Good Growth Programme supports cutting edge innovation

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth programme is backing cutting-edge innovation with an £15.85m investment in projects to drive more research, development and innovation (RD&I) across the local economy.

RD&I investment is seen as crucial to helping businesses develop new products and services, create more well paid jobs, and become more competitive and productive. But in Cornwall and Scilly such investment has lagged behind other areas.

Now the Good Growth Programme has invested millions of pounds to help local businesses embrace innovation.

As well as investment in business support projects to offer advice and grants, the programme has just announced a £3m investment in a trio of pioneering Cornish companies spanning microplastics, composite materials and biotechnology. They are:

• Cleaner Seas Group: this Bude-based greentech company will receive £742k towards a £990k world-leading project that will convert microfibre plastics into a new material for use in a host of industries. The company is focused on innovations that prevent microplastics from reaching the environment and oceans and has already launched a ground-breaking, circular microfibre capture filter for domestic and commercial washing machines. Microfibre pollution from laundry wastewater is the number one source of primary microplastic pollution in our oceans. When washed, synthetic clothing sheds microfibres: tiny synthetic and natural fragments (shorter than 5mm). These fibres pose a serious threat to marine environments, human food chain and human health. In partnership with leading UK academics and universities, Cleaner Seas Group has developed a world first, emission-free technique to convert captured microfibres into a new material for use in new products.  The output material has a multitude of properties and uses from building materials to electric car battery components and much more in between which will be available for global supply.

• Piran Advanced Composites (PAC): the Good Growth Programme is investing £649k towards a £984k project that will see the business relocate from three separate sites in Cornwall into a 40,000 sq ft former aircraft shelter at Cornwall Airport Newquay, creating an Advanced Aerostructures R&D Facility. Family-run PAC has been at the forefront of advance composite technology manufacturing for the last 15 years and has grown into one of the UK’s leading suppliers in the Aerospace Industry with customers including BAE Systems, Boeing and Airbus. A leading member of Cornwall’s Space Cluster, PAC manufactures ultra light-weight carbon composite components for a range of sectors, up to 35m wingspan unmanned aerial vehicles. The new facility will house PAC’s current extensive list of machinery, and new additions including a new 3D scanner, large autoclave (one of the largest know in the South West) and a new purpose built two-story cleanroom. PAC is committed to fostering local talent and has developed a composites Apprenticeship.

• Phytome Research Limited: this biotechnology company near Truro has secured £1.63m Good Growth investment towards a £2.63m project to create new research and development facilities focused on hi-tech indoor agriculture. The project, called SMART-Ag, is a collaboration between Phytome, which has a research campus at Ruan High Lanes, Duchy College Rosewarne and the University of Plymouth. It will support the trialling of new technologies and crop varieties including vertical farming, plant-derived pharmaceuticals and cultivating other high-value chemicals. It will provide new and existing Cornish businesses with local access to world-class research and development services, and help inspire and train the workforce of the future in technology-driven sustainable food production with higher yields and fewer environmental impacts.

Cllr Louis Gardner, Cornwall Council portfolio holder for economy, said: “Our region has a proud history of innovation and these investments from the Good Growth Programme are supporting some of our most innovative companies to commercially develop new ideas and technologies while creating skilled, high-value jobs.

“Overall, we are investing £11.4m in research, development and innovation including specialist support and small grants for business, which are delivered through the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Growth Hub. As well as helping to boost business efficiency and productivity, many of these investments are supporting the journey to net zero, including the development of cutting edge technological solutions to environmental issues.”

Other RD&I projects supported by the Good Growth Programme include £4m of grant funding available via the Growth Hub, who are still offering capital grants to help local businesses purchase kit and equipment to help them grow though innovation.

The Good Growth Programme has also funded STRIDE (success through research, innovation and development), which provides bespoke business support to champion innovation in clean energy, geo-resources, data and space, the visitor economy and agri-food industries.

Another project, Made Smarter Cornwall, is helping local manufacturers adopt digital tools and innovation into their manufacturing processes. Agri-Carbon Kernow meanwhile is a project working with local farmers to decarbonise their operations over three years and encourage nature-based activity.

And Good Growth Investment has also helped Cornwall College establish a new high-tech soil laboratory in collaboration with the Eden Project to help farmers, growers and horticulturalists in Cornwall manage their land and soils more sustainably and productively.

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth Programme is a £137m local investment fund managed by Cornwall Council and funded by the Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Support for local businesses is a key plank of the investment programme, encouraging RD&I while inspiring green and socially responsible enterprise.