Bristol and Bath businesses working in the advanced materials, biosciences, electronics, sensors and photonics and communications technology sectors are being urged to apply for new funding from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB).
The £8 million investment is aimed at stimulating innovation from across these sectors and building on recent technological breakthroughs.
Proposals must be collaborative, involving more than one organisation, and at least one of the project partners needs to be a small or medium-sized company.
The Bristol and Bath Science Park has welcomed the new scheme and is encouraging Bristol and Bath businesses to apply.
Bonnie Dean, chief executive at the Bristol & Bath Science Park, said: “This campaign is a very positive step. It recognises the existing strength of these technologies in industry and also the commercial risk of experimenting with new applications and new markets.
“The funding match and the requirement to collaborate specified in the scheme are good ways to reduce this risk and create new networks and potentially new supply chains.
“It presents good opportunities for businesses in the region as it is targeted at a number of Bristol and Bath’s key sectors so we would urge SMEs to apply if they have a relevant collaborative project.”
Between £250,000 and £500,000 will be awarded to each project and businesses can claim up to 50 per cent of the funding for their project costs, or 60 per cent for small businesses.
All projects must contain a significant and identifiable element of technological innovation and risk and ideally could have applications in a range of markets.
It is a two-stage competition that opens for applicants on August 19, 2013, with a deadline for completed expressions of interest on October 2, 2013.