by Stephen Chapman
A new £5.6m programme has been launched to help SME manufacturers use the latest digital technologies.
CW4.0 will offer free hand-on support and local R&D to companies in Cheshire and Warrington.
The programme is open to manufacturers at every stage of digital transformation, from those needing to understand how emerging technology can benefit their operations, through to businesses further along the adoption curve looking to trial and implement cutting-edge tech - including sensor technology, advanced scanning, 3D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence and data analytics.
The programme is the successor to LCR4.0, which ran for 3 years and supported more than 300 SMEs in the Liverpool City Region.
£1 billion to be invested into Cheshire s journey to net zero | News gasworld.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gasworld.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Neil Tague
Government body UK Research & Innovation has committed £33m to the North West hydrogen and carbon capture storage project, while consortium partners pledged a further £39m.
The funding will allow HyNet North West to accelerate to a final investment decision in 2023 for the initial phase, and become operational in 2025.
Further elements of the hydrogen cluster project will follow, resulting in the distribution of up to 30TWh per year of low carbon hydrogen being distributed by 2030 – enough to displace 45% of natural gas used across the region, the partnership said.
HyNet North West has been under development for four years with work so far including extensive engineering studies and demonstration projects. Elements of the project have secured various pots of funding, including £700,000 for a smart energy system secured in October, but this is the most significant milestone yet.
The Subplot | Department stores, HS2, Oldham’s big bet
23 Feb 2021, 09:00Comments (2)
Welcome to
Place North West.
This week: plans for Manchester’s House of Fraser raise hopes that the North West’s defunct department stores can find a new future. With the HS2 high speed line to Crewe now signed into law,
Subplot asks if the town is all-aboard the workspace train. Meanwhile, Oldham Council pulls the threads together on the Spindles redevelopment.
ARE YOU BEING SERVED?
Department stores reborn
Investec’s plan to convert Manchester’s Kendal Milne building – or House of Fraser in new money – into a 500,000 sq ft office campus targeted at technology occupiers comes as North West landlords wonder what to do with dozens of defunct department stores. The answers could be surprisingly money-spinning.
A £200million rail upgrade linking North Wales and the North West of England through a new super-hub at Chester can power a pandemic bounce-back boom in the region, it has been claimed. The investment would include £60m to speed up the North Wales main line to Holyhead, £60m to modernise and upgrade Chester Station and £80m to connect Wrexham to Liverpool, including £20m for a new station on Deeside. The proposed investment package will be presented at Regional Recovery 2021, an online conference this month for the North Wales Mersey Dee area, to be attended by public and private sector leaders including government ministers from both Westminster and Cardiff.