HLAS

The UK Space Agency will co-host a global summit to agree new ways of ensuring a safe, sustainable and secure space environment, including tackling space debris which threatens the satellites we rely on in our daily lives. The 4th Summit for Space Sustainability, hosted with the Secure World Foundation in London on the 22 and 23 June, brings together government, industry and academics from around the world to discuss how to ensure the sustainability of space operations. Orbital congestion created by space debris is one of the biggest global challenges facing the space sector. There are currently around 30,000 pieces of [...]

There are now over 40 lenders willing to lend unsecured small business loans in the UK. Whilst the majority of these will require a personal guarantee (PG) from directors, some do not. The difficulty being they all have different criteria, different application processes and different sectors they prefer lending to. A complex and time consuming task for business owners. Our experts save you time by guiding you through these processes and they will work quickly to understand the business and financial requirements of the applicant, introducing only those lenders who can meet those needs and who are most likely to [...]

During the COVID-19 pandemic many employees were required to work from home.  Since restrictions have been lifted, employers have put in place “hybrid” working arrangements whereby employees work from home on certain days and in the office for other days. Some of these arrangements are contractual and others are arranged on a voluntary basis. HMRC have recently updated their internal guidance in their Employment Income Manual to deal with situations where employees are travelling between home and their office which, in most cases, will continue to be treated as ordinary commuting and not an allowable business journey. The exception is [...]

Saving used to be the foundation of good financial management. Putting cash away to deal with emergencies, or to build up a cash sum for anything from a deposit on a first home to our old age was the first step to financial security. The banks and building societies were only too pleased to help us become savers. They needed our cash to lend out to other customers and they would pay interest to encourage us to leave it on deposit with them, but times have changed. It looks as though the banks don’t want your savings and they are [...]

Below are a few examples of some great questions from our “101 Great Marketing Questions” template we keep for clients to help think about existing marketing activities and how you can improve on them. Not all the questions will be relevant to your business, but it is a valuable exercise and may help you come up with a few ideas for growing your customer base. Why do our customers buy from us now? What new ways of generating customers can we use to build our business? Which of our marketing efforts brought in the bulk of our clients? What percentage [...]

Digital Security by Design (DSbD) challenge and Digital Catapult have launched a new programme for developers and organisations to experiment with DSbD technologies. The Technology Access Programme has been developed to build a pipeline and community of developers and technology companies to trial and experiment with the new DSbD technologies, to address the cyber security challenges faced by embedded product and software companies. What is available? To support a six-month experimentation period with the DSbD technologies within their own organisations, programme participants will have access to: the Morello Board and CHERI prototype architecture and hardware technical guidance £15,000 in funding [...]

Innovate UK’s ‘Driving the Electric Revolution’ challenge, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £4.5 million in projects building talent for the future. The aim of this competition is to create and deliver course content and materials that will support skills, talent and training across Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD) manufacturing and supply chains; building awareness of PEMD and filling key gaps in the UK's workforce talent and training capabilities. Opportunities could include but are not limited to: schools’ engagement apprenticeships and internships upskilling and reskilling of existing workforce technical courses and vocational training undergraduate, postgraduate [...]

‘Help to Grow: Digital’ is a UK-wide scheme to help small and medium-sized businesses adopt digital technologies that are proven to increase productivity. The scheme offers: free, impartial advice and guidance about what digital technology is best suited to your business and how it can boost your business' performance targeted financial support, if your business is eligible, worth up to £5,000 towards the costs of buying approved digital technologies The website offers advice, guidance and tools to help businesses explore the huge potential of digital technology to help your business to grow. It aims to help you: identify the digital technology needs of your business make [...]

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has launched the new ‘Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF) Phase 2: Spring 2022’ competition window. Businesses can bid for a share of up to £60 million in grant funding through this new phase. The competition will provide grant funding for the following project types: studies - feasibility and engineering studies to enable companies to investigate identified energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects prior to making an investment decision energy efficiency - deployment of technologies to reduce industrial energy consumption deep decarbonisation - deployment of technologies to achieve industrial emissions savings Your business must [...]