Uni’s £5m drive for businesses
PROJECT WILL WORK WITH COMPANIES TO UNLOCK REGION’S GROWTH POTENTIAL
Sunderland University has launched a £5million-plus drive to help North East business.
The university has secured £5.1m to deliver its Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing project, which will help the region’s manufacturing small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) to be more productive and sustainable, by finding solutions to their research, innovation and development problems and helping to develop products, processes and technology.
The funding is made up of £2.6million from the European Regional Development Fund, with additional contributions from industry and the University.
The project will work closely with companies to establish where innovation is most urgently needed, develop new products to open up national supply chains and export markets, address key process problems through collaboration with larger regional companies, connecting businesses to specialist staff and academic, and provide networks, infrastructure and shared facilities to improve collaboration.
The project will have a significant focus on sustainability and digital manufacturing and will provide access to the University’s facilities and expertise, as well as a range of academic, research and technical networks.
University vice-chancellor Shirley Atkinson said: “This project is the next step towards realising our ambition to be the North East’s lead university for Advanced Manufacturing and we’re excited to get started on unlocking the region’s latent growth potential.”
Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing Project Manager Claire Defty added: “My role is to engage with the North East LEP area’s SMEs and encourage them to apply for grants and work with the university to develop solutions and research that will help to move their business to the next level.
“With colleagues in the School of Engineering and at The Institute for Automotive and Manufacturing Advanced Practice (AMAP) on board we have a ‘best in class’ research team on hand.
“We’re looking forward to supporting SMEs with overcoming blocks to growth that they are facing, whether that’s in automation, additive or digital manufacturing, Industry 4.0 or joining / assembly processes.
“My message is get in touch, we have funding and expertise you can access to help you develop your manufacturing business.”