Made Smarter West of England

Made Smarter West of England is a regional delivery of the national Made Smarter programme, run by West of England Combined Authority, aimed at helping small and medium-sized production-based businesses adopt digital technology to increase profits, improve efficiency, reduce lead times and reach markets faster. Support includes fully funded, bespoke one-to-one assessments delivered by NCC and Oxford Innovation Advice, enabling SMEs to identify the benefits of industrial digital technologies for their business, supported by downloadable guides on digital transformation. Match-funded grants of up to £20,000 are available to invest in digital technology, hardware or software to implement identified projects. Skills support includes access to a student intern or digital leadership training, delivered through Leadership for Driving Technological Change in partnership with the University of the West of England. The programme is open to a broad range of production-based businesses, described on the page as including furniture makers, food producers, engineers and electric vehicle manufacturers, and is intended to help them innovate, upskill their workforce and implement practical digital change with expert support. Businesses register interest and have their postcode checked to confirm eligibility for the region.

Open to small and medium-sized production-based (manufacturing) businesses with fewer than 250 employees, based in the West of England area covering Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, or South Gloucestershire.