Budding rock stars will be helped on their journey to fame with a bright idea from a Bradford firm which has won Government backing.

Latronic, based at the Moorview Business Park in Thackley, will use its Smart award cash to develop an innovative sequencer for electronically-produced sound.

The firm is planning a Notron Midi Sequencer which is capable of creating complex musical sequences without the skills needed to master a traditional musical instrument.

An earlier model has been used on more than 50 recordings by composers, producers and DJs such as The Orb, Bjork, Claude Young and Howie B.

The company is one of four from the Bradford area which have won a Smart award. The scheme allows them to draw from a £1m pot for Yorkshire and the Humber region.

They are among 17 companies from the region who will benefit from the awards which are sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry. Each of the companies can claim up to £45,000 for its research and development scheme.

They were presented with their awards by Hector Birdwisa, of Koyo Bearings of Barnsley on behalf of the DTI.

Scientists at Bradford University's chemistry department have developed ways of breaking down pollutants in water and has set up a company called Photox to promote the system.

Dr Roger Bickley, who heads the department, leads a team which has been working on the system which involves adding passive chemical agents to water which, under exposure to ultra-violet light, breaks down pollutants photo-catalytically.

Photox, based in Claremont, has Dr Laurence Hogg as its technical director who said the company would use the Smart cash to develop the method as a cost-effective industrial water purification process.

Medics, of Flockton Avenue, East Bowling, Bradford, has won a Smart award to measure blood flow around the body for people who have had a serious accident, a heart attack or are due to undergo major surgery.

Currently the measuring is done by passing a catheter into a major vein through the heart and into the pulmonary artery and Medics is working on a less invasive method of measuring.

Another Bradford area firm to win a Smart award is Ruskinn Technology, which is based in Guiseley, which has carried out a feasibility study into how laboratory technicians can be protected against infectious bacteria and viruses by providing them with a safe environment.

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