Politics

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

“The Prime Minister is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life in the Grenfell Tower and is being kept constantly updated on the situation.

“She has asked for a cross-government meeting at the Civil Contingencies Secretariat to take place at 4pm to co-ordinate the response and ensure the government is ready to assist the emergency services and local authorities as necessary.

“The Prime Minister’s thoughts are with all of those affected by this terrible incident and the emergency services, who are working tirelessly in very difficult circumstances.”

Up to £15 million will be made available by Innovate for UK businesses to work on innovative projects in the manufacturing and materials sector.

Creating a competitive advantage

New manufacturing processes and materials can be a source of global competitive advantage. The UK already has a strong position. It is the ninth largest producer in the world with an output of $247 billion. This competition aims to support manufacturing and materials as enablers of product innovation.

We are looking to fund projects that tackle identified technical and commercial challenges. These should lead to increased productivity, competitiveness and growth for UK small and medium-sized enterprises.

Focus areas

Applications should focus on innovations in:

• manufacturing systems, technologies, processes or business models, such as new product introduction processes or remanufacture
• materials development, properties, integration or reuse. Materials could include nanomaterials, ceramics, metals and inter-metallics, polymers, composites, coatings, smart materials and joining of dissimilar materials

Competition information

• the competition is open, and the deadline for registration is midday on 12 July 2017
• project should range between £50,000 and £2 million and last between 6 months and 3 years
• projects must be led by a business and involve at least one SME
• projects longer than 12 months or with costs of more than £100,000 must involve 2 or more businesses
• businesses could attract up to 70% of their total project costs, depending on their size