Have you noticed; everyone is talking about innovation? Growth was yesterday’s buzzword; innovation is today’s focus. But why?

 

Definitions vary but a good definition for innovation is the creation, development and implementation of a new product, process or service, with the aim of improving efficiency, effectiveness or competitive advantage.

 

Every business should be innovating because if you are not moving forward then effectively you are standing still, and in today’s fast-moving world standing still means falling behind. Competitive advantage is the key to long term success which means the ability to innovate successfully is critical, and that might mean developing new services, new products, new systems, new processes, and / or a new business model. And that is not always easy if you have not done it before.

 

The Government recognises the value of innovation to the UK economy in terms of job creation, exports and income generation, and funds Innovate UK to the tune of £8bn per annum to promote and support innovation. There are significant funding opportunities open to SME businesses wanting to develop innovative products and services and in addition to supporting R&D, Innovate UK provides support through a wide variety of services including Innovate UK EDGE, the Catapult network, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and the EEN service which links business to overseas opportunities.

 

Here at Innovate UK EDGE we are interested in supporting growing, innovative, ambitious and scalable businesses so if your business is looking to innovate and you are interested in exploring what support is available then please get in touch and let us help you – https://www.innovateukedge.ukri.org/.