AMG, the British manufacturer of CCTV transmission solutions and Megapixel cameras, has announced that it has been awarded a six figure grant for enhanced Research and Development, as it continues its growth path into new industry sectors. The grant has been awarded by the LEP programme, which aims to lever £12m in private sector investment and create 500 jobs and apprenticeships by March 2018. Outside of AMG Systems, businesses that have received grant approval so far, totalling £ 1.9m, are GE Precision Engineering, Ecospeed Marine and Cosworth.
Founder and MD of AMG Systems Alan Hayes (pictured) said: “I am incredibly proud that we have been given this grant. The grant is incredibly significant for us as a business. AMG has spent the past few years self-funding a sizeable R&D programme. In 2013, this resulted in us bringing to market a series of Multi-Service Ethernet Switches affectionately known as the ‘AMG Wonderbox’. We sell into strategically import projects which need 15 year + support. In order to do this, it is imperative to have the expertise in house. It is also important for the country to have this expertise in the UK. We often work with very sensitive security projects – often of Critical National Importance – where the customers understand, and appreciate, that the networks products do not contain untoward software which could be a threat.”
The joint LEP initiative to support businesses in the High Performance Technologies (HPT) sector is formed by NEP (Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership) and SEMLEP (South East Midlands Enterprise Partnership). The initiative has been made possible with £ 4m of funding from Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF); the HPT R&D Investment Programme supports businesses based in Northamptonshire and the adjoining South East Midlands area with grants of up to £ 1m to undertake innovative large-scale R&D activity. Grants are awarded to businesses on 50/50 basis.
