Two Bradford firms have won Government cash to help them put new ideas into practice.

Chase Advanced Technologies and Oceans Environmental Engineering are among 11 firms from West Yorkshire and 25 from the region who have won cash under the Smart project.

Smart awards are given out by the Department of Trade and Industry to firms developing pioneering ideas.

Chase, based on the EuroCam estate off Rooley Lane, has been working for five years developing a personal computer card reader for the digital camera market and has won £84,000 under the Smart scheme to move it forward.

A PC card is a piece of hardware the size of a credit card, which can be used to store pictures in a digital camera.

The reader being developed by Chase is low-cost and easy to use and can be plugged into a personal computer. It allows people using digital cameras to see the pictures on their PC and e-mail them or print them out.

Chase chairman Dr Tony Martinez said today: "This is a very big boost for us and helps us increase our penetration of the European market."

Oceans Environmental Engineering, based in Cumberland House, Greenside Lane, won £40,000 of Smart cash.

The project is to design a small reed bed system to treat contaminated water from petrol station forecourts. The aim of the project is to build a system which can be taken around sites where small amounts of effluents are produced.

The system treats contaminated water which goes into drains at the edge of petrol station forecourts instead of it being tankered away for treatment.

Peak Communications, of Brighouse, and Cardselect Systems, of Otley, have both won Smart cash to develop hi-tech equipment for the electronics industry.

Greg Dyche, strategy director at the Government's Yorkshire and the Humber regional office, said: "The Smart scheme has been nurturing innovation in the region for many years and helped many bright ideas off the drawing board."

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