CLOSING DATE 22nd October 2017 The Inventor Prize launched on 9 August 2017 by NESTA is open to products that relate to any issue as long as that product helps to make people’s lives better, thereby helping to tackle a social issue affecting the UK. 

The Business Innovation Centre’s New Product Development Grant has now been increased to just under £10,000 This grant financed through the European Regional Development Fund will help Staffordshire based B2B companies pay for external expertise to help them research and develop a new product or service. Since the European funded project was launched in April 2016 the BIC has awarded over £400,000 to local businesses to employ experts such as Product Designers; Market Researchers; Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys; Testing Facilities and E-commerce specialists to help them with their innovations. 

CLOSING DATE 17th September 2017 CALLING NEWCASTLE UNDER LYME ORGANISATIONS £1,500 is up for Grabs for winning a Business Boost Award. Entering and Winning Business Awards is a great confidence booster for businesses and worth a little time and effort in applying. 

The BIC has been sponsoring these Awards since the year 2000. Winning such awards is a great accolade for any business. It’s a proud moment for a company and its staff and it’s a great marketing statement for a company and could easily bring you new business If you need any assistance in entering please let us know. Entries close on 16 December 2016.

Innovate UK have funds to help companies research and develop innovative technological products where there is a technical risk involved. Recently Innovate UK restricted applications to four key areas of industry but they currently have ONE Open Competition where companies from any sector can apply but you must be looking to solve or prove a technological risk and the good news is that their contribution is up to 70% of your overall expenditure.