Initiative launches to support digital transformation in North West

A new initiative has been launched to help SME pharmaceutical manufacturers in Cheshire and Warrington better understand and implement industrial digital technologies.

The £5.6 million CW4.0 initiative is aimed at helping manufacturers through every stage of digital transformation. It will offer expertise on understanding emerging technology and help businesses looking to trial and implement new tech such as sensors, advanced scanning, artificial intelligence and more.

CW4.0 is a successor to LCR4.0, which ran for three years and supported more than 300 SMEs to harness emerging technologies in the Liverpool City Region. The CW4.0 initiative is hoping to deliver a similar impact for Cheshire and Warrington’s economy. It is being delivered by a number of North West organisations, led by the University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC), in partnership with the Science and Technology Facilities Council, Liverpool John Moore’s University, and the Northern Automotive Alliance. The initiative is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Andrew Borland, CW4.0 lead and head of Commercial for the VEC, said: “CW4.0 will demonstrate the value of digital technologies to SMEs in the region. By bringing together the facilities, skills and experience of leading universities and industry experts, we will address company’s individual challenges, helping them to increase productivity and de-risk innovation by developing smarter products, processes and supply chains.

“Many companies have been forced to adopt digital technologies at a breakneck pace during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the UK emerges from it, there is a massive opportunity to carry this momentum not just for companies that have started their digital journeys but also for those that have not. CW4.0 will ensure no SME is left behind in a world where the resilience, productivity and assurances afforded by digitised operations, become non-negotiable expectations of their customers.

“Based on the overwhelming success of our work in the Liverpool City Region, we know that even manufacturers with little prior understanding of industry 4.0 technologies can benefit greatly from the support and facilities on offer in this scheme. Almost a third of businesses in LCR which we worked with to demystify digital technologies, saw revenue growth and 86% of these businesses developed and commercialised new products.

“We have set ambitious targets to work with around 170 manufacturers over the next two years through CW4.0 and expect to on-board the first tranche of businesses within weeks. We are eager to hear from SMEs in the region who want to grasp the opportunities that new digital ways of working can bring to their businesses."

Over the next two years, CW4.0 aims to support up to 170 SMEs, create 140 new R&D collaborations, bring at least 40 new products to market and accelerate the growth of twenty start-ups.

Philip Cox, chief executive of Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “Manufacturing is integral to Cheshire & Warrington’s economy, supporting 45,000 jobs and contributing £7.7bn to the sub region’s GVA.  Increasingly, digitalisation is the key to improving productivity and profitability and I’d encourage our SME manufacturing community to take advantage of this opportunity for fully-funded, expert support on their doorstep.”