WMG awarded £100m funding package to support innovation

By WMG
schedule13th Aug 18

Research and development initiatives in the West Midlands have been handed a £271m boost from the government.

The funding is part of a £780m support package announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond that will see the expansion of successful catapult centres around the UK. The move is part of the government’s Industrial Strategy.

The £270.9m is being divided between the Manufacturing Technology Centre and Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), both in Coventry and the Energy Systems Catapult, which is based in Birmingham.

WMG has been awarded £100m to support its work within the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.

Archie MacPherson Chief Executive, WMG centre HVM Catapult said: “We are delighted with the new five-year funding package.

“The Catapult programme at WMG focuses on helping the UK become a world leader in Low Emissions Mobility, from lightweighting vehicle components to make cars more fuel efficient, to accelerating the development of next generation technologies for energy efficient and autonomous transport.

“The investment will enable WMG to further expand its innovation capability to support companies of all sizes, to help them grow and create highly skilled jobs for the UK, in order to address the challenges of productivity, competitiveness and anchoring product manufacture in the UK.”

The WMG centre HVM Catapult focuses on Low Emission Mobility, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) and the supply chain. This is directly aligned to the government’s ‘Road to Zero’ vision for the transport sector of zero emissions, zero accidents and zero congestion. This is underpinned by WMG’s digital manufacturing capability that drives improvement in productivity and competitiveness across sectors.

The Catapult network supports sectors and technologies that are going to be in high demand in the years ahead. It brings together the best of UK business, science and engineering, such as the world leading applied technology researchers here in WMG, to work side by side in research and development to ‘catapult’ products from ideas to market.

Mr Hammond said: “We are working hard to build a stronger, fairer economy – dealing with the deficit, helping people into work, and cutting taxes for individuals and businesses. Unemployment is at its lowest since the 1970s, our national debt is starting to fall, and the economy has grown every year since 2010.

“It is by backing innovative British companies to grow and create jobs that we will continue this progress and build an economy fit for the future.”


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