Through the Manufacturing Made Smarter Challenge, the government will invest £147 million to support businesses implement new tech to boost their manufacturing productivity, helping them reach new customers, create thousands of new highly skilled jobs, slash carbon emissions and reduce prices for consumers.
The first £50 million of the funding is being allocated to fourteen cutting-edge manufacturing projects involving around 30 small or medium businesses, 29 larger enterprises and nine universities, with the rest of the funds due over the next 5 years.
“Increasing productivity is vital for any business, and having the right new technologies in place can help manufacturers make better products to compete and thrive. Says Business Secretary Alok Sharma. “By helping manufacturers to reduce costs, cut waste, and slash the time it takes to develop their products, this multi-million pound uplift will help fire up the cylinders of productivity as we build back better from the pandemic.”
The Manufacturing Made Smarter programme will also support technology SMEs through growth accelerators - partnerships between the government and the private sector where experts will work with businesses to identify barriers to growth and ways to overcome them. It will also create a national network of innovation ‘hubs’ where businesses can partner or share advice, to help spur growth and creative ideas.
This announcement follows the opening of a competition in July under Manufacturing Made Smarter: Digital Supply Chain, where firms of all sizes can apply for up to 70% of the funding they need for industrial research projects. The government has committed to raising productivity and earning power in the UK by spending 2.4% of GDP on R&D across the UK economy by 2027.
Chris Courtney, challenge director for Made Smarter at UK Research and Innovation, comments:“Digital technologies have the power to radically transform how we manufacture and deliver the products and services of today and the future and I am delighted that we have managed to secure the funding for this vital programme. Our ambition is to support the UK to become a leader in the manufacturing industry and the development of the next generation of technology solutions that will shape how the world works. The current COVID challenges all sectors are facing only underline the vital importance of manufacturing in the UK across all sectors. There are enormous opportunities to innovate in this area, we have world leading industries, a powerful scientific and research community, a vibrant technology sector and I’m excited to see how this powerful coalition transforms the future of manufacturing.”
John Kitchingman, Managing Director, EuroNorth, Dassault Systèmes said;
“British manufacturing is highly respected globally for a reason: since its inception, it’s always led the way when it comes to innovation and efficiency. As we look at the world post-COVID, now is a perfect time for the UK to rejuvenate the sector and act as a global springboard for sustainable innovation in one of the world’s oldest industries. The Government’s decision to invest in creative, productive solutions that will allow businesses to make their supply chains more effective and more sustainable in the future is a huge step in the right direction.
We already work with many organisations who use virtual twins to better harness the data they use across their entire supply chain – from the materials they source and the carbon footprint created in bringing these materials to the UK, all the way to product lifecycle management and the delivery channels used to get the product to British shelves or homes. This plays a huge part in ensuring that products’ footprint is as low as possible, while bringing the products people want where and when they want it. The government’s Manufacturing Made Smarter Challenge will enable more organisations to benefit from solutions such as virtual twins and data visualisation to create sustainable supply chains that harmonise products, people and the planet moving forward – which is fantastic news for the industry, as well as consumers & citizens across the whole country.”
Further comment from Hamid Mughal, MMS Industrial Advisory Group chair: ”We have tremendous manufacturing capability in the UK and recent events have reinforced the importance of strengthening this sector for national resilience and economic growth”
