£3 Million Investment boost for Materials Processing Institute
A £3 MILLION investment award has been secured from the Tees Valley Growth Deal through Tees Valley Unlimited, to further develop the Materials Processing Institute.
The Institute is recognised as the UK's centre for industrial materials research and has opened its doors to companies outside of the steel sector to make use of its top class research and development facilities.
CEO Chris McDonald said: "Being awarded this grant is fantastic news, it shows we are open for business and will open doors for SMEs to come and work with us.
"It took around four or five months to pull it all together, but we have had superb support from TVU and look forward to working closely with them in the future.
"The grant will allow us to create 14 new positions, as well as supporting jobs in the high-value manufacturing supply chain."
Stephen Catchpole, Managing Director of TVU, the Local Enterprise Partnership for Tees Valley, said: "The extension of MPI's first-class services to a wider audience will be of particular benefit to SMEs, which, while having the knowhow and determination to create new products and processes, often do not have the resources to carry out the necessary research and development."
The Institute can add real value to SME companies in sectors such as recycling and waste, construction, automotive, oil and gas and nuclear.
Dr Gerard Stephens, Director of the SME Technology Centre within the Institute, added: "This money will allow us to fund the infrastructure to supply services to different sectors. It also helps us to build a SME technology centre which will attract business from nationwide into the Tees Valley region and overall offer a support package to the whole industry."
Dr Stephens led the bid, which involved a full business case covering strategy, economics, commercial, financial, legal and management cases to satisfy the Tees Valley Investment Panel.
The funds will also help to renovate existing offices into modern facilities for SME's as well as setting up a demonstration area, creating improved conferencing and hospitality facilities and upgrading the site's disability access. There will also be an investment in new specialist equipment.
6 July 2015
