businesses that are driving growth for our economy. Women in Innovation is one of the programmes that we offer across the Innovate UK system, which includes the Innovate UK Catapult Network, business growth advisors and Innovate UK Business Connect. Across this system we offer many products and services to support innovation. Latest data for all Innovate UK competitions, shows that 1 in 3 successful grant applications were led by women, up from 1 in 7 in 2016. We apologise again for the concern and frustration that we have caused. We will: - Fund 50 Women in Innovation awards, meeting our original commitment of £4m for this programme. - Contact the additional 25 successful applicants to confirm funding, starting immediately. - Contact all Women in Innovation applicants with information of other types of support available to them. - Further develop our strategic engagement with business leaders and advocates in this area. We have already been speaking with people who have been engaging on behalf of communities. - Continue to work collaboratively to improve our processes and co-create new opportunities.        

It’s clear that some of our recent communications on our Women in Innovation programme have created confusion and concern. That’s on us and we own that. Sorry that it’s impacted so many people. This programme holds great significance for Innovate UK and for the communities we serve. We’ve worked hard on it over many years and care about everyone who’s part of it. We will be sharing a full update next week and will better explain our intentions to support successful and unsuccessful applications in this massively popular programme.