The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and the Northwest ERDF Programme have today launched a new Innovation Voucher scheme to help support and grow the Northwest economy. With the support and investment of the new ERDF programme, the NWDA will deliver the £4.1m scheme designed to encourage business to engage proactively with the Northwest knowledge base, including colleges and universities.  The funding consists of £2m ERDF and £2.1 from the NWDA. Businesses need to innovate to remain competitive in the face of current global challenges. This project is a voucher scheme that will work with businesses who do not normally engage with the knowledge base (Further and Higher Education Institutions - FEI & HEI and the wider public sector), with the aim of resolving issues which would increase productivity and/or competitiveness. Many SMEs are not aware of the potential benefits of collaborating with the knowledge base and might not know how to access the expertise that is available to them in the region. The Innovation Vouchers scheme addresses the lack of interaction by intervening to encourage SMEs, to work with the knowledge base by reducing the costs, and by brokering the contact between SMEs and the experts in our region. The voucher, valued at up to £3,000, and support should help to ensure that many SMEs will then continue to work with FEIs and HEIs long into the future. 
 
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27 October 2008
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