Businesses now have until Friday August 18 to get their nominations in!

Calling all engineering and manufacturing innovators!

We have extended the deadline for nominations for the Cotswold Life EMI Awards.

You’ve now got until Friday August 18 to fly the flag for your company, whether you’re delivery groundbreaking new R&D projects, want to celebrate phenomenal employees or are focused on shaking up the sector you’re in with a new product or service.

From aerospace to automotive, food technology to medical giants, we want to hear from you.

The Engineering, Manufacturing and Innovation Awards are now in their third year, and we and our expert panel of judges can’t wait to celebrate your extraordinary achievements at our glittering awards ceremony at Cheltenham Racecourse on Thursday November 2.

Nominations are simple - click on the link to submit your entry http://emiawards.cotswoldlife.co.uk/.

From excellence in sustainable manufacturing to groundbreaking educational partnerships that make a real difference, outstanding leadership to mind-blowing technological advances and groundbreaking research and development projects, there are categories to inspire and reward.

Again, we have our Best Place to Work category – and from the people-focused CEOs we’ve interviewed over the past year, we know there’s no shortage of candidates.

This year, we’ve altered this, and three more of the categories.

Disruptor of the Year - the award designed to recognise those who are really pushing the boundaries - is this time to focus more on the product than the company.

Products that are really shaking up the market, breaking new ground, reinvigorating the sector in which they’re operating. And SME Manufacturer of the Year will this year focus on companies with a turnover of up to £25m, as opposed to £5m as we did in 2016. The threshold for Large Manufacturer of the Year has therefore changed, too, to £25m and over.

That’s because we know there are smaller businesses out there doing incredible things, and we are determined to offer them a level playing field on which to compete.

We never cease to be amazed by the talent that’s out there in Cotswolds’ businesses; the extraordinary work you’re doing, the products you’re making, the breakthroughs you’re facilitating which keep us at the forefront of industry.

New figures from EEF - the manufacturers’ organisation - show UK manufacturing now contributes £6.7 trillion to the global economy.

The sector makes up 10 per cent of GVA (Gross Value Added) and 45 per cent of exports, represents nearly 70 per cent of business research and development, provides 14 per cent of business investment and employs 2.7 million people directly.

All of this means the UK is currently ranked ninth in the world in terms of output.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says the sector has grown 1.4 per cent year-on-year in the post-war years, and attributes this to a better quality, more skilled workforce.

It says a shift from low to high productivity goods, improved automation and technology, more R&D investment and a more integrated global economy is driving it.

All of that is of course good news - but we know it’s not easy.

That’s why we launched the Cotswold Life EMI Awards – to raise awareness of the importance of engineering and manufacturing to the region.

Often, the work you do stays under the radar, as it were.

From the number of companies supporting the aerospace sector in the west to the automotive, bio and life science companies in the east, you’re doing amazing things, despite what is already a chronic skills shortage.

Our awards are a true celebration of engineering and manufacturing excellence.

They are still the only regional awards to showcase the companies located here to the business community, but also to a much wider Cotswolds audience.

We want to shine a light on the exciting, dynamic, innovative work you’re doing, often on out-of-the-way business parks, behind high fences.

You may not sell your goods locally - you might export most of what you make to global markets - but you employ local people and you help maintain a valuable supply chain here.

Check out the winners of Cotswold Life EMI Awards 2016 here!