Tracerco Invests in New R&D Facility

World leading technology company Tracerco, part of the FTSE 100 Johnson Matthey Plc, has received a £1 million grant from the ‘Let’s Grow’ programme – part of the £30 million Regional Growth Fund (RGF). The grant will be used to build a brand new 61,000sq foot bespoke research and development facility in the Tees Valley Enterprise Zone to house its rapidly expanding team.

The grant will support one of the largest developments on an Enterprise Zone Business Rate Discount site in the country. The ‘Let’s Grow’ RGF programme is a collaboration between Trinity Mirror Group, BE Group and UNW LLP and provides grant support in the range £50,000 to £1,000,000 for capital investment and R&D projects creating or safeguarding jobs in the North East of England.

Tracerco, headquartered in Billingham, received the grant from the ‘Let’s Grow’ programme following its commitment to expand its research and development team. The company, who were recently awarded an Institute of Physics Award for Innovation, already employ more than 150 people across the Teesside area are expected to create a further 50 new jobs as a result of the development.

The new Measurement Technology Centre, which is a £8.6 million investment, will take 12 months to complete and will generate a custom-made facility for Tracerco’s research and development team, allowing it to more efficiently bring to market new innovative technologies for the world’s oil and gas industry.

The Centre will include testing facilities for Tracerco’s award-winning instrumentation and subsea services. This includes a state of the art underwater testing tank, essential for the development of Tracerco’s rapidly expanding range of subsea products and services.

Managing Director of Tracerco, Andy Hurst said:

“I’m delighted we were able to secure funding from the Let’s Grow Fund for the new Measurement Technology Centre at Billingham. This will be the platform for innovation for Tracerco, growing our Measurement Instruments business for the next decade. It will support the development of more unique and special diagnostic devices, to maintain our position as world leaders in our sectors.”

Tracerco prides itself on its commitment to research and development and the new Measurement Technology Centre will allow the firm to continue on its path to designing and creating innovative new technologies for the oil and gas industry.

Tracerco recently received an Institute of Physics (IOP) Innovation Award, for its ground-breaking TRACERCOTM LevelFinderPlus measurement instrumentation. The high technology device provides process industry operators with an accurate measurement of liquid level in their vessels, even in the presence of deposit build up and vapour density fluctuations. No other level measurement technology on the market is able to do this.

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Press Release, August 05, 2013