MTC launches competition to help businesses secure technology investment

The Manufacturing Technology Centre's Liverpool facility is launching a competition aimed at helping businesses in the Liverpool City Region access funds to develop new manufacturing processes and bring cutting-edge products to market.

The Win3 competition, launched through the MTC's Digital Manufacturing Accelerator (DMA) programme, will give successful companies up to 75 per cent of matched funding for innovative projects which demonstrate the latest manufacturing advances.

The competition is open to industrial end-users, supply chain companies and technology or service providers who are based, or have significant operations, in the Liverpool City Region, or who plan to work with an organisation in the region. They must also demonstrate a strategic, viable project plan with the capability of delivering a significant return on investment, a positive impact on society and a clear need for grant funding to bring a project or product to market.

Dr Hannah Edmonds, chief engineer of the DMA at the MTC said the Liverpool City Region was home to a number of pharmaceutical and fast moving consumer goods companies requiring a robust supply chain to support new, innovative products and processes, and maintain a competitive edge.

“The Win3 initiative is a really exciting opportunity for businesses across the region to access funding to take their new and emerging products and processes to market. Crucially, they will also have access to the world leading manufacturing research, technology and expertise that comes with partnering with the DMA project and the wider MTC ecosystem,” she said.

She added, "For the DMA project, this competition will also help us to strengthen the Liverpool City Region’s digital manufacturing capabilities. In doing so it will enable us to grow the expertise within the supply chain that will ultimately accelerate digital innovation and adoption across more organisations in the region.”

Simon Reid, head of sectors at Growth Platform (the Liverpool City Region Growth Company), said, “This is a significant augmentation of the existing Digital Manufacturing Accelerator programme being undertaken by the MTC in Liverpool. Manufacturing and engineering companies in the City Region now have the opportunity to secure funding to bring forward supply chain projects across different strands of industry. At the same time our businesses can take advantage of the expertise within the MTC as well as complimentary support with other city region partners. This aggregation of Industry 4.0 activity, unique in the UK, means our companies can gain competitive advantage at a time when industrial digitisation is increasingly moving centre stage.”

Projects are expected to start within eight weeks of funding being awarded and not last longer than six months. Applications close on Friday, April 9, 2021. More information can be found at www.the-mtc.org/win3.

The Digital Manufacturing Accelerator is a brand new initiative, created in partnership with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA), that brings world-leading manufacturing research, technology and experts together. Embarking on a 10 year-plus mission, the £15 million DMA programme, funded by the LCRCA, aims to accelerate the take-up of innovative physical and digital manufacturing technologies into UK industry and supply chains. Based at the MTC on Liverpool Science Park and backed by expertise and technology at the MTC's headquarters in Coventry, the Digital Manufacturing Accelerator project brings together world-leading manufacturing research and technology experts. The project revolves around a state-of-the-art reconfigurable factory with digital and physical test beds, to support manufacturing businesses, help them grow and provide new engineering jobs and apprenticeships.

The MTC is part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, supported by Innovate UK, and was established to prove innovative manufacturing processes and technologies in an agile environment in partnership with industry, academia and other institutions. Housing some of the most advanced manufacturing equipment in the world, and with facilities in Coventry and the Liverpool City Region, the MTC provides a high quality environment for the development and demonstration of new technologies on an industrial scale, supporting skills, productivity and growth across the UK manufacturing industry.