Birmingham manufacturers among first to share £1.3m from mayor’s R&D fund

Three Birmingham manufacturers are among the first nine West Midlands firms to receive funding from a £6m research and development programme aimed at protecting and creating manufacturing jobs.

West Midlands mayor Richard Parker has announced that the businesses will share £1.3m from the West Midlands Investment Zone Supply Chain Transition programme.

The firms have matched their grants with £1.4m of their own investment.

They will use the money to develop new products, services and manufacturing processes in sectors including electric vehicles, low-carbon construction, defence, aerospace and the circular economy.

The firms receiving funding are 4T2 Sensors (Birmingham), Brandauer & Co (Birmingham), Tooling 2000 (Birmingham), SymbioTex (Wolverhampton), Gainsborough Healthcare Group (Walsall), Darvick (Brierley Hill), European Materials Recycling Group (multiple sites across the region), Plant Carbon (Warwick) and Tecman Speciality Materials (Leamington Spa).

The programme is one of several funds supporting the West Midlands Reindustrialisation Blueprint, which the mayor recently launched.

The blueprint aims to turn more of the region’s research and innovation into companies that scale up, manufacture and employ people locally.

Among the youngest firms to benefit is SymbioTex, founded by University of Wolverhampton graduates Olivia Simpson and Dr Mattia Parati.

SymbioTex is a past winner of the Chamber’s Women Entrepreneurs Pitch Competition.

The company makes products from sustainably farmed seaweed as an alternative to single-use plastics. It will use its grant to develop new anti-static packaging.

Mr Parker said: “Manufacturing is still the beating heart of the West Midlands’ economy, providing jobs for more than a quarter of a million people. It’s critical that we futureproof those jobs and capitalise on the massive potential there is to create many thousands more.

“This R&D funding does exactly that by backing a range of companies, from Brandauer, which has a wealth of experience and was even around in the first industrial revolution, to new-generation manufacturers like SymbioTex.

“There’s no shortage of talent like this in our region. My job is to make sure this is where they develop their ideas, make their products and create the good jobs and opportunities local people deserve.”

Olivia Simpson, managing director and co-founder of SymbioTex, said: “Securing this grant is a significant step forward for SymbioTex and our ambition to develop sustainable, high-performance alternatives to conventional plastic packaging.

“As we scale up our seaweed-derived biomaterials technology, this support will help us turn innovation into practical commercial applications and contribute to the growth of more sustainable manufacturing in the West Midlands.”

Alongside the grants, the programme will give more than 200 manufacturers fully funded business development advice and advanced management training. The support is designed to help them move into high-growth markets such as advanced engineering, battery technology, clean tech, medical technology and aerospace.

The £12.5m programme, secured by the mayor from government, is run by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and Supply Smarter West Midlands.