The Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership is bidding for £20m from the Regional Growth Fund, part of a pot of £350m available UK wide, to invest in Greater Manchester enterprises looking to grow their bottom line through cutting-edge science and technology.
The funding would be made available to both small and large organisations and include firms seeking to harness the potential of graphene – the ultra-thin, ultra-strong material discovered by academics at Manchester university – as part of an attempt to create a ‘Graphene Valley’ in Manchester to rival California’s Silicon Valley as well as a pot of funding reserved to assist science graduates with potentially lucrative ideas set up businesses of their own.
The Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership’s bid is seen as part of a drive to create a reputation for Manchester as a ‘science city’ and help speed up the process of creating a critical mass of high-tech firms in the region and support creative individuals as well as multi-national companies.
Mike Emmerich, chief executive of New Economy, said: “This is about taking a tangible step towards trying to rebalance the economy around science and technology.”
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