As The Guardian’s Cleantech 100 Map shows, the UK is fantastic at inventing great technologies that can quietly save the world. But the cleantech boom of the early 2000s is over. With investment steadily dropping, there simply isn’t enough money to finance all of these great products. So what do you do if you have invented, or are in the process of inventing, something great in this market? Take, for example, the Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) who are embarking on an £800,000 project to replicate photosynthesis – a process that could help us make a more efficient renewable fuel. Clearly, you have to be prepared to talk about it in a way that attracts investors. You need a strong business plan that not only outlines how great the invention is and its world-saving properties, but also how it can make a return on investment for those you are seeking funds from Equally important, but often overlooked, is the need for a strong PR and communications programme that gets the ROI message out there to exactly the right audience. With the battle for cleantech investment hotting up, inventors need to step out of the lab and start to communicate with the business world in terms that they understand and can relate to.