Got a bright idea? Act NOW for a slice of £2.5billion fund that could help your business build world-beating products

By HELEN LOVELESS, FINANCIAL MAIL ON SUNDAY

Updated: 07:10 EST, 19 January 2014

Bright ideas: A £2.5billion fund has been set up to help develop new products

Experts are urging British bosses to move quickly to get a share of a £2.5billion fund for small and medium-sized firms to spend on bright ideas.

The fund has been set up through Horizon 2020, a seven-year EU project that launched this month and aims to help European businesses develop new products and bring them to market.

With 20million smaller firms in the EU, and 4.9 million in the UK alone, it is hoped that thousands of new products will be developed over the next seven years.

In theory, businesses have until the end of 2020 to apply for funding, but experts say UK firms should not delay.

Paul Tranter is chief executive of Pera Technology, an organisation that works with small and medium-sized manufacturers to help them develop ideas and access funding to make new products a reality. He said: ‘We would advise firms to act now as product development can take anything from two to 15 years.

‘There will be lots of smaller businesses from across Europe applying, so UK firms should not rest on their laurels.’

Pera employs 150 scientists and engineers to assess the viability of ideas and help develop them. While the EU money is available to firms in all sectors, from space to biotechnology, Tranter believes the fund is most suited to small and medium-sized manufacturers, of which there are more than a million in the UK.

Funding is available in three stages. Initially, firms that have a strong concept for a product or innovation can apply for funding of 50,000 euros (£42,000) to carry out a ‘viability assessment’ of their idea. They also receive up to 15 days of coaching from mentors. If this phase is successful, they can then apply for one to three million euros to build and test prototypes. The third phase is funding to commercialise the product.

There are a number of organisations, including Pera Technology and the National Physical Laboratory, that work with businesses to see if it is worth applying for funding and then help them in the process. Pera charges £5,000 for research and applying for funds, and another £5,000 if the client successful.

Yet in many cases intermediaries will be advising firms against investing in particular ideas, said Tranter. ‘It is really important that firms don’t invest in bad ideas, that they are technically feasible and they protect their intellectual property.

‘Only about one in five proposals that we see are viable.’