Former minister of state at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Business and Trade, Sarah Jones opened Cenex Expo by outlining the UK Government’s ‘vision for growth’.
Jones, who has now moved to the Home Office following Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s reshuffle, said the government wanted to provide long-term clarity for the automotive manufacturing sector.
She said “market conditions had been tough,” but that the UK Government “hasn’t shied away from making the big calls, the big investments needed to shore up this sector over the short term.”
Jones said that there was a new funding competition for the sector through DRIVE35, a new scale-up initiative to address the so-called “valley of death” between research and development and industrialisation.
The initiative will fast-track new technologies, “making our innovation capabilities a commercial reality”, she added. It has a particular focus on producing physical samples, which can be used to validate a pilot production process.
The Advanced Propulsion Centre UK’s (APC) Scale-up fund, delivered in collaboration with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Innovate UK, aims to enable the UK to enhance manufacturing competitiveness.
Ian Constance, CEO, APC and Zenzic, said:
“The launch of the groundbreaking scale-up fund is another vote of confidence for the UK automotive sector. The scale-up fund aims to bring forward innovation to address the challenges businesses face in getting their transformational technology to the market, and this commitment to innovation is exactly what the industry needs.
“The APC is committed to sustaining and enhancing the UK’s long-term automotive capabilities and investments through knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and innovation. Focusing on the following three key funding pillars/areas – Innovation, Scale-up, and Transformation.
“Innovation is key to helping the UK increase the volume of vehicles made in the UK to over 1.3 million cars and commercial vehicles by 2035. The Scale-up fund will help manufacturers at a crucial point that will really make a difference.”
Image courtesy of Cenex
