Services | Lift Off
“LiftOff” is a support and development
programme specifically targeted at West Midlands companies operating in
the aerospace industry.
Background
With aerospace manufacturers experiencing a difficult market
worldwide, West Midlands companies involved in component manufacture and
assembly are in turn facing global competition and cost-down pressures.
The initial “LiftOff” Programme was an emergency response
to the issues facing the sector at that time and provided training and
grant support for improvement activities to aerospace companies of any
size in the West Midlands.
The aim was to ensure that the West Midlands
maintained a sustainable and world-class aerospace industry, meeting the
current demands while, at the same time, preparing to capitalise on any
future up-turn in the global market.
This is now imminent. New projects
such as the A380, A400M and the Joint Strike Fighter have all been approved
and are moving towards commercial realisation. Levels of existing production
are also signalled to increase substantially, (by up to 50% in the case
of Airbus). First tier suppliers are now reporting that this new work
is coming through, with the expectation that it will swiftly percolate
further down the supply chain.
Current Situation
A new bid for funding
from Advantage West Midland's European Regional Development Fund (ERDF),
to launch a second programme has been successful. Its key objectives are
to improve the longer-term competitiveness and growth potential of aerospace
suppliers in the West Midlands , focusing on productivity, profitability
and process improvements.
More details of the new “LiftOff” Programme
are set out below, or you can find out the latest situation by calling
us on 0845 245 0845
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The 'Lift Off' Programme
A key element of the original programme,
Business Development Grants , remains with only minor changes. To this
is added two pilot Supply Chain Improvement Projects that are described
in more detail below.
Assistance is available to Small & Medium Enterprises
(SMEs) in the West Midlands (see below for definitions)
An SME has less
that 250 employees and a turnover less than £27m or a balance sheet
total of less than £18m. It must be less than 25% owned by another
company but there are exceptions where the ownership is
by an investment company. The West Midlands is defined as Staffordshire, Shropshire , Herefordshire,
Worcestershire and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Coventry, Solihull , Birmingham
, and the Black Country.
There are no restrictions on the proportion
of aerospace work undertaken by the company but only companies that manufacture
aircraft components or degradable tooling for aerospace use (e.g. press
tools and dies) are eligible. Manufacturers of general-purpose machine
tools or ground support equipment are not eligible.
For further advice
on eligibility ring us on 0845 245 0845 .
Business Development Grants
These are intended to assist
companies wishing to undertake activities that will improve
their performance in terms of quality, productivity and/or delivery
schedule adherence. This includes the use of improved technologies such
as CAD or advanced CNC machine tools and the use of new materials or
processes.
Capital purchases and internal costs are excluded.
Applicants
are encouraged to undertake programmes that have a longer-term
strategic intent that might involve several types of activity to reach
the required objectives.
The maximum grant available under the current
programme is £30,000 and the minimum grant will
be £2500.
The total value of a project is the total of external and
internal costs. Grants under this programme will normally
cover 50% of the external project costs. You must pay the
remaining 50% of the external costs in cash. You are also
required to make contributions in-kind which must be at
least one third of the total project value (see example
1 below). It is a condition of funding that detailed records
are kept of this in-kind contribution and a separate form is available
for you to do this.
Click here to download a sample inspection (Word 99 kb)
Example 1
You
wish to send employees on a specialist-training course costing £10,000
(i.e. external cost). In this case most of the in-kind contribution
would be the labour costs associated with those attending the course
(see “Making a Claim”) and you can demonstrate that your
in-kind contribution was £5000 making the total value of the
project £15,000.Then the in-kind contribution is one third
of the total value and you would be eligible for a grant of 50% of
the £10,000 which would be £5000
LiftOff grant 5,000.
Your cash5,000
Your in-kind5,000
Total project value15,000
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Previous applicants
Companies that benefited under the previous “LiftOff” programme
are not excluded, providing the new application is significantly different
from the first. However, under these circumstances the grant is restricted to 25% of the external costs (see example 2 below).
Example 2
You wish to send employees on a course as above. The grant at 25% of the external
costs is £2,500 and your cash contribution is £7,500. The
same in-kind contribution of £5,000 is required.
LiftOff Grant
2,500
Your cash7,500
Your in-kind5,000
Total project value15,000
Where
companies have not received the £30,000 maximum grants under the
previous LiftOff programme, then they may make a special application
for consideration to be given to a 50% cash contribution to external
costs. Again the proposed activity must be significantly different.
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Limitations
All “LiftOff” grants are subject to the de minimis
rules of the EU, i.e. no organisation may receive more than € 100,000
(approx £67k) from public funds in a rolling three-year period.
Some of the funds that might be included are shown below:
- Grants or loans at preferable rates from public bodies or bodies partly finded from public sources
- Loan guarantees from public bodies
- Special rates of tax or tax benefits
- Seminars, training, consultancy or R&D provided free or at subsidised rates
- Purchase of public land or property at below market rates
- Advertising in public media at below market rates
- Monopoly licences or guaranteed market share from public bodies
However, some public funded
schemes are exempt (Block exemption or Notified schemes). Where the aid
exceeded €100,000 then it must have been exempt by definition. If
in doubt you should check with the organisation that provided it. In
the event they do not know then assume it is to be included. It is the
responsibility of the applicant to ensure they do not exceed this limit
“Completing the Application Form” below).
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Completing the Application Form
The Application form (Annex 1 of the contract - click here to download - Word 87 kb) is intended only for use in applying for Business Development Grants and should be completed together with the Client Profile (Annex 2 of the contract: see below - click here to download - Word 74 kb). These two documents provide the majority of the information on which we will judge your application. You should complete them carefully: up to £30k may depend on it!
Most of Annex 1 is about what you want to do, how many employees are involved, how long it will take and what it will cost. We need to judge if what you are planning makes commercial sense against your company's background and offers good value for money. Give us enough information to do this.
We also ask you to declare other funds you have received that were subject to the de-minimis rules (see above). Generally the administrators of those funds are the best people to ask if you are unsure. We will assist if we can but are unlikely to know the details of every scheme.
Available funds are allocated on a first come, first served basis and
are discretionary. Get your application in as early as possible and send
it to;
MAS-WM Creative Industries Centre Wolverhampton Science
Park Glaisher Drive Wolverhampton West Midlands WV10 9TG
We will normally tell you in a week or so if you have been successful. If you are successful we will always want to visit you (providing we have not already visited under an earlier LiftOff Application)
Client Profile
This is us gathering information about your company. It is an important part of what we do and it enables us to justify spending public funds on programmes like this and to measure the impact of our intervention in the longer term. We will not process an application for funding unless this form (Annex 2) is completed. In particular we need your postcode to check that you are in an Objective 2 core or Transition area and the turnover/balance sheet information etc. to ensure your company is an SME. However, we realise that not all SMEs will have all the information requested. If this is the case tell us.
Your Contract With Us
If you successfully apply for funds we will provide a contract for you to agree to. Annex 1 and Annex 2 form part of the contract. You should read the contract and sign it if appropriate. Once both parties sign the contract you can start the activities described in the contract.
Making a Claim
LiftOff now utilises European Union funding and the claims procedure is necessarily more detailed in order to comply with EU regulations. Annex 3 is the Claim Form (click here to download - Word 65 kb) and is included as part of the contract you receive. If you intend to make more than one claim you can photocopy the form as many times as necessary. So as not to put unnecessary strains on your cash flow, you may claim at any convenient point in your programme of activities. With each claim you must ensure that you identify which elements of the programme you are claiming for.
With each claim you must also supply a copy of your sales invoice (we are paying you, not your supplier) plus copies of your supplier's invoice as evidence of your expenditure. In addition we ask for a few sentences on how the project is progressing.
We also require details of in-kind contributions to the project. These are the internal labour, materials or use of special facilities that you utilise in carrying out the project. In each case it is the actual cost that is required not the charge out rate that you might use for selling the resource as part of your business. For example the labour cost would need to include NI, holiday and pension payments. For a special facility such as use of a 5-axis milling machine the cost would be the machine hour rate (to include depreciation, maintenance and consumables) for the number of hours used. The machine operator would appear as a separate cost.
A separate sheet is provided for you to work out your in kind contributions. We only need the totals, not the detailed calculations. However, you should retain your calculations as evidence in the event that your project is audited at a later date.
IMPORTANT. The amount you claim cannot exceed the total in-kind contributions you have declared and evidenced.
Payment will normally be made within 30 days of us receiving your claim.
Measuring Success
The success of programmes such as LiftOff is determined by outputs that are relevant across a range of programmes. In this way the cost effectiveness and impact of publicly funded interventions can be compared.
The outputs and their definitions relevant to the LiftOff programme are:
- Number of jobs created - how many people were employed as a direct result of this intervention. Count full time jobs directly, part time jobs can be added together to give the full time equivalent, which is then added to the total
- Number of jobs saved - how many people would have lost their jobs had the intervention not taken place. Again count full time jobs and aggregate part time jobs.
- Learning Opportunities - any training activity with more than 30 hours tuition counts. For training that needs an element of practice back in the workplace (e.g. CAD courses) then this can be added to the hours.
These outputs are recorded each time you make a claim and there is a place on the claim form for them. If there is no output then enter a zero to show that this is the case and the entry is valid not just an omission.
Completing the Project
For the final claim there is the additional requirement for you to formally acknowledge the completion of your programme (annex 4 of the contract - click here to download - Word 56 kb) and tell us what the out comes were in terms of:
- How many jobs were safeguarded i.e. how many jobs were at risk had you not undertaken these activities
- How many jobs were created as a result of what you did
- How many learning opportunities were there for your employees (must be at least 30 hours training but includes on the job practice e.g. 3 day CAD course plus some practice would probably constitute a learning opportunity) (See “measuring success” above).
If Things Change
We recognise that things can change and what seemed a good idea at the start is now not so sensible. If this happens, or if your programme is just running behind schedule it may be possible to vary the contract (but there are limits). If you find yourself in this situation there is an application form to vary the contract (Annex 5 - click here to download - Word 212kb). It is probably worth ringing us on 0845 245 0845 to discuss what changes might be possible before you complete this form.
Publicising Our Success
A successful LiftOff programme is worthy of celebration. Where there is a particularly interesting story to tell it is worth publicising, since it benefits everyone concerned. At the conclusion of your project we may ask for your assistance in doing this. We will arrange (and pay for) any photography needed and write up the project as a case study (see examples) and/or to feature in promotional material. We will not to reveal any commercially sensitive material and only describe the activities in general terms. Some of the clients we have worked with in the past have found that their company profile has been raised significantly from doing this and they have benefited accordingly.
Click on the items below to read Lifoff case studies:-
> Back on time with
LiftOff
> Liftoff for Jet Blades
> LiftOff
on the boardwalk
> Customer
base gets LiftOff
Supply Chain Improvement
This is a new element of the LiftOff Programme and follows the highly successful model used by the Accelerate automotive programme. It enables larger Aerospace companies to work with their SME suppliers to collectively improve their Quality, Cost and Delivery performance. There will be two pilot programmes each with funding of up to £150,000 , and each with about 8 SME suppliers.
In general terms, each programme will be championed by a prime or tier 1 company e.g., Rolls Royce, Airbus or Westland and hosted by a major supplier to them e.g. Goodrich Fuel Systems, Hampson Aerospace or Smiths Aerospace, who receive the funding.
Contributions are required from everyone involved. External consultancy support will be used as appropriate to assess and develop the programme and all participants. At this stage participation is by invitation only. If the two pilots are successful it is intended to bid for funds to run additional programmes.