Emerging businesses in the regional medical sector are set to receive a boost following the announcement of an £816,000 funding pot. Business support body Medilink North West has secured the money, which comprises £416,000 form the Northwest Regional Development Agency and £400,000 from the European Regional Development Fund. The project, which is expected to generate 32 jobs and create 18 new businesses, aims to increase the exploitation of research and development opportunities in health technology.

Energy minister Lord Hunt has identified the North West as key to the UK's shift to a low-carbon economy as the government yesterday published the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, which sets out how the UK will become the first major economy to convert to low-carbon living and includes a major expansion of renewable energy. The North West already has 140 sites generating renewable electricity, more than any other English region. Regional minister for the North West Phil Woolas said: "The North West was the world's first industrial area - that revolution was based on carbon fuels. The new green technology revolution must also start here."

The finalists of this year's IoD North West Director of the Year awards have been announced with 32 business leaders battling it out across 11 categories. The shortlist for Liverpool Director of the Year includes: PR man Dougal Paver; Environmental Waste Controls' Peter Cooke; and Christopher Jordan from taxi firm Davy Liver Group. The Young Director category will be contested between Lisa Horne from Healthy Paws and Neil Norman from Human Recognition Systems.

Sportech, the football gaming business and owner of The New Football Pools that operates out of Liverpool, has launched a social gaming platform to bring social networking functionality to fantasy football communities, which it described as "another significant step in the turnaround of Sportech and the modernisation of its core Football Pools business". The company has signed partnership agreements with three leading media groups, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail and Metro, to make this new offering available to over 400,000 fantasy football players.

Liverpool digital agency Switch Media has brought in three new account managers following an increase in demand for its web hosting and design service. With sales up by 15 per cent, managing director Chris Evans believes that continued growth is still possible. "Despite the market conditions we are continuing to buck the trend and grow," he said. Switch Media is responsible for high-profile accounts such as Harley Davidson and Universal Music Group.

Tate Liverpool has secured £880,000 of funding through the Northwest European Regional Development Fund Programme to support a programme of major exhibitions at the gallery over the next three years. The series of annual international exhibitions, which started in May with Colour Chart: Reinventing Colour, 1950 to Today, aims to provide a highlight in the tourism calendar every summer up to 2011.

CL5 Search Engine Marketing, based in Liverpool, has conducted a market research campaign that examines the websites of small businesses. In a study that covered the whole of the North West, it found that Liverpool companies show the worst level of website investment, with around 80 per cent of sites failing to meet the survey's criteria.

Liverpool-based Qire, which provides companies with customer relationship management systems that use real speech to communicate with customers, has appointed Ciara Harte as business development manager to extend the use of Qire's Interactive Voice Technology in the debt collection market. The company says its debt recovery solutions help agencies improve collection rates and increase average payments on unpaid bills and arrears and can play a key role in enabling agencies to reduce business risk.

Four North West companies have been appointed by BAE Systems to work on the largest defence programme in the world, in a contract worth more than £250m over the next ten years. Hyde Aero Products of Dukinfield, RLC Group of Altham, John Huddleston Engineering of Blackpool and Thyssenkrupp of Bamber Bridge are all working through the North West Aerospace Alliance's (NWAA) £8m Aerospace Supply Chain Excellence (ASCE) programme and have been selected by BAE to work on the F-35 Lightning II (Joint Strike Fighter) project. They will work together through a pilot Supplier Association project, led by the NWAA and BAE Systems. The partnership is the first supplier association to be formed within the ASCE programme.

Two Skelmersdale entrepreneurs, Chris Woodcock and Phil Parr, have set up Brigade Discount, a specialist discount website specifically for fire service professionals. The site, developed by Glow New Media, provides the fire service community with discounts that can include savings on a new car, a holiday or simply on day-to-day shopping. Users are charged a fee of £1.50 per month. Woodcock developed the idea from a similar scheme that he benefited from while serving with the Royal Corps of Signals in the Armed Forces.

Accountancy firm Grant Thornton has won an award for its work in the healthcare sector. The business was named as HealthInvestor accountant of the year at a recent awards ceremony in London. Neil Sturmey, office managing partner in Liverpool, said: "Healthcare is one of our firm's key specialisms and it is an honour to be acknowledged for our contribution to the industry in such a prestigious way." Grant Thornton beat off competition from Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Moore & Smalley and BDO Stoy Hayward in the category.

Property and construction consultancy Acies has completed work on the new £3.2m Riverview development in Tranmere, Wirral. Appointed by MBE Construction, the group provided civil and structural engineering services for the residential development, which will include 44 apartments, two maisonettes and four townhouses, all offering views of Liverpool's waterfront. The 35,000 sq ft development is located in the £4.5bn waterside redevelopment and regeneration district of Tranmere.

Law firm Brabners Chaffe Street has appointed two senior property experts. Joining its Manchester office is Tony Fitzmaurice, who specialises in property development and regeneration schemes and joins after 24 years at Cobbetts, while Stephen Tobin joins the Liverpool branch to work as a consultant from Bell Lamb & Joynson. Fitzmaurice was part of the team that acted for Peel Media on the £1bn Media City scheme at Salford Quays and Salford City Council on the Greengate gateway planned between Salford and Manchester.