A £2m pot has been launched to support innovative engineers.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) new Stephenson LP fund is aimed at helping companies overcome the investment hurdle between research and development and bringing a product to market.

The fund, initially worth a total of £2m, is in line with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ original statement of purpose set out by founder George Stephenson in 1847 to “give an impulse to invention likely to be useful to the world”.

It is the first investment fund of this kind by the Institution.

It will be independently managed by specialist venture capital company Midven Ltd.

Stephen Tetlow, chief executive of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: “These investments by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers are not just about providing monetary investment, but about connecting these and other companies to the vast resources and network of the Institution and its membership.

“The Fund fulfills the Institution’s original purpose to give an impulse to invention and also help companies overcome the investment hurdle between Research and Development and bringing a product to market."

The Fund’s first five investments are in companies based at Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Birmingham.