UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced the 12 winners of almost £14 million in combined backing from its latest funding opportunity under the Made Smarter innovation challenge, the Sustainable Smart Factory competition.

The winning projects secured between £1 million and £8 million in funding each, and spanned sectors including food, aerospace, and automotive.

The companies who won funding included Photocentric, with its solution for digitally manufactured 3D-printed parts that can be created autonomously; Deep.Meta, which will use AI to help reduce energy use; and Pragmatic Semiconductor, which is looking to tackle pollution within the electronics industry.

Projects applying for funding were required to show an innovative development and application of data or digital technology that could help in areas including optimising material usage, lowering energy consumption to increase sustainability throughout an area of production, and reducing, reusing, or separating waste materials.

Chris Needham, innovation lead in the Made Smarter innovation challenge, commented: “Effective digital technologies can have a substantial impact on the manufacturing sector, bringing outdated, inefficient and unproductive products and processes up the standards needed for a net zero industry of the future.”

He added: “The successful applicants clearly demonstrated real innovation and showed just how the right use of data and technology can make a significant difference to businesses.”

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