High-tech small- and medium-sized businesses are at the focus of the government’s newly announced Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth.
Measures in the strategy include £75m of new funding, to be distributed through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), specifically to help SMEs develop new products.
Announced by business secretary Vince Cable and universities and skills minister David Willetts, the strategy also includes a system of ‘innovation vouchers’ to give SMEs free academic support from university research departments, and a series of prizes, along the lines of the X-Prize series, to stimulate innovation in targeted areas. The Technology and Innovation Centres, established last year, are to be rebranded as Catapult Centres.
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