Q&A: Dick Elsy - Chief Executive, high Value Manufacturing catapult.

What can the HMVC do for SMEs?

The High Value Manufacturing Catapult works with companies of all sizes, and over the last 12 months, we worked with well over 1,000 SMEs. What counts for us, is that a company is involved in advanced manufacturing activity that is R&D intensive and has the potential to yield big economic returns.

This can apply to the very big multinationals we work with, such as Rolls-Royce, Boeing, JLR to name but a few, but also to small and even micro-businesses. We do not offer financial support or generic business advice. There are others, such as Innovate UK and the Business Growth service, who do that. We very specifically work with companies to take some of the risk out of their technology innovation projects. Many innovations fail in the so-called ‘valley of death’ between early stage innovation and commercial production. This is the stage where the innovation needs to be tested, production moves from initial prototypes to be scaled up, specific – often very advanced and expensive - equipment and expertise is required. That comes at a great cost. We offer companies the opportunity to work with us and access the industrial scale cutting edge equipment on our shop floors, access the best of UK research and work with real industry experts. They only pay for what they use, thus making this much more cost and time-efficient than investment in their own resources. It means we improve their chances of success.