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‘Lasting legacy’ being created by Innovate Tees Valley

26 March 2018

 

Companies from across the Tees Valley have been celebrating the success of a project which has helped businesses innovate and meet new challenges.

Dai Hayward, CEO of Micropore Technologies speaking at the Innovate Tees Valley celebratory event
Dai Hayward, CEO of Micropore Technologies speaking at the Innovate Tees Valley celebratory event

Innovate Tees Valley has been running for two years and in that time more than 200 businesses have been given assistance to improve services, products and processes and find new markets.

To mark the occasion a celebratory event was held at Wynyard Hall where businesses heard about some of the successes of Innovate Tees Valley and further opportunities offered by the project.

Innovate Tees Valley is a £6.3 million project formed from a partnership of Teesside University, DigitalCity, the North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) and the Materials Processing Institute (MPI) with funding from the European Regional Development Fund.

By the time the project is complete in January 2019 it will have helped more than 270 businesses across the Tees Valley to meet innovation challenges.

Chair of the Innovate Tees Valley steering board and Managing Director of Modus Seabed Intervention, Jake Tompkins, said: 'This is a truly impressive initiative.

'The breadth of expertise demonstrated by the partners allows us to engage with a broad and diverse range of businesses.

'It has changed the innovation landscape and created a lasting legacy.'

Businesses at the celebratory event heard from different companies about the way in which Innovate Tees Valley had worked with them.

Our company has gone from what was a laboratory curiosity to designing and developing a six-inch unit capable of developing up to 1,400 tonnes of product a year.
Innovate Tees Valley has helped us achieve this in a whole variety of ways and we look forward to working with them in the future.

Dai Hayward, CEO of Micropore Technologies

Micropore Technologies, a specialist particles and emulsion manufacturer at Wilton, Redcar, used Innovate Tees Valley to recruit and part-fund a graduate as well as accessing specialist consultancy on how to scale the business.

Chief Executive Dai Hayward said: 'Our company has gone from what was a laboratory curiosity to designing and developing a six-inch unit capable of developing up to 1,400 tonnes of product a year.

'Innovate Tees Valley has helped us achieve this in a whole variety of ways and we look forward to working with them in the future.'

Suhail Aslam, Innovate Tees Valley project manager, said: 'It was fantastic to hear about the impact that Innovate Tees Valley is having on businesses across the region.

'We are able to provide unrivalled support and advice through a suite of easy-to-access services for companies who are looking to do new things.

'The project has almost a year left to run and we are keen to work with more SMEs across the Tees Valley during this time.'

For more information on Innovate Tees Valley, or its sister project Innovate Durham, call 01642-384068 or email innovate@tees.ac.uk.


 
 
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