Businesses are set to receive a £125m boost to make their innovative ideas a reality and bring new services to the market.
Of the total, £100m will be made available through the government’s ‘Smart’ grant programme, which supports companies to take initial ideas from concept to full commercialisation.
The remainder will come from Innovate UK and will be allocated to late-stage research and development projects.
Business secretary Greg Clark said: “I am extremely proud of the UK’s reputation as one of the best places in the world for budding entrepreneurs to start and grow a business, with one business starting every 80 seconds in 2018.
“Through our modern Industrial Strategy, we are backing our homegrown businesses to boost productivity and create jobs, growth and opportunity in every part of the UK.
“This new £125m boost will give enterprising businesses a launch-pad for their cutting-edge ideas and enable them to develop the products and services of the future.”
Over the last 12 years, the government has invested more than £2.2bn in more than 11,000 projects.
Dr Ian Campbell, executive chair of Innovate UK, added: “Both our successful grants and loans schemes are popular with businesses because they help great ideas get to market faster.
“Smart grants are an excellent way of supporting innovation in single companies or, generating collaborations between companies, working with our world-class research base.
“Our Innovation loans suit late-stage-development businesses about to become, or just becoming, revenue earning. Both are awarded to projects that will make a real impact on the UK economy.”

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