Government Offers £80m for Technology Projects

UK business is to get £80million to support technology innovation, Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson announced March 28th.

The money, announced by the Secretary of State during his budget address to Parliament, is the latest round of the Government's £370 million Technology Programme that aims to create wealth for the UK economy through innovation.

Mr Johnson said: "I am delighted to announce the latest £80 million competition for collaborative R&D under the Technology Programme. This will help to fund new collaborative research in vital areas underpinning our Technology Strategy, such as low carbon energy technologies and innovative manufacturing processes.

"The Government is committed to investing in the UK's future, enabling it to meet the challenges and rise to the opportunities, enabling it to meet the challenges and rise to the opportunities of the global economy by creating a world-class environment for scientific research and development. With the right long term decisions Britain can lead the way in some of the fastest growing and highest value added sectors."

The funding from today's announcement will support collaborative research and development in seven key technology areas identified by the Technology Strategy Board as critical to the UK's growth.

The competition will open next month. On the same day, the DTI will publish medium term strategies in areas which we want to engage business in developing further. The strategies provide a focus and create a dialogue for taking forward activity in areas where UK business can succeed. As each area evolves, new challenges and opportunities will emerge through research, networking, regulation, standards and measurements and procurement.

Mr Johnson, said: "The Technology Strategy provides a long term approach to meet the Government's continued investment in cutting edge technologies, focused around business' own priorities for the competitive challenge ahead.

"Sustainability in energy and the environment, R&D in buildings, low carbon technologies and renewable technologies all featured in the budget speech and are included in this latest collaborative R&D competition."

As the Chancellor made clear in his budget statement on Wednesday, the Government is committed to investing in the UK's future,

The Spring 2006 technology priority areas are:
* Design Engineering & Advanced Manufacturing: Management of complex fluid flow conditions - £12m

* Electronics & Photonics: Novel Technologies For Low-Cost, High Efficiency Electronics And Lighting Systems - £9m

* Emerging Energy Technologies:
Low Carbon Energy Technologies - £15m
Oil & Gas Technologies - £2m

* Sustainable Production & Consumption:
Energy Efficiency Technologies - £12m (includes Building Design & Controls and Manufacturing Processes)

* Bioscience & Healthcare:
Exploitation of Plant and Microbial Bioscience for Industry - £4m
Safety Biomarkers for Pharmaceutical Development - £8m

* Advanced Materials: Materials for Extended First Use and Re-use - £9m

* Information & Communication Technology: Data, Scientific and Medical Visualisation for innovative products and services - £9m

The strategy launch event, which will be held at the Barbican, in London, on 26 April, will give business the opportunity to find out more about the Key Technology strategies and how to input to the process of developing them further.

The Technology Programme competition for collaborative research and development projects will also formally open for applications at this event and a series of partnering events and applicant briefings will be held in May with the support of the Research Councils, Regional Development Agencies and Devolved Administrations.

A series of partnering events and applicant briefings will be held in May with the support of the Research Councils, Regional Development Agencies and Devolved Administrations.

These events will be an opportunity for delegates to find out how the collaborative R&D priorities fit within the Technology Strategy and learn more about the priorities in the Spring 06 competition, including the competition requirements and the application process.

Following feedback and review of the Collaborative R&D competitions to date, this competition will include additional application routes to the standard two-stage process, for Fast Track applications (optional for projects of less than £250k support) and a Large Projects track for all projects seeking in excess of £8m.

Posted 03/04/06

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