Posted on 06/28/2002 9:10:19 AM PDT by doug from upland
BUSINESS
DTI cash prizes for Norfolk firms
KEIRON PIM
June 26, 2002 09:01
Five Norfolk firms have won awards for innovation from the Department of Trade and Industry.
The businesses were among 27 from East Anglia to receive Smart Awards from the department's Small Business Service.
Winners at the awards ceremony in Cambridgeshire were Listawood, of Fakenham, SSAF (East Anglia) of Martham, External Corrosion Management, of Yarmouth, Maxview Aerials, of King's Lynn, and Pear Technologies, of Norwich.
Each receives government funding towards its chosen project – either up to £45,000 for a feasibility study or up to £150,000 to develop a new product.
Projects range from a method of strengthening glass to reduce damage from terrorist bombs, to an environmentally friendly way of spray-coating gift mugs.
The awards were presented by East of England Development Agency deputy chairman Neville Reyner.
He said: "Part of EEDA's aim is to encourage companies from across the East of England to be more innovative by developing new products or services. Funding through the Smart Awards will help provide the winners with the financial resources to develop their products and we hope their ventures will prove successful."
Gary Blake, of SSAF (East Anglia), said his firm was working to update a plastic film for window glass he devised in the 1970s, which has helped minimise damage from bombs planted by the IRA and Basque separatists ETA. Impax, the new product, would be 37pc stronger than the previous version, he said.
External Corrosion Management's product Metacor is a system designed to allow oil and gas operators to minimise long-term maintenance costs, by advising when to coat their steel structures. The firm hopes to produce a commercial system enabling them to carry out corrosion management on a worldwide scale.
Chris Laker, project manager at Listawood, which makes gift products, said his firm had received a grant to help produce and spray-coat mugs in a more environmentally friendly manner.
"What we will be able to do is produce and spray mugs at a quicker rate than we do at the moment, and we will be able to use less coating on them, meaning we will be far more environmentally friendly. If we can reduce material usage and cut down on waste, it will help the environment."
Maxview's product design manager Conrad Higgs said his company's grant would help develop a motorised antenna for caravans and mobile homes. "It's a satellite dish system on a roof unit – you site the caravan and the antenna will pick up and lock on to the satellite signal within seconds."
Mark Waldron and his partner Shauna Stein, who set up Pear Technologies after returning to Norwich from San Francisco last December, won a feasibility award to look at developing software to gather information from various database sources into one secure internet portal, which would be accessible from PCs and mobile phones.
Mr Waldron said: "We've only been working on it for two months – hopefully next year we'll be able to go for the product development award."
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