Thu, 01 September, 2022
TWI has been awarded ‘Best Independent Research & Technology Organisation 2022’ for its Tees Valley Innovation Accelerator (TIA) programme. Now in its second year, the SME News hosted, ‘British Made Awards’ recognise those companies or organisations they believe have worked tirelessly in the preceding year to support SMEs with making UK industry diverse, dynamic and successful globally.
SME News is a digital magazine and website for SMEs and the leaders who are running them, providing advice and support to help inform business growth. The British Made Awards are judged purely on merit and based on information available in the public domain, with the judging process designed to reward firms based solely on excellence demonstrated within the industry, the standard of their products and commitment to service.
The TIA programme was created to provide public funding, product development and consultancy to SMEs in the Tees Valley with the aim of helping companies drive innovation and produce new products, process and services. In turn this is stimulating economic development in the Tees Valley through investment in engineering and technology based projects, that support businesses with being innovate to create new jobs and regenerate local communities. TIA is delivered by partners TWI Middlesbrough and Teesside University, and is fully funded for participating companies with no requirement to contribute financially.
SMEs participating in TIA receive personalised support from experts at TWI and Teesside University with business modelling, innovation road mapping, IT, grant proposal writing support and funding options, prototyping technical guidance and manufacturing planning, marketing strategy and more. Once on the programme, businesses also have the opportunity to access the TWI Innovation Network through innovation-focused events and other SME focused programmes.
Heidi Dyson, Group Manager, Public Funding Management at TWI said “We are delighted to have won this award for the Tees Valley Innovation Accelerator, which we launched in June 2020. Our aim with the programme is to support innovatively-minded SMEs in the Tees Valley area to maximise their ambitions, by helping them to develop novel technologies and products for new and existing markets. Therefore, it’s great to receive this award for the programme, and for the work undertaken by the delivery team behind TIA at both TWI and our partners, Teesside University, to be recognised.”
TIA is funded by the European Regional Development Fund in the Northern Powerhouse Region.