Engineering firm Smartflow Couplings has been awarded a share of a £90m package of support designed to protect current innovation projects from the impact of Covid-19.
The continuity fund is designed to support businesses with ongoing development projects which have been funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.
Smartflow, which is based in Harrogate and Scunthorpe, secured a £173K funding deal from Innovate UK earlier this year to support new product development aimed at driving safety and sustainability in the oil, gas and chemical sectors.
The new batch of funding has been made available to existing award holders to ensure the successful delivery of new innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Managing director Gary Thompson said:
The new range of dry break couplings currently in production have the potential to transform the fluid transfer process across a huge range of industries and have already attracted significant interest from potential partners worldwide.
This additional funding recognises the importance of our new product developments and gives us the extra support we need to overcome some of the short-term challenges presented by Covid-19.
We continue to push ahead with global field trials, alongside the specialist assessment and measurement of our products under lab conditions in the UK, so that we can proceed as quickly as possible to large scale manufacturing.
