Coventry and Warwickshire to receive up to £7.5m in Government funding to drive technology developments

By Peter Davison

24 October 2023

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The Business Magazine article image for: Coventry and Warwickshire to receive up to £7.5m in Government funding to drive technology developments

David Solari (CEO of Soul Assembly) with Cllr Tim Sinclair (Warwickshire County Council)

Coventry and Warwickshire has been selected to receive up to £7.5 million of new investment to drive local innovation and business growth, building on the region’s existing strengths in video game development.

Under the Immersive and Creative Technologies Launchpad programme, businesses and researchers working to grow their impact in the region can apply for competitive grants, with other support, for innovation projects that focus on developing and adapting new technologies across various industries including healthcare, education, future mobility, manufacturing, retail and tourism.

The competition opened on Monday (October 23) and interested organisations are invited to sign up for a competition briefing event on Wednesday, November 1 to find out more.

Grant funding available starts from £25,000, with up to £1 million for projects that provide exceptional impact to the cluster of SMEs.

The Launchpad programme is funded by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation. It is designed to build on innovation clusters around the UK that have significant growth potential and to deliver jobs, growth, and higher productivity, supporting the Government’s levelling-up agenda.

The Immersive & Creative Industries Launchpad in Coventry and Warwickshire has been developed jointly by Warwickshire County Council, Coventry City Council, and Innovate UK, and tailored to the region’s needs and circumstances.

The projects must focus on immersive and creative industries leading to increased investment into research and innovation or contribute to growing business activities and economic impact in the cluster.

The projects will contribute to developing and applying technologies such as digital media, mixed media, augmented reality, virtual reality, virtual production, design processes, game engine and 3D environments, simulations and data visualisations as examples.

This will build on the reputation of Leamington’s Silicon Spa which employs 15 per cent of the UK’s games development talent and is recognised by trade body UKIE as the largest cluster outside Greater London.

The Immersive and Creative Industries Launchpad will provide applicants with the opportunity to access grants, expertise, and research facilities as well as benefit from a programme of cluster development activities.

Cllr Martin Watson, Portfolio Holder for Economy & Place at Warwickshire County Council, said: “Coventry and Warwickshire is renowned for being a world-leading cluster in video game development which has created highly-skilled jobs and opportunities as well as attracting inward investors from across the globe.

"This Launchpad is an exciting opportunity to further help businesses to drive forward innovation and boost our economy.”

Cllr Jim O’Boyle, Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change at Coventry City Council, added: “Coventry has seen growth in the creative and media sectors in recent years, so this funding provides a fantastic opportunity to further grow and develop these sectors.

"This will be a boost for this sector which is important for our local economy now and which has great potential for growth which of course means good jobs for local people.

“Coventry and Warwickshire has built an enviable reputation for our partnership approach and this is another example of how we are working together to encourage growth and innovation.

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"I would encourage businesses however small to get in touch to find out how to apply for the funding to support their ambitions and their growth.”

Innovate UK CEO Indro Mukerjee said: “Innovate UK is building strong regional partnerships across the UK to support local innovation and commercialisation.

"Our new Launchpads will help to attract further private sector R&D investment into innovation clusters, growing local economies and delivering societal and economic benefits to local communities.”

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.