Cash injection for new off-highway technology

Technology Strategy Board-led programme to encourage innovation in the off-highway sector

PREPARATIONS are under way for a Technology Strategy Board-led programme to encourage innovation in the off-highway sector, a move which is likely to lead to a multi-million pound investment in the future of the construction equipment supply chain in the UK, says Rob Oliver, chief executive of the Construction Equipment Association (CEA).

‘We have been working with the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) for some time and are now confident that a funding competition will be confirmed very shortly,’ commented Mr Oliver (pictured).

‘The TSB has a well-established model that has been successfully employed in sectors such as motor vehicles and marine. The funding helps provide backing for co-operative innovation projects within the supply chain and often in partnership with academic institutions.’

The TSB is the UK’s ‘innovation agency’, offering support and funding to help business develop new products and services – and bring them closer to market.

Working with business, research and policymakers, the TSB brings people together to share ideas, tackle challenges and make new technological advances. It invests in commercializing new ideas with business, targeting technologies and areas with the greatest scope to improve business, the economy and society.

Further details about how the funding programme will work are expected to be released at the CEA’s ‘Innovation & Technology’ conference which will take place at the Henry Ford Centre, Loughborough, on Tuesday 10 June.