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CPI to accelerate commercialisation of new formulated products

28 Apr 2020

CPI today announced a new project to help SMEs across the Leeds City Region to accelerate the commercialisation of formulated products, supported with funds from the European Regional Development Fund.

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The project, entitled​‘ Formulation Technology applied to Materials and Products’. (ForTaMP), will support enterprising SMEs across the Leeds City Region (LCR) to commercialise formulated products. Over the 3‑year period of the project CPI will assist SMEs active within or seeking to access the health/​personal care, consumer goods, materials and food & drink sectors via the application of colloid chemistry, nano-technology, powder processing and materials science.

The ForTaMP project will be delivered from existing CPI facilities within the North East Technology Park (NETPark) site. The project will provide the opportunity for SMEs to engage with CPI capabilities to enhance up-scaling, prototyping and applications of their technology, in order to help local SMEs develop and launch innovative new products. 

The percentage of SMEs engaged in research and innovation activities within the Leeds City Region and Leeds Local Enterprise Partnership area is well below the national average. Using CPIs expertise and facilities within formulation chemistry, businesses can enhance product performance, enable better product stability and improve manufacturing processability properties. ForTaMP’s product led approach will help translate the strength of the region’s science base into valuable intellectual property including patents, knowhow and registered designs.

To underpin the programme, CPI has also developed a wide range of business support tools to promote innovation, product design and business excellence. It is hoped that the ForTaMP project will establish successful links between SMEs and the knowledge base, helping to enhance the ability of businesses to respond to new market opportunities through the development of new products and processes.

This project aims to support small businesses who work in a range of markets to develop new exciting formulated products and enable their innovation journey in the development of these products,” said Dr. Robin Brinham, Project Manager of the ForTaMP project at CPI.​“Using our state-of-the-art scale-up and testing facilities at CPI will provide a powerful springboard for the growth of these formulated products in the Leeds City Region, and we are proud to be a part of that.”

Notes to Editor

About CPI
The Centre for Process Innovation is a UK-based technology innovation centre and is part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. The company uses applied knowledge in science and engineering combined with state-of-the-art development facilities to enable its clients to develop, prove, prototype and scale up the next generation of products and processes.

Established to support the UK process manufacturing industry, CPI collaborates with universities, SMEs and large corporations to help overcome innovation challenges. Operating across a broad range of technologies, partners are supported at every stage; from concept to market; business support to technology development; and from scale up to supply chain intervention. 

CPI consists of dedicated national innovation centres that support industrial biotechnology and biorefining, printable electronics, biologics and formulation. The centres enable advancements in major markets such as healthcare, electronics, food and drink, aerospace, automotive, materials, and energy. These world leading, digitally enabled and open access facilities are available for partners to get their products and processes to market quickly with minimal risk. Utilising strong networks, CPI brings together a range of partners in the delivery of innovation projects, with a common goal of strengthening the UK’s position in High Value Manufacturing.

About European Regional Development Fund

The project has received £2.7 million of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014 – 2020. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund.

Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects that will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. 

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