The competition will invest up to £800k in feasibility studies testing potential business models that maximise the value of durable products while ensuring value can be retained through reuse, remanufacture or leasing and maintenance.

Innovate UK will allocate varying levels of funding to different industrial research projects lasting six months depending on the research being carried out. 

The projects are expected to be made up of new collaborations that could establish a new value network, with the feasibility studies exploring how the business models for each part of the network will operate successfully. 

Projects should plan a pilot project to test this value network and demonstrate how it can become part of normal business. Depending on the outcome of the projects, Innovate UK intends to support a small number of the pilot projects.

Building innovation

Innovate UK also this week outlined the allocation of £60m of grant funding for innovation in low impact building in the UK. Future Building: the low Impact Building Innovation Platform – Innovate UK’s strategy – outlines how the funding will be invested over the next five years to meet the challenges associated with creating low-impact building and to support business-led innovation.

As buildings account for 37% of all UK greenhouse gas emissions, finding sustainable ways to adapt the built environment will be critical to meeting the challenge of reducing UK greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.

The funding aims to promote business growth in areas such as high performance materials and building technologies, digital design and engineering, energy and eco-systems, and energy management and diagnostics tools.

Transform building sector

Innovate UK’s low -mpact building innovation platform leader Simon Hart said: “We need to find resilient, sustainable and adaptable solutions that can be delivered with precision and at high quality on an industrial scale.”

“Our funding will help transform the sector, integrate supply chains, capitalise on the UK’s current leadership position, mitigate import threats, develop growth sub-sectors and exploit export opportunities.”

Since 2008, the Low Impact Building Innovation Platform has invested £79m in 20 major programmes, funding 800 UK organisations through 580 projects. The estimated impact on the UK economy is £1.5bn.

Innovation Zone at Sustainability Live 2015

For the first time, edie will be hosting an Innovation Zone at Sustainability Live 2015 to showcase the best emerging, pre-commercialised sustainability solutions.

We are looking for emerging products, technologies and solutions in the energy, waste, water and cleantech space which are yet to be commercialised but have reached trial or prototype stage.

Find out more about the new Innovation Zone here and register to attend Sustainability Live 2015 for free here.

Lucinda Dann

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