LM Wind Power i-Generator

LM Wind Power is the World’s leading producer of wind turbine blades, supplying blades to most of the leading turbine producers. LM has a significant R&D organisation and dedicated R&D resources in-house. During its 70-year lifetime, LM has excelled in innovation, starting out with furniture production, later moving on to caravan and boat building based on glass fibre, and from the late 1970s and onwards focussing on wind turbine blade production, growing into its current position as a global market leader.

Given its profile and background, LM is well positioned to benefit from grant financing and external partnering for R&D activities. Therefore, since 2007 LM has worked with Innovayt on the implementation of the LM i-Generator as an overall framework for optimising LM’s work with external partnering and funding opportunities. Focus has been on systematic intelligence on funding opportunities for LM and on funding application writing. In addition, Innovayt has assisted LM in building screening processes and selection tools for new innovation ideas and provided ad hoc assistance for LM’s management of funded projects.

The i-Generator has already generated impressive results, providing LM access to significant cash funding for projects as well as access to leading European networks in the wind power area. Between 2008 and 2010, LM Wind Power has won grant financing from the EU and the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation (Højteknologifonden) for three major R&D projects developing new and groundbreaking blade technology, all of which are now under implementation.