Ingenious Britain urges UK’s small business innovators to take advantage of EU funding opportunity

One of the UK’s leading small business advice hubs is urging entrepreneurs and small business owners with innovative ideas for new products to take advantage of a new £2.5 billion fund that has been set up to help bring them to fruition.

Ingenious Britain, which provides advice, resources and opportunities for small businesses to collaborate and share best practice, says that Horizon 2020, a seven-year EU project launched this month, could provide a major boost to innovative UK enterprises.

CEO Marlon Wolff says there are 20 million small firms in the EU and almost five million in the UK and this project could mean the difference between being able to bring innovative new ideas to market and not: “However, although applications are open for funding until the end of 2020, it is going to be highly competitive and we would urge UK SMEs to explore the potential for their businesses sooner rather than later.

“This is not only about supporting individual entrepreneurs and supporting the development of innovation in our economy, but if every SME could increase its sales by just £30,000 and add one employee, then we could add around £3 billion to the UK economy and create one million additional jobs. That has to be a prize worth going for.”