Advanced Machinery Innovation Fund

To lead a project your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size with significant technical operations based within the Greater Manchester or West Yorkshire regions
• carry out your project work within the defined regions
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• involve at least one university, academic institution or research and technology organisation (RTO) based in the Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire regions

Universities, academic institutions and RTO’s cannot lead or work alone.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered organisations and be based in the Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire regions:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not-for-profit
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

Projects must contain at least one collaborating university, academic institution or RTO within the defined regions.

A business can only lead on one application and can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications. If a business is not leading an application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

A university, academic institution or RTO can collaborate on any number of applications but cannot lead or work alone.

Your project must:

• have a total grant funding request between £100,000 and £250,000
• last between 3 months and 18 months
• carry out its project work within the Greater Manchester or West Yorkshire regions
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• start from 1 November 2024
• end by 30 April 2026

We will not fund projects that:

• are outside of the Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire regions ​
• do not meet the eligibility or scope or are not industry led
• do not collaborate with a university, academic institution or RTO based inside the Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire regions​
• are solely capital expenditure or infrastructure projects ​
• do not evidence the potential for their idea to lead to significant return on investment (ROI), positive economic and regional impact, growth and scale-up of the business

The aim of this competition is to encourage the development of new manufacturing technology within advanced machinery, robotics, automation, or associated industries.

Your project must focus on delivering advancements in machinery for manufacturing and demonstrate innovation at an industrially relevant scale. You must also aim to:

• develop new technology for use in current or future products or manufacturing
• develop and disseminate best practices in technologies or processes to support industry
• demonstrate improvement in business productivity and competitiveness
• show clear benefit technically
• show clear benefit in creating or safeguarding jobs
• enhance capabilities within the broader advanced machinery industry
• demonstrate clear market opportunity, an innovative project, and a credible route to market

Target machinery industries include:

• machine tool manufacturers
• robotics manufacturers
• other machine manufacturers
• machine control system manufacturers
• providers of digitalisation systems for manufacturing, including sensing and control
• machinery subsystems manufacturers
• automation system manufacturers

Target technologies for machinery include:

• machine tool, robotic, and automation systems
• advanced controllers and PLCs
• in-situ and in-process measurement systems
• intelligent software systems
• on-machine sensor networks
• true digital twins of machinery
• hybrid and reconfigurable systems
• sustainable machine development

Innovate UK will hold an online briefing on Friday 17 May at 11am: click here to register for a place.

If you would like help to find a project partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Manufacturing team.