Interreg France Channel England

Interreg France (Channel) England (FCE) is a European Union (EU) programme set up to foster economic development in the south of the UK and north of France by funding innovative high quality cooperation projects which have a sustainable cross-border benefit in the Programme's eligible regions.

FCE focuses on supporting projects that deliver against a range of specific objectives including supporting innovation, developing low carbon technologies and improving the attractiveness of the FCE area.

The Programme has a total of €223 million of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funds to distribute by the managing authority at Norfolk County Council.

Detailed information about the FCE programme and how to apply, and if you have a project idea and would like to find out whether it falls under one of these objectives and is in the eligible region.

Case study

CoRot - Improving the Design of Flexible and Responsive Manufacturing Systems Involving Autonomous and Collaborative Robots

With the average productivity of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) falling in both the UK (12%) and France (2%), Project CoRot aims to develop new autonomous robot technology to help improve the competitiveness of SMEs in the Channel area.

CoRot will develop innovative and affordable robot software and hardware that is focused on the needs and budgets of smaller businesses. SMEs often face issues such as large variances in volume and short deadlines, and the automated robotic systems and software developed by the CoRot project will allow SMEs to become more flexible and responsive to this type of demand.

This is an important step in improving the competitiveness and productivity of SMEs, as existing industrial robots on the market are often seen as being too expensive and too complex for smaller businesses to implement into their production processes.

The new systems will be trialled in six industrial workshops (3 in France, 3 in the UK) where the project will aim to improve productivity in these trials by as much as 30%.

After the project has ended a combination of software packages, a low cost robot arm and training guides will be made readily available to SMEs.

CoRot was awarded an ERDF grant of €2,672,341.

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