News Stories
General Dynamics UK Looks To The Future With Technology SMEs
22 October 2007 10:21
Company Profile
General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited recently held an Open Innovation day for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to identify potential technology partners. The event, organised in collaboration with SEEDA’s Innovation Advisory Service, highlighted the importance of SMEs in the UK.
SMEs have been a key contributor to the development of innovative technologies at General Dynamics UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE:GD). As the biggest employer in Hastings, the company has routinely partnered with SMEs to identify methods for applying their technological advances to the defence industry.
The Open Innovation Day was attended by representatives of thirty five companies who were interested in possibly partnering with General Dynamics UK.
“We are committed to supporting UK SMEs that have the expertise and capability in cutting-edge technologies that could be applied to the defence sector as well as other industries,” said Danny Milligan, Vice President, Mission Systems, General Dynamics UK Ltd. “As an established provider of information solutions and an experienced prime contractor to the UK Ministry to Defence, we are in an excellent position to link innovative SMEs with our customers.”
Dr Treve Willis, Project Director of the Innovation Advisory Service, said those sorts of liaisons are the primary focus of his organization. “The workshop with General Dynamics provided the ideal opportunity to stimulate these linkages,” he said. “We anticipate that General Dynamics will benefit from access to new technology and the participating SMEs will benefit from new market opportunities."