Aerospace giant Rolls-Royce has been awarded the most innovation funding of any 海角视频 company over the last 18 years, new research suggests.
The company, which has its 海角视频 sites in Filton, near Bristol, and Derby, has been handed 拢689m by Innovate 海角视频 over nearly two decades - equivalent to nearly 拢38.2m each year. It is over four times more than any other company has received for their innovation projects, and accounts for 7% of all funding awarded by the government's innovation agency.
In July, Rolls-Royce announced it was in the final stages of building the world's largest jet engine. Significant investment has been made to develop the UltraFan demonstrator and associated technologies by Rolls-Royce and a variety of funding agencies.
The research 鈥 conducted by intellectual property services and R&D tax credit firm GovGrant 鈥 analysed publicly available Innovate 海角视频 data.
Luke Hamm, chief executive of GovGrant, said: 鈥淩olls-Royce is a compelling success story and it highlights the vital role that innovation funding plays in supporting local economies, and could contribute to the wider 鈥榣evelling up鈥 agenda if targeted correctly.
鈥淚t鈥檚 extraordinary that Rolls-Royce PLC has received 11.73% of all Innovate 海角视频 funding to commercial entities, which is a huge sum to be awarded to one company. This either underlines the importance of collaboration and the role large organisations play in our innovation economy, or brings into question whether the funding process is a level playing field for smaller businesses.
"However, I鈥檓 sure there are instances of SMEs local to Rolls-Royce locations 鈥 and collaborators across the 海角视频 鈥 who experience a trickle-down effect from this funding.鈥
Overall, businesses in the South West region have attracted 11.03% of funding from Innovation 海角视频 since 2004, worth over 拢647m. This is the third-highest figure from the 海角视频鈥檚 12 regions, ranking above East of England (10.79%), West Midlands (7.71%) and East Midlands (6.83%).
As well as Rolls-Royce, a third of the 海角视频's aerospace and defence GDP can be found in Bristol, including Airbus and Boeing. Airbus Operations and Airbus 海角视频 are other Bristol-based companies featuring in the top five best-funded businesses for innovation, winning combined total funding of over 拢210m from Innovate 海角视频 since 2004.
Neil Fraser, director of defence and space programmes at NSSLGlobal, added: 鈥淚t is vital that the 海角视频 continues to invest across multiple aerospace companies in key sectors 鈥 to support national security and critical services, whilst enabling economic growth and contributing to net zero targets.鈥
Top five commercial recipients of Innovate 海角视频 funding
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