£7.5 million of funding awarded to net zero ‘Launchpad’ in south west Wales
Welsh Secretary David TC Davies has announced that up to £7.5 million of UK Government funding is being made available to establish a net zero ‘Launchpad’ in the south west of Wales.
The support means that businesses and researchers from across Wales and the UK will be able to apply for competitive grants (from £15,000 to £1M) to support green innovation projects in Neath Port Talbot, Swansea, Carmarthenshire, and Pembrokeshire.
Businesses can apply for competitive grants, with other support, for innovation projects that focus on technologies that support the region’s transition towards net zero — including floating offshore wind investments, green or blue hydrogen production and distribution, CO2 capture and storage, and sustainable fuel solutions*.
The grant funding available ranges from £25,000, with up to £1 million for projects that provide exceptional impact to the cluster.
The competition for funding opens on 30 October and closes on 13 December.
The Launchpad programme is backed by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation and is designed to build on innovation clusters around the UK that have significant growth potential and to deliver jobs, growth, and higher productivity as part of the UK Government’s levelling-up agenda.
The South West Wales Launchpad has been developed by Net Zero Industry Wales, Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council and Pembrokeshire County Council in partnership with Innovate UK.
Innovative businesses
Welsh Secretary David TC Davies said: “It is fantastic that £7.5m of UK Government funding is coming to south west Wales to support the growing net zero industry in this part of the country. There are some really innovative businesses who are already collaborating with each other and researchers to develop industries of the future, and this Launchpad funding will deliver what they need to take their work to the next level.
“The UK Government is committed to creating jobs and growing prosperity in Wales, and this is exactly the type of intervention that will help to foster a modern 21st century economy in the Neath Port Talbot area.”
Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething, added: “I am delighted that Net Zero Industry Wales, Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council and Pembrokeshire County Council have been successful in their application for funding from Innovate UK to establish a Launchpad.
“I supported the establishment of Net Zero Industry Wales as an independent body to help Welsh industry decarbonise, create new jobs in the green industries of the future and unlock investment opportunities and funding.
“This approach to collaborative working is exactly what we envisaged in our new Innovation Strategy, Wales Innovates, which includes achievable goals towards our vision of creating and nurturing a vibrant innovation culture as part of a stronger, fairer, greener Wales.”
You can find out more about the Launchpad: net zero industry, South West Wales competition and sign up to a briefing event in November, here https://iuk.ktn-uk.org/programme/launchpads/.
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Schrödinger’s Tories. Boasting about supporting Net Zero (with a negligible fund, politically speaking) whilst simultaneously backsliding on existing firm commitments to Net Zero (and costing billions more as a result)
Do we really believe this compulsive liar David TC Davies will realise this £7.5m pre-election bung. Trying to save his seat is he? I think so. Anyway, £7.5m is chickenfeed compared to the hundreds of billions showered over England like Conservative confetti. What’s on offer is merely the fiscal scraps. And remember, there’s still no nostril freeing M4 relief road promised even though it was a 2019 manifesto pledge. There’d no rubber-stamping of Wyddfa Newydd. And where’s the money , £1bn plus, rail electrification funding for North Wales. Oh, don’t tell me. Any decision will be announced after the next… Read more »
The report says – “…The support means that businesses and researchers from across Wales and the UK will be able to apply for competitive grants (from £15,000 to £1M). Reads to me more like an invitation for all sorts of carpetbaggers from beyond Y Clawdd to get their snouts in yet another trough all in support of net zero, the new name for “a nice little earner”