A West Midlands investment fund is celebrating helping 40 local businesses protect existing jobs and create new ones in its first six months of activity, and is looking for other companies to work with it in the future.
The Technology Transfer Fund is continuing to offer grants of up to £25,000 to help with activities such as business planning, patenting, market research and prototyping.
It is open to new and existing SME businesses working in the advanced materials and medical technologies fields.
The project is being managed by BRDL, the University of Birmingham's technology transfer company.
Paul Sadler, managing director of BRDL, said: "The Technology Transfer Fund is proving to be a very popular and effective scheme.
"The West Midlands has a lot of expertise in both the medical and advanced materials areas, and we are helping convert that expertise into direct economic benefit for the region."
BRDL manage the scheme on behalf of regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.
The Technology Transfer Fund team are based at the Birmingham Research Park, Edgbaston. The Fund is one of a number initiatives BRDL is involved with to make sure that the West Midlands gets the maximum benefit from University of Birmingham research.
The quick access grants available under the scheme are aimed at companies working within the Central Technology Belt, the high technology corridor running from Birmingham to Malvern.
An early beneficiary of the Fund is Metrasens, a high tech start-up based on magnetic sensor and metal detection expertise that has recently spun out from QinetiQ in Malvern. The company has recently received seed funding from the Technology Transfer Fund with the aim of strengthening the company's core technology position, finalising prototype products and improving its partnerships with sales and distribution networks.
Metrasens's first product, Ferroguard MRI, is a device that could dramatically improve safety in hospital MRI units. The company is also commercialising a second technology, originally developed to detect landmines for the military.
The device is intended to prove a quicker, safer and cheaper alternative to X-rays for many applications.
Alan Folwell, chairman of the Central Technology Belt, said: "The TTF is already helping deliver the Central Technology Belt vision and startegy and I look forward to its continuing success in the future."
BRDL is the University of Birmingham's technology transfer company. Founded in 1986 it is responsible for all aspects of commercialising research at the University of Birmingham.
