£8M available for commercial projects in plastic electronics

Funding opportunity

The UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has announced that £8 million is available for projects to speed the commercialisation of plastic electronics as part of a new national strategy in the field.

The Technology Strategy Board will launch two business-focused competitions early next year. The first will be in the form of a workshop, to take place in March 2010, where sector representatives will have the opportunity to compete for a total of £3 million that will go towards devising, developing and demonstrating projects that encourage businesses to use plastic electronics in new products.

The second £5 million collaborative research and development competition aims to build the supply chain, and to overcome the barriers to exploitation of plastic electronics technology.

Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, said, “Very sophisticated plastic electronics technology already exists but we believe that there are huge opportunities out there for further incorporation of the technology into products. The challenge is to entice companies, especially those from the design sector, to work with the technology.”

Plastic Electronics allows circuits to be produced at relatively low cost by printing electronic materials onto any surface, whether rigid or flexible.

The £3 million Demonstrator Workshop on Plastic Electronics will take place in March and will focus on devising demonstrator project ideas with potential for real commercial value that can act as a showcase for the technology capability across a wide range of sectors and provide the platform for future commercial exploitation.

The workshop will focus on the generation of demonstrators and proofs-of-principle to connect the technology capability with end-users and market need. The TSB is looking for business leaders, academics, researchers, technologists and particularly designers and end-users, who may not be experienced in the field of plastic electronics. The workshop will take place in London from 1 to 3 March 2010. Applications are now open and the deadline is noon on Thursday 28th January 2010.

Projects agreed in principle at the end of the three day workshop will be converted into written proposals and plans by the project team.

The £5 million collaborative research competition aims to overcome technical barriers and start building the supply chain to enable the UK to exploit plastic electronics.

Organisations seeking further details should visit: http://www.innovateuk.org/deliveringinnovation/forthcomingcompetitions.ashx