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Innovation Remains Key Strategy in Turbulent Trading Times

Mon, 25 January, 2021

For many companies and organisations, 2020 was a difficult year commercially due to the global pandemic and economic downturn.  Unfortunately, under challenging circumstances, internal research and development (R&D) can sometimes be one of the first activities to be curtailed due to the need to protect cash flow.  However to weather future dynamic markets, bringing new products and services to fruition is still critical to staying ahead of the competition and being able to maintain operations.

Public funding for research and innovation projects allows businesses to reduce the cost of their R&D, thereby enabling them to keep running, even during downturns in commercial activity.   However, accessing such funding is competitive and specialist expertise is required, in particular with technical project design and proposal preparation.

TWI has been successfully supporting its Industrial Members and TWI Innovation Network (TWIIN) partners to access these funds for over 10 years now.  Therefore, if you have a technical or business innovation you are seeking to progress and would like to explore the option of grant funding, then TWI’s Technology Innovation Management team (TIM) can help.  TIM can manage full proposal delivery from initial idea to submission including: proposal generation; identifying suitable funding opportunities; project design; partner search and consortium management; proposal writing; idea and proposal review.

The TIM team liaises extensively with a broad range of potential partners from the UK and overseas representing industry, research and academia.  Since 2008, TIM has secured £513m in public funding for TWI and its partners, and during 2020, worked with over 600 companies and organisations from 32 countries, winning over £40m in public funding for project consortia, including over £10m for TWI and its Innovation Centres.

If you would like to access support from the Technology Innovation Management team through Industrial Membership or TWIIN Services, including to collaborate with them on future public funding bids, please get in touch by emailing innovationmanagement@twi.co.uk.

Laurence Robinson, TIM Team Manager said “TWI has expertise in securing funding from a wide range of national bodies, such UKRI and Innovate UK, and from international schemes through Eureka and the European Commission. Looking ahead in 2021, TIM is looking to target new opportunities via the UK’s Industrial Challenge Strategy Fund areas including smart manufacturing, digital health, the future of mobility and the drive towards net-zero.” Adding “TIM will also be targeting the next European Commission framework programme, Horizon Europe, which will be launched in April 2021 and which it is keeping close tabs on. Horizon Europe will run from 2021-2027 with a budget of €95.5bn, and the UK will continue to be involved in this new programme as an associated country.”

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