Pump primed by £1.5 Million from the Government’s Getting Building Fund delivered in partnership with the Lancashire LEP, as one of 10 ‘shovel ready’ projects across the county to support the economic growth in this newest of fields, it will look to fund new green tech development and drive diversification from the county’s automotive and aerospace industries into low carbon tech, to support sectors and jobs under stress as a result of the pandemic.
The ultimate vision is to see innovative low carbon products manufactured in Lancashire and exported across the globe to power developing communities. RedCAT’s mission is to build ‘end-to-end commercialisation funding’ and support for those technologies, accelerating that journey through capital investment at every stage – from R&D to demonstration, first sale and onto scale-up.
That investment will come from a mix of public, private and venture capital and equity sources eager to put their money behind viable tech projects sourced and fully researched by RedCAT. The vision is for the centre to eventually operate on a national scale.
The centre, a not-for-profit venture, will also partner with the Chamber’s existing Chamber Low Carbon pan-Lancashire support program, providing support free to every Lancashire SME to transition to net zero, and another ‘shovel-ready project’ now under construction – the Low Carbon Manufacturing Building Demonstrator earmarked for the new Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) at Samlesbury.
RedCAT will be based at East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce’s offices in Clayton-le-Moors, within Hyndburn.
Chamber chief executive Miranda Barker, believes it will play a vital part in driving a green economic recovery. Miranda, says: “We will be working in partnership with Lancashire’s new low carbon innovators and our established advanced manufacturers seeking to diversify into low carbon component manufacture, driving the development and funding of new green technology products.
“RedCAT’s mission is to ensure support for the manufacture and adoption of low carbon tech across Lancashire to drive economic green recovery and resilience. We’re looking to create manufacturing opportunities and jobs in Lancashire and to see low carbon innovation from the county exported overseas as part of the move towards a global net zero carbon future.”
David Taylor CBE DL, Chair of Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, said: “I’m delighted that the Getting Building Fund has supported this important project that is helping to unlock Lancashire’s potential as a net zero county and economy. RedCAT will not just help Lancashire decarbonise but will also drive a sustainable recovery from the pandemic.”
Housing Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:
“The Getting Building Fund at its heart is about creating new economic opportunities post pandemic, and RedCAT, Lancashire’s Centre for Alternative Technologies, being launched here in Accrington today, will do exactly that. By helping to fund and grow the County’s low carbon technologies jobs and expertise, supporting advanced manufacturing and the export of UK designed and built low carbon technology to the world. This is exactly what we mean when we look at levelling up, putting Hyndburn and the County at the heart of innovation and development”
For more information email Miranda Barker, Chair of RedCAT at M.barker@red-cat.uk
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