Scotland’s biobased manufacturing sector to benefit from £75 million fund to drive innovation and business growth
Businesses in Scotland’s thriving biobased manufacturing industry are being invited to apply for support packages of up to £1 million.
Scottish Enterprise and Innovate UK will deliver the Launchpad programme, designed to focus on Scotland’s strengths in the sector.
The packages, ranging between £25,000 to £100,000 and £150,000 to £1 million, are available to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and businesses of any size respectively, and will aim to promote the growth of the sector in Scotland.
The competition is now open and businesses are invited to sign up for a competition briefing event to find out more.
The Launchpads programme is funded by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation. It is designed to build on innovation clusters around the UK that have significant growth potential and to deliver jobs, growth, and higher productivity, supporting the UK Government’s levelling-up agenda.
Scotland’s biobased manufacturing Launchpad has been developed jointly by Scottish Enterprise and Innovate UK, with support from Forth Valley College and IBioIC
Successful applicants will receive up to £100,000 (100% funded) for single SME led projects (under the Minimal Financial Assistance competition strand) and up to £1 million (25-70% funded) for Collaborative R&D projects led by a UK business of any size (under the CR&D competition strand)
Innovate UK CEO Indro Mukerjee said: “Innovate UK has been building strong regional partnerships across the UK to support local innovation and commercialisation. The launch of the Scotland biobased manufacturing Launchpad is an important step and another example of active collaboration with regional partners to deliver growth and productivity through innovation.”
Scottish Enterprise Director of Innovation & Place Derek Shaw said: “Scotland is renowned for innovation and our biobased manufacturing sector is really flourishing.
“We are working with the industry to build a cluster that will benefit businesses in many ways, and our partnership with Innovate UK ensures the support is in place to allow the sector to continue to thrive.”
To find out more, visit Competition overview - Launchpad: bio-based manufacturing in Scotland – R1 MFA - Innovation Funding Service (apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk)
To sign up to a stakeholder engagement session, visit Webinar Registration - Zoom
Contact Information
Donna Watson
Notes to editors
Notes to Editors
- Innovate UK Launchpads is a programme aimed at strengthening place-based innovation and supporting emerging clusters of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in parts of the UK. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation.
- The Launchpads programme launched in 2022, with an initial £15m investment to fund pilot projects in the Liverpool and Tees areas. Following this the programme is now being rolled out to 8 more regions around the UK, with up to £7.5m available in each region.
- Each Launchpad supports a geographic cluster of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), providing innovation funding, support, and networking opportunities to help SMEs to innovate, grow and scale their businesses.
- A Launchpad addresses key challenges facing SMEs in the cluster, supports businesses on their innovation projects and helps them to contribute to a supportive ecosystem.
- Types of support offered can include for example funding for research and development, access to innovation specialist support, and opportunities to network and collaborate. Launchpads will enable the development of new products or services and the testing and validation of innovations by Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs).
To be eligible within an Innovate UK Launchpad competition, SMEs must be based in the UK and be able to demonstrate a strong potential for growth and innovation. They must also be active or growing their work activities in the Launchpad’s named cluster.