Research and development (R&D) grants, consortium building and technology partnering services

In today’s harsh economic climate, for companies to survive they must reduce operating costs and still boost creativity and innovation. Managers today have to be able to handle uncertainty – to do more with less.

Advances in technologies enable companies and economies to grow, by development of new competitive supply chains, products and services. However, innovation requires upfront investment and carries with it risk.

With the economy in recession, finding money for research and new product development inevitably becomes difficult. Yet not to innovate may not be a choice. As a result businesses must further mitigate innovation risks by better targeting investment, leveraging additional finance and partnering to access new expertise, know-how, capabilities, intellectual property and equipment. At the Enterprise Europe Network for North East England we successfully help our clients to do just this.

Access grants to finance your R&D:
Today many firms face cash flow difficulties and problems obtaining money from banks and private investors for their day-to-day operations let alone for R&D. Nevertheless, successful companies will find and unlock the funds required for their research and new product development projects.

Many firms are already benefiting from R&D grant schemes established by government bodies for industry. Grant schemes aim to stimulate market-led innovation enabling companies to overcome technological barriers, create intellectual property, build new partnerships, investigate market needs, develop prototypes and formulate commercialisation strategies.

With a budget of over £40 billion, one of the world’s largest and most generous R&D grant scheme is Europe’s Framework Programme Seven (FP7). For collaborative R&D projects, small businesses can obtain 75% of their project budget through FP7, whilst large companies can obtain 50%. For a small business this means for a £500K project FP7 will provide £375K in grant. In other words, a £125K investment becomes £500K!

Grant finance sources do not impose equity or repayment demands. They simply supplement and extend a company’s own investment and contribution to a specific R&D project, reducing risk. The Enterprise Europe Network helps regional companies to identify and apply for R&D grants and innovation related equity/loan schemes including:One NorthEast Grant for R&D for small companies

*One NorthEast Industrial R&D award for large companies
*NE Finance, Proof of Concept and Three Pillars equity/loans
*Framework Programme Seven
*Eco-Innovation
*EuroStars
*Technology Strategy Board Collaborative R&D
*Carbon Trust
*Energy Technology Institute

Shak Gohir, Practice Director at the Enterprise Europe Network for North East England commented “We have established a strong and experienced team to help clients prepare R&D grant applications that articulates a compelling proposition. Our people not only understand the application process but are also specialists in technology development and commercialisation. This has enabled us to provide a very high quality of service to our clients.”

Find new technology partners to reduce your R&D cost

The basic development of any new technology is a costly and risky venture. It can impede speed-to-market, create uncertainty and can demand large sums of investments for establishing the new knowledge, capabilities and research facilities – all this even before the technology itself is developed and demonstrated.

A strategy that many successful business leaders opt for is to find new partners who can offer them the required new technologies through license agreements or even to build a consortium opening up access to state-of-the-art facilities, expertise, intellectual property and know-how. Such an approach expands innovation capacity and accelerates time-to-market. Furthermore it reduces costs and enables project teams to focus more of their effort on aligning product features and performance with identified market needs.

Gillian Kears, Business Innovation Manager at Enterprise Europe Network for North East England said “As part of a Network of over 600 teams across Europe and beyond, we work closely with organisations to connect seekers and providers of new technologies. The Network members maintain a single global database comprising specific technology requests and offers. This, along with our direct network of contacts, has enabled us to work successfully with our clients to find new technology and R&D partners.”

*We hold monthly R&D Clinics where you can meet us to discuss your R&D financing and technology needs

*Our website, www.een-northeast.co.uk, provides online access to current technology offers and requests.

*To book an appointment, contact Gillian Kears on 0191 490 9358