INSIGHTS / News

(Image above shows: Valentina Dipietro, Co-Founder at Mykor)

Congratulations are in order for two Scale-Up Programme members and their university partners who have recently secured Innovate UK Smart Grant funding.

The funding programme supports SMEs to develop disruptive innovations that are in need of one final push to achieve successful commercialisation. Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £25m in these world-leading ideas, and Mykor, Habitat Learn, and their university partners have secured a £653k cut of this.

Each company has received support from the Scale-Up Programme in order to prepare and submit the most compelling bid possible. The support package on offer through Scale-Up has helped its members secure more than £100m in funding since 2018, and these two recent success stories only illustrate the value of the programme further.

Lydia Green, Membership Manager for Scale-Up said, “It’s brilliant to see the value of our programme shine through in these recent funding success stories. As the UK navigates its ongoing economic struggles, innovation will play a major role in helping to rebuild that economy. Both projects have the scope and support to completely turn their respective industries on their heads, and we’re incredibly proud of the role that Scale-Up has played in their stories.”

 

Developing Low-Carbon Building Panels (Mykor & University of Bath)

As the UK’s population continues to grow and diversify, the need for rapid and sustainable construction methods is only expected to skyrocket. MykoSIP is an innovative, low-carbon, structurally insulated, composite building panel designed to be easily disassembled while following circularity principles. The Smart Grant will fund the industrial research required to advance the speed at which Mykor can develop and commercialise its insulating sandwich panel. With academic support from the University of Bath, Mykor’s fire-resistant, low-carbon panels offer a more environmentally sound solution without compromising on quality or price.

This project aims to deliver a functional foam panel which will be guaranteed to pass UKCA certification by early 2024.

 

Revolutionising information storage for students (Habitat Learn & University of Southampton)

Remote learning exploded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the blended learning structure has remained an integral part of educational practice since. Habitat Learning’s latest development DeepPrism will offer a wiki-style information repository for students, granting comprehensive access to resources from wherever they are in the world. This project will utilise the University of Southampton’s expertise in AI to produce a deep-learning platform tailored to students’ needs.

By late 2023, Habitat Learn aims for the transformational learning tool to be market ready and forecast post-project commercialisation revenues of £2.5m over the following five years.

 

Are you a scaling business that needs support to bid for public funding?

Access support from the Scale-Up Programme