A new governmental program for small and medium-sized enterprises has been launch recently in the United Kingdom. The main goal of this program is to urge businesses to develop innovative technologies in order to solve challenges, which national energy sector is facing at present. This project will be backed by Innovate UK, which is to devote funds in amount of £1.5 million. It is also considered to be realized in form of competition.
As feasibility studies, covered by this program, aim to develop novel and radical solutions, the main focus will be on small and medium-sized enterprises, whose main business lies outside the energy sector. They are allowed to work individually or collaboratively. In case company decides to work in partnership, it can choose one additional organization of any form from any sector. For instance, another small or medium-sized enterprise or academic partner can be an appropriate option.
Innovate UK is to cover 50 to 70 per cent of companies project costs. The amount of funding depends on the size and type of organization and type of research, which is expected to be carried out. In this case, small companies are to receive 70 per cent of their costs covered. For medium-sized enterprises, this number will reach 60 per cent. On condition that larger businesses participate in this competition, they will get an opportunity to receive 50 per cent of their expenses covered. Therefore, the government is to fund projects with £25,000 to £100,000.
The funding will be provided for companies, which will develop effective technologies in order to address issues concerning oil, gas or nuclear energy systems as well as smart grid sector. In this case, the preference will be given to those enterprises, which are connected with inspection, information and communication technologies, digital, sensors, virtual reality, gaming, robotics, autonomous systems, advanced materials and manufacturing. The defense, aerospace, automotive, telecommunications, forensics, medical, space and creative industries technologies, which are existing at present, are also to be involved to the innovative projects, developed by participants.
A great attention will be also paid to projects, which contain the technologies of defects detection without human intervention or systems, able to process large amount of data, used by the government. What is more, the program launched is to stimulate the development of innovation in user experience.
In this case, there are several main areas of researches, connected with user experience, which should be taken into account by participants. Among them are sensors and interactions, wearable technologies, mobile user experience, multiply device user experience, multi-disciplinary approaches, brain-controlled computing and emerging technologies. Such projects aim to involve customers to managing their energy consumption in terms of their bills reduction.
The competition will start on the 28th of March 2016 with the registration complete at noon on the 4th of May the same year. There is also a briefing planned for participants, which will be held in London on the 6th of April. The governmental project is expected to last 6 to 12 months.
In summary, recently launched governmental program is to urge small and medium-sized enterprises to elaborate innovative technologies, which are to address challenges energy sector is facing at present. The participants of this program, which will be realized in form of competition, will get an opportunity to receive governmental funding for their projects, which is to cover 50 to 70 their costs. The competition starts in March 2016 and closes in May the same year.
