UK SMEs line up for short-term technology funding

These are short, sharp cash injections. Each project is receiving up to £25,000 with the work due to be completed within about three months.  A further 31 feasibility studies in the field of regenerative medicine will receive up to £100,000 each for studies taking up to six months.

This is a new approach to stimulating innovation by small companies. The TSB’s Director of Innovation Programmes, David Bott, said, “Many small companies have great ideas, but lack the funds to enable them to carry out the important initial feasibility work required to see if their ideas are workable.”

There was unprecedented interest in the funding competitions, which received over 2,000 applications in total. Of 184 successful applications, all but two were from SMEs.

The hope is that after completing the feasibility studies, the companies should be able to find further investment to develop the ideas through to products, processes and services.