What is on offer to North West manufacturers
Match funded grants of up to £20,000, a digital roadmap and subsidised placements, for SME manufacturers across the North West. Worth knowing before you self fund a project.
Made Smarter is the support programme for SME manufacturers adopting digital technology, and the North West is where it started. For an employer in Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire or Cumbria it is the most direct support available for a digital or AI project, and a surprising number of eligible businesses have never looked at it.
What is on the table
- Match funding of up to 50 per cent towards equipment or specialist advice, capped at £20,000 per business
- An assessment by a digital transformation specialist, and a written action plan
- A leadership development programme built around workshops and site visits
- Digital internship placements supported at £13.45 an hour, up to 300 hours, to a maximum of £4,035
Who qualifies
Manufacturing and engineering SMEs with 249 employees or fewer, turnover under £36 million or a balance sheet under £18 million, with significant operations in England. The North West programme is delivered by the Growth Company with regional partners including Boost in Lancashire, Cumbria and Cheshire and Warrington.
The technologies in scope are broad: robotics, automation, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and additive manufacturing.
The part most people miss
The grant is the headline, but the assessment and the roadmap are usually worth more. A specialist walking your floor and telling you which three things to do first is exactly the work a manager would otherwise be guessing at. Where that runs into difficulty is afterwards: somebody internal has to own the change, and that person normally needs the judgement rather than the tool.
If you are already going through this, the Level 5 AI units cover the same ground from the management side and the two sit together well.
Source: Made Smarter, North West adoption programme, current published criteria.