Please note the current round is closed but applications will be processed for the next round.

As a manufacturer or production business, your daily challenges often revolve around managing frequent machine downtime, meeting customer demand, dealing with delays from manual tasks, and lacking essential data for decision-making – technology might just be the answer. Investing in technology can unlock numerous advantages for your business: streamlining operations, minimising waste, driving sales growth, exploring new markets, addressing resource constraints, enhancing competitiveness, and developing resilience, agility, and innovation.

Manufacturing and production businesses, based in the West of England can now apply for a variety of specialised support including grant funding, digital leadership training and access to a fully-funded student intern.

You'll also get a 1:1 consultation with an expert from NCC who will undertake an audit to assess the current status of your business and areas of improvement. They will also recommend which measures from Made Smarter are most suitable to your business.

What support can I get?

Digital leadership training

A free course designed to support leaders and digital champions enhance their skills and get their business ready for a digital future. Click here for our training course infosheet (pdf).

Grant funding

Up to £20,000 match funded grants that can be used towards the purchase of new digital technology hardware or software. Click here for our grant infosheet (pdf).

Internships

Fully funded university level intern and support delivered by the University of the West of England. Click here for our student intern infosheet (pdf).

Check if you're eligible

Start your application
  • You will need to be an SME with fewer than 250 employees
  • You will need to be located in the West of England (Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset , South Gloucestershire or North Somerset)
  • You must be a production-based business producing physical items in-house
Man stands in front of a pump
Total slide out 1 of 4 Apex Pumps
Andrew Simpson

"The 1:1 Digital Acceleration sessions with Made Smarter West of England were extremely worthwhile and helped me to take a new perspective and consider other opportunities for the business."

Total slide out 2 of 4 Essential Trading
Richard Cook

"The sessions with Made Smarter West of England were very positive. The first session was on site which made it easy for us to explain how our organisation functions, where our potential issues were and the strategies we are currently looking into. The recommendations were all relevant and very useful for our organisation."

Glass balls structure
Total slide out 3 of 4 Bath Aqua Glass
Themis Mikellides

"The 1:1 Digital Acceleration sessions were extremely useful as it provided is with third party expert involvement and guidance. It helped us to see things from a different perspective, after all, it’s easy to lose track of the forest when so close to the trees."

Logo reading
Total slide out 4 of 4 MinuteMan Press
Peter Wise

"The 1:1 Digital Acceleration sessions enabled us to access experts from outside the organisation who came into the business and made unbiased and unfiltered recommendations from observation and analysis, giving us a new perspective."

The impact so far

Kelpi team

Case Study: Kelpi and Made Smarter

BDM Machine

Case Study: Pinkmans Bakery and Made Smarter

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Speak with the team to access grants, guidance and support.

If you have any questions about the support on offer, please get in touch with the expert team at Growth Hub.

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