Made Smarter | Innovation Network

From 2021 to 2025, Innovate UK KTN will be working on behalf of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to join communities together to transform UK manufacturing. Join our community and help us drive positive change.

The 2017 Made Smarter UK review stated that “the positive impact of faster innovation and adoption of IDTs could be as much as £455 billion for UK manufacturing over the next decade, increasing manufacturing sector growth between 1.5 and 3 percent per annum, creating a conservative estimated net gain of 175,000 jobs throughout the economy”.

The £300 million partnership between government and industry is aiming to create a fully connected, dynamic manufacturing ecosystem inspiring innovation across academia, technology providers and manufacturers. Made Smarter Innovation is delivered by UK Research and Innovation.

Making Manufacturing Smarter: a guide for improving diversity and inclusion in UK manufacturing

This report from Made Smarter and Innovate UK KTN’s Industrial Technology and Manufacturing team is for manufacturers, technology developers who supply manufacturers and manufacturing and innovation policymakers.  It highlights the opportunities to improve diversity in the manufacturing workforce and to ensure that under-represented groups are included proportionally across roles and activities.

To access the report, click here.

UKRI and Made Smarter Funding awarded to boost UK manufacturing supply chains

A further £18 million is being awarded across 37 successful projects through Digital Supply Chain competition, which forms part of UKRI’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) Made Smarter Innovation challenge.

5 University led research centres will receive a share of £25 million to help the UK’s manufacturing industry become more productive and competitive through innovation and adoption of digital technologies.

Find out more.

Made Smarter Technology Accelerator – Prototype Presentation Event Recording

With a focus turning to economic recovery, the Made Smarter Technology programme emphasises the role of advanced digital technologies in tackling industry challenges head-on. 14 startups have presented their cutting-edge industrial concepts and are set to develop #technology prototypes and minimum viable products across #artificialintelligence, #distributedsystems, #immersive and #futurenetworks to address some of the UK’s most prevalent #manufacturing challenges set by seven challenge industry partners: Sainsbury’s, GAF, Safran Landing Systems, O’Neills, Northumbrian Water Group, BAE Systems and Babcock International Group. The programme is run by Digital Catapult, and funded by UKRI through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund as part of the national Made Smarter movement.

Held online on 23rd June 2021, this event recording recaps on the 12-week prototype phase of the programme. The programme presents first phase insights and learnings for the industry. Hear directly from the Industry Challenge Owners and Tech Sponsors, and find out more about the challenges they face and how to overcome them.

Watch the Made Smarter Technology Accelerator prototype presentation event recording here.

Made Smarter Innovation +

Made Smarter Innovation Plus aims to bring together economic and social science insights across the Made Smarter challenge and the wider UK manufacturing sector and provide academic leadership and activities to bolster engagement and collaboration opportunities for digital technology innovation within manufacturing. Find out more.

Made Smarter adoption programme launches in West Midlands

Made Smarter has launched a £1.9 million digital adoption push to support and advise West Midlands manufacturing and engineering SMEs on how to switch to advanced and automated technologies.

Expert advice from the Growth Hubs, WMG, at the University of Warwick and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) will also work to improve employees’ overall digital skills. Find out more.

Aims of the Made Smarter Network

The aim of the Made Smarter | Innovation Network programme is to harness the transformative power of innovative Industrial Digital Technologies which we will deliver under our existing networks, making these more connected, more visible, and more accessible.

• Additive Manufacturing (AM)
• Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Data Analytics
• Robotics & Automation 
• Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR)
• Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Connectivity

The UK is recognised as being world leading in areas such as AI, customer experience and product design.  KTN will be bringing these communities together to deliver a UK manufacturing sector that is more…

• modern
• connected
• resilient
• flexible
• productive
• and environmentally sustainable.

Join this vibrant cohesive community of digital solution developers and integrators and connect with manufacturers, across industry sectors.  KTN will be working closely with our stakeholders and partners to connect the UK manufacturing ecosystem and bring together a landscape of funding, collaboration opportunities, innovation support as well as access to testbeds and demonstrators.

As with everything we do, KTN will be working to bring together a diversity of disciplines, view points, skills and perspectives to drive positive change.

Join our innovative communities at:

• Immerse UK
• Robotics and AI
• Additive Manufacturing