Government's Technology Strategy Translates Into Funding For Business

07-May-2011

“Investment”, “promotion” and “incentives” to help “growth”, they’ve all been staples of nearly every Prime Ministerial speech on the economy since David Cameron came to power last year, and of course businesses all over the UK are hoping that the buzzwords will translate into meaningful assistance and initiatives to assist the recovery. Melandra Smith of Technical Translations takes a look at one of these initiatives to get a taste of what’s on offer.

On 6th May 2011, at the inaugural Digital Shoreditch Festival, David Bott, Director of Innovation Programmes on the Government's Technology Strategy Board, opened a £1m funding competition to find the next 10 big digital companies from East London's ‘Silicon Roundabout’.

Mr Bott said: “This unique competition is designed to promote the community dynamic within the Tech City area, encourage co-operation and grow business in the area. We want to support this hotspot of digital and creative industries by enabling companies to go further and faster towards commercial success. We are looking for projects that may be too risky for companies to go for alone, or that may take them into new areas.”

Mr Bott specified that the Government was looking to fund fast-moving digital companies such as internet video services, mobile apps, and gaming businesses.

He added: “We are at a tipping point. There is so much digital talent in the East End of London. The Government has shone a light on this area and now we want to put some of the best business on steroids – which in a business sense means investment. We want these UK companies to grow globally.”

So how do businesses in the area go about submitting their ideas for consideration? Initially, interested companies have been asked to submit a two-minute video exploring their vision. These will be whittled down to 20 entrants who will then be asked to provide detailed business proposals, and out of these a further 10 will be selected to receive an award of funding to assist their project, provided by the Technology Strategy Board, and translating into a prize of up to 50% of the cost or a maximum grant of £100,000.

Nick Appleyard, Head Of Digital at the Technology Strategy Board, was enthusiastic about the effect the proposed funding would have to promote the interests of the winning companies.

“We will provide the base funding for the projects and this will then act as a catalyst to attract more investment,” he explained.

 

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