Member Article

Willetts releases £600m technology investment

Government plans for a £600m investment into economy-boosting technologies were set out on Thursday by the Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts.

During a speech made at the Policy Exchange, Mr Willetts gave details of how money allotted in the Chancellor’s Autumn Speech will be distributed between “eight great technologies.”

Key advances in technological areas such as big data, space, agri-science and robotics, have been identified as having significant potential, and the Government has pledged to invest heavily in projects to unlock these resources.

Mr Willetts said £189m will be pumped into R&D initiatives for big data and energy efficient computing, while £65m will go to a range of different research institutes including Rothamsted Research Campus, Aberystwyth, Harwell Oxford and SciTech Daresbury, to build on their existing capabilities.

The National Space Technology Programme and the Advanced Metrology Laboratory at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington will receive £25m each, and £50m will go towards upgrades for research equipment and laboratories across the UK.

£35m will be allotted to centres of excellence created at universities, innovation centres and science and enterprise parks for developments in robotics and autonomous systems.

This money will be used to bring the research base and industry together, while £45m will be injected into new facilities and equipment for advanced materials research, to bolster strong areas in the UK technology sector, such as high performance alloys and telecommunications.

Investments outlined in Mr. Willetts speech are in addition to £108m released in the Autumn Statement for the Strategy for UK Life Science, and £28m which will go towards the National Composites Centre in Bristol.

Together these initiatives add up to a total £600m investment committed by the Government to develop technologies in numerous different sectors.

Mr Willetts commented: “Strong science and flexible markets is a good combination of policies. But it is not enough. It misses out crucial stuff in the middle – real decisions on backing key technologies on their journey from the lab to the marketplace.

“It is the missing third pillar to any successful high tech strategy. It is R&D and technology and engineering as distinct from pure science.

“It is our historic failure to back this which lies behind the familiar problems of the so-called “valley of death” between scientific discoveries and commercial applications.”

Mr Willetts has also authored a pamphlet around the speech made on Thursday, entitled “Eight Great Technologies”, to give details of how the Government investments will be spent.

Graham Chisnall, Deputy CEO of ADS Group said: “Today’s announcement from David Willetts clearly demonstrates the Government’s support of businesses in our sectors. The focus of the investment is rightly on mechanisms to drive industry growth which will assist in rebalancing the overall UK economy.

“In particular, the £45 million towards new facilities and equipment for research in advanced materials will allow UK aerospace, defence, space and security businesses to continue to embrace new and developing technologies, crucial in staying ahead of the competition and retaining our enviable position in the global market.

“Bolstering this is a £35 million investment in centres of excellence for robotics and autonomous systems, an area of recognised strength for the UK and one ADS is supporting through our inaugural Global Intelligent Systems event which will take place in July. This is also an area of key consideration to the Aerospace Growth Partnership. With this funding announcement designed to reduce the gap between technological discovery and commercial application, these centres will cement vital links between industry and academia.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .